Konnichiwa!

Por donde empiezo? I am so, so tired. I think my body is still getting used to the hour difference (it's only 16 hours behind Japan). Overall, I am very well, thank goodness. I landed safely, and got to the hostel without any problems. Seriously, that was my greatest concern- getting to the hostel. I knew it was 40 miles away from the airport and that meant getting on the train and transfering to a metro line to get there; and no, I didn't research how I would get there before I left.

Side note: what I like about this computer I'm on is that it's 15 minutes for 100 yen ($1), then it keeps kicking you out if you add more money. This is good for two reasons (that I've thought about): it reminds me that I am spending money every 15 minutes (otherwise, I would loose track of time) and it reminds me to not spend so much time in front of a computer. I do enough of this at home (maybe not exactly as much as my Myspace freaks siblings).

It was a long, 11 hour (non-stop) flight to Tokyo. I was only able to sleep about half of it. We got two meals, snacks and movies during the flight. I remember getting so excited to see the meal cart on the plane when I was little. I would go to Mexico and we'd always get served some sort of Mexican meal (I clearly remember eating a tamal!). I sat next to a young woman who was returning home after spending a month in Los Angeles learning English-perfect! I practiced my (extremely limited) Japanese and she continued practicing her English. She was helpful in helping me locate my destination station (this made it much, much easier to ask for directions at the airport).

Tokyo is so, so big with high-rise buildings everywhere. The hostel I am staying at is on the 18th floor of one of them. It has an amazing view in the day and night! At night I sleep with my head facing out the window and just keep saying, I'm here, I'm really here and just chuckle. Ni me la creo.

I shared first two nights of the hostel room with two older Japanase ladies (in their mid-60s). I was relieved to see them when I walked in; they felt like grandmas. They were visiting Tokyo to hike Mt. Takaosan the next morning, bright and early. It was 8pm, I was so exhausted and disoriented from the flight and the trip over (at 4pm when the plane landed to Tokyo, my body still thought it was midnight) and I was just unpacking when one of the ladies asked, "go hike?", pointing to my boots and pointing to a map of the trails. I just wanted to sleep for like, two days. "Uh..." I looked around at my bags, looked out the window, and I thought, pues, what else do you have to do? "Ok," I replied. And that's how I spent my first day in Tokyo, known for it's population size and high-rise buildings, deep in a forest observing nature and visiting beautiful Buddhist temples along the way.