Sankei City Hotel chiba

... basement level food court. (Although &#8220;food court&#8221; doesn&#8217;t do it<br>justice. More like &#8220;food palace&#8221; or &#8220;food<br>Xanadu&#8221; or &#8220;food El Dorado&#8221; or &#8220;food Eden.&#8221; <br>Take your pick.)<br><br> <br><br>Sunday night, our last night in the hostel, was a little rough. A French couple with a toddler and a 5 month<br>old checked in two rooms away from us. <br>Seriously? An infant in the youth<br>hostel? I had ...

... by train, even though it is still considered Tokyo. It's a five minute walk to the university lab and about 20 minutes to the train. I would not call it a countryside but that is what the people at the lab call it. I've never seen such a populated countryside with so little countryside. However, I can tell the difference from where I live to when I travel into the city. It's generally quieter and there are a lot fewer (I've seen one) non Japanese looking people.

... put up my mailing address right when I understand it :¬d I moved in that day, and bought a nice futon mattress thing, a blanket, some curtains, and a pillow. I still need some pictures to put up on the walls . So if anyone has some random photos I could put up, and they feel like sending me them in the mail, that would be greeeeeaaaaaat. Oh and if you could come in on saaaaatuuuurday, mmmthad be greeeaaat. anyway. I hit the sack ...

... San Francisco airport and how that was blissfully stress-free. I sat at the gate and waited and realized that I truly was the only white person out of hundreds of people working at ANA airlines and then boarding the plane. I also realized how adorable all the flight attendants are with their cute little scarves around their necks--they all wear them in different styles and perhaps ...

... cheesey, the people are fantastic, the women all very feminine (I never saw so many dresses). Nothing in Japan makes any sense to me - it just is. The technology frighteningly high in some aspects and extremely archaic in others. I found, to my horror, that my bank card and credit card didn't work in any of the cash machines and almost nobody took credit cards for payment - even in Tokyo! Being that it was the weekend, and the banks were all closed, I ...

... further you travel on a single ticket, the more expensive it becomes. The signs telling you how much the fares cost are all in Japanese so it's probably better to buy a Y160 ticket and pay the excess at your destination at the top-up machines or at the guard's desk. This is accepted practice so don't feel like you are cheating. If you think your ticket isn't valid at the exit, just run it through the top-up machine and it will tell you if your ...

... told my hairdresser and he pointed to a small dressing room with a black robe in it. I looked at the room with the robe hanging up in it, to all the other customers. They had their black robes on top of their clothes. 'Well, I'm not getting undressed if no-one else has to,' I said firmly to Hideko. The haridresser, sensing a problem, standing nearby, leaned over to see if he could help. 'Sorry, could you repeat that?' Hideko asked. I repeated ...

... with proscuitto and greens on it and some linguini with a few prawns which was way over priced. The pizza, however, was really good. From there we hit the Linco's grocery store near us for a few things. Grocery shopping is almost more expensive than just eating out in Tokyo, especially if you want Western things like apples, broccoli, bread or cereal. Fish, meat and mystery foods are reasonable. As I said, took a few pics of fun food. Off to bed!

... has finally met his maker, due to a Sting-Ray of all things. Well he did live life on the edge. This news shocked everyone when they heard it. It was the talk of the day. After spending the evening talking to other travellers and watching some Japanese game shows, jet-lag finally got the better of me and I retired to bed about 8 o'clock, falling asleep instantly.

... cream - something he had been searching for since he got to Tokyo. Outside the store, a friendly local stopped to direct us the final few blocks to Ueno Park: As we walked over the bridge and the JR train tracks into Ueno, we passed huge pachinko parlours and then arrived at Yanaka Cemetery. We didn't go in, but what we could see over the wall looked much more beautiful than the traditional American cemetery. In Ueno, we went to the Tokyo ...