i think im turning japanese

wow, everything on the screen is in japanese. it took me 5 min to get to the update page.

so, im in tokyo! finally! it was quite the adventure getting here. we were about an hour away from dallas on the way to japan when the pilot announced there was a crack in the windshield. we had to turn around and fly back to dallas where we waited a good 4 hours for another plane to arrive. we finally left the states at almost 6pm. however many hours later we landed in tokyo and the madness began.

the plane fiasco put us in tokyo 7 hours late. by the rime we got our luggage it was 9 30pm local time. we made a mad dash to the atms, and brian and i were sent to find out when the last trains left. the one we needed had already gone and the very last train left in 15 minutes. we were all rushing around trying to get money, get tickets and get everyone on the train. it was insanity. japanese insanity. i totally take for granted the ability to read signs. since we missed the train we needed, train took about an hour longer than needed. when when we finally got to the right station, we could not find our hotel. lau doesnt help us much, there is a team leader in charge and we all just sort of work together to figure out where we are going. i like that system. it feels good to know that you got yourself across tokyo. im team leader for the day we travel from nikko to beijing. that will be quite the challenge and im already scared. but i know i can figure it out.

last night we got to our hotel a little after midnight. while sleep would have been the smart decision, almost everyone headed out, we found a nice little resturant and shared some snacks and a round of japanese beer. the menu was all in japanese and the waiter spoke about 2 words of english, which was enough to figure out that we had ordered chicken and pork skewers. they were really good. we are very much relying on just pointing and hoping for the best when ordering. we made it back around 3am and were more than ready to sleep. we pushed the trip to the fish market back until friday since we got in so late. so tomorrow ill be up at 4am.

i gotta go, theres a wait for the computers. talk you you all later! i miss you already.

ps. i think i fixed the comments so that anyone can leave one, so feel free to do so.