Land of the Rising Vending Machines

Saturday began around 9am with more than 24 hours of travel waiting for us. After driving north to Frankfurt, we found the plane that would take us on the 11 hour flight to Tokyo.







We arrived in Tokyo Sunday afternoon to a hot and muggy day. Customs weren’t a problem but finding a train to take us to our hotel would require much hand gesturing.



The hour long train ride was worth it though as we crossed enormous areas of rice paddies quickly changing to urban growth and then back to rice paddies…it was difficult to spot one area of land not being used for some purpose.



For the Land of the Rising Sun, it sure gets dark early. By the time we had checked in and showered, it was 7 o’clock and pitch black. Wary to venture out into the neon skyline, Cryptic Moth decided to grab some local food at the rooftop restaurant, featuring local cuisine like sushi.



This was to be Gad’s first – and most likely last – sushi experience as you can see in the movie below.

Gad%20vs%20Sushi.wmv

Gad spent most of the night vomiting. Maybe it was the sushi or maybe being on the other side of the world in a new and strange reality with no language skills rides heavy on the stomach?

After a much needed sleep, we decided to venture to Roppongi, a district of high-end shops and late-night bars.



Almost everyone we met told us to go there…only they didn’t tell us to go at night. So we walked around for a while, dodging businessmen and schoolgirls before deciding to brave the subway system back to the hotel.



How proud were we when we arrived at our station? Very.



Still jet-lagged, Cryptic Moth packed it in early. Tomorrow we will visit Sony headquarters to see how the electronic giant is using bioplastic in their packaging and more!

Out.

G+I