Friday, Sept 25 / Saturday Sept 26

I am writing this from the Homeikan Ryokan (Daimachi Bekkan location) in Tokyo, Japan. I am in Japan for a 3-week vacation, most of which has been organized by the Appalachian Mountain Club. We left Boston at 8:30am Friday morning. After a brief stop in Newark, NJ where we met up with the rest of our group of 14, we were on our way to Japan. Except for being long (13 hours), the flight was relatively uneventful. I was fortunate enough to have an exit row window (i.e. bulkhead) with tons of leg room. I watched a movie from the on-demand system and then tried to sleep for the rest of the flight. Unfortunately, I was only moderately successful at doing so.

The flight landed around 2pm Saturday afternoon so it was essentially as if Friday did not happen in my world. We got on the Keisei line for the trip into Tokyo. Once there, we walked through Ueno Park and Tokyo University over to the ryokan we’re staying. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese guest house and this one seems very nice. There are some interesting customs you have to follow when staying at a ryokan such as removing your shows and wearing the “house slippers” that they provide. Except when you are on the tatami mats in your room when you don’t where any slippers. Or when you are in the bathroom where you switch to the bathroom slippers. Different, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

After a brief orientation at the ryokan, we headed out to the Shinjuku area in search of dinner. Shortly after we left the ryokan, we stumbled across a little street festival/parade just around the corner from the ryokan. We have no idea what it was, but it was interesting nonetheless. We ended up having dinner in a restaurant on the 12th floor of a large department store amidst the bright lights of Shinjuku. It was interesting ordering by pointing at pictures, but I ended up with a pretty good tempura dish. After dinner, we meandered around the bright lights of the Shinjuku area and heading back to the ryokan.

Back at the ryokan, I had my first experience with a Japanese bath. It starts in your room where you strip down and put on the robe the ryokan has provided for you. You then walk to the shared bath (separated by gender) down the hall which consists of a room with a large tub and several (4 in this case) spigots surrounding it. The idea is that you completely wash your body off using the provided soap/shampoo, being careful not to get any soap in the tub. After you are clean, you can soak in the tub if you want. This is another interesting tradition that I am sure I will come to appreciate. After washing some of my clothes in the sink, I was definitely ready for bed. It was 11pm local time – or over 28 hours since I had woken up in Boston to catch my flight. A long day, but I am excited to be in Japan!

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