I am in Japan?!

I am in Japan!!?!

So far it has been exciting, fun, and mildly terrifying, often at the same time! My flights went smoothly, but pretty much every time I go to take the train I spend at least the first 5-10 mins freaking out that I am on the wrong train... but so far, I have actually been ok so far. I got to my hotel at about 6pmish on Friday and I was super tired so I only went for a short walk around because it was already dark by the time I had unloaded all of my crap!

Yesterday I went to Nikko, a rural town about 2 hours from Tokyo which is basically infested with shrines and world heritage sites! The town itself is pretty tourist-trap-y (it reminded me a lot of Banff) but the shrines were really amazing! When I got back to Tokyo I took the loooooong way home by walking back from a distant subway station and getting distracted by toy stres and kitchen stores lol. My legs may fall off but it was fun (and humid).

So far, being in Japan has been a really interesting experience.  In terms of the language barrier, I have (I hope) stopped blurting out French when my brain short-circuits into non-English mode (that poor lady next to me on the plane was really confused when I tried to speak to her in a mishmash of three languages o__o ). I have also succesfully managed my first interaction with a train dude who did not speak any english (when I briefly thought I might be trapped in Nikko forever). My dad said that he has a collegue who does a lot of travelling, and he said that Japan was the only place he's been where he truly felt illiterate, and man, I TOTALLY get it!! I (foolishly) thought I would be at least ok with knowing katakana well and hirigana ok, but the reality is that that is liteally below a 1st grade reading level! It's a bit disorienting, but it's a really interesting experience!

Finally, I tried natto and it was totally not that gross! On a related note, convenience stores are EVERYWHERE and they are dirt cheap! I got a natto maki roll and a juice for 190¥! Also, in Japan, gas station sushi is not even sketchy!

Today I am heading to Sapporo for the conference, but I am going to try to cram in a shrine or two before I go!!

Iced coffee and natto maki: the breakfast of champions!