I’m 36,000 feet above the Pacific, crossing the dateline into the future. Tokyo, baby!
Looooong non-stop flight to Narita, Japan (10 hours!) but I had the whole row to myself so I got to lay down like a jet-set hobo. This is a business trip with two colleagues. We’re going to do businessy things. You know, cos I’m all business.
Getting off the plane, I was mobbed by Japanese teenagers. I’m big in Japan! Alas, they weren’t looking for me, they were chasing some Japanese TV star who looked like an Asian Harry Potter.
My first trip to Asia, I’m stoked! The three of us took different flights so we met up in the airport bar for Suntory time…
I think those are flight attendants behind me but it might be some weird fetish. They’re into kinky stuff over here. So we got out of there before they started their preversions and hopped a train to Tokyo.
It’s about a 40 minute ride through the cuts to Tokyo. Rice paddies and power plants and run-down houses by the tracks. Just like the train out of New York City. Except for the rice paddies. And the houses are Japanese. And Godzilla, of course…
After barely escaping in our bullet train, we finally we get into Tokyo…
We check into the hotel, the Cerulean Tower Hotel in Shibuya. Sha-BOO-YAH! I get a suite with two twin beds (one for each of my split personalities)…
And the wackiest hotel bathroom I’ve ever had, with a deluxe shower and a toilet that pees back at me and a jacuzzi tub with a spectacular view of Tokyo…
I unpack my stuff and head out. Are the things I’ve heard about Tokyo true? Will the ramen bring me back to my college days? Do they really have vending machines that sell used panties? Will I figure out how to use the computerized toilet?
Tune in for the next episode to find out…
