Tokyo Tokyo

Sunrise, even though the sun never really went down. Great breakfast, but this time no Japanese choice. Just a "standard" continental, cheese and jam and ham and rolls and coffe kind of thing, with that special plane-flavour.
Landing, no ones clapping, low hanging clouds, drizzle, but at least 21 degrees. not really nice. Going through immigrations and actually getting into the country is really simple and quick, not queues, no questions, I've got my visa, getting another few pieces of paper added to my passport, and I'm in, faster than the Japanese. Picking up my rucksack (22 kilos...) and I'm out, my hand luggage must weigh at least 10, so I'm covered in sweat before I'm in the main hall. As soon as I'm in there, 3 Japanese come up to me, one with a camera. Asking me, if they could take a picture of me for a travel magazine called "Coyote". They do, give me some stuff to fill out, where I'm from, what I'm doing here, and so on, you're so tall...and so on. Maybe I should think about a modelling career in Japan. We'll see.

Then I got myself a MOBILE!
Number is: +81 - (0)80-350 79 832, apparently the cheapest option of calling from Germany is adding 010017 in the beginning, about 10 cent a minute. or you can reach me on skype, name's peter.mirecki

Cash machines work as well, so no problems there. After that the next challenge, finding the right train line into the city. And even more problematic, buying the right ticket. But after about 2 minutes of staring at timetables, a guy comes up to me and offers to help, so he shows me which ticket to get, where to change trains, tells me that he is a machine designer and just came back from a business trip to Frankfurt. We ride into town, well really really big town, but first it's a biut of countryside, ricefields, kind of traditional buildings and even a shrine or two.
At Nippori station I have to change, which isn't too difficult, cause all the names arealso spelled out in English. Then it's off to Shinjuku. Neon lights, noise, everyone seems to be dressed up, Pachinko parlours (slot machines, etc.), shops, department stores, looks like a red light district, but I couldn't spot anything sleazy. What a shame... Met a girl from Slovenia, and together we went up on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, 45 floors, boring uo there, but nice view, even when it's foggy. Cheesy greek?-style restaurant up there, so we went back down, into Shinjuku. Got some cheap food and a beer, after all it was about 3 o'clock in Tokyo, only about 8 AM in Berlin, so the right time for a beer. Got really tired, so I sat down and tried to figure out my phone. Now, a day later, I still don't know how to send text messages. Some day...
Phoned Maren, who rang me back. Still covered in sweat, which is why I look so good on the photo. A bit later, I picked up my luggage again, which I had locked up in Shinjuku station (only took me about an hour to find the lockers), bought another 2 train tickets, as there's lots of different lines, you need lots of different tickets, kind of obvious, don't know why the BVG in Berlin hasn't figured that one out. And of I go, only one change, and then on the second line, I can't see any English writing anymore, so I'm really happy I remembered the Kanji-simbols for Tanashi, which is my stop. As soon as I come out, Emiko, a friend from college is there, and we go home to her place, where they I meet her flatmate Yoshi, and they have spare room. Apparently Japanese don't usually share flats. Only foreigners do that. They've got W-LAN, raw squid cut into slices, beer and even a futon, which is all I need. And most importantly a shower! Pretty tired as I only slept for 3 hours on the plane. The futon is about 1,60 long, and the doors are about 1,80 high. But I'll get used to that. I can stay here for a week, so I better start looking for a flat. Or at least a room. more photos and videos soon. Stay in touch, always happy to hear from any of you!