Today (Monday) we began our travels. The girls were excited about the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) for about ten minutes. Then they wanted to close the window shades and play games. I was so disappointed! Jana and I had a marvelous time watching the scenery fly by and eating our Bento (box lunch) which consisted of various pickled things that must have been vegetables or roots or something, along with bits of fish and the odd chili pepper.

On arriving in Tokyo, we were greeted with crowds of people rushing in every direction. The train stations were will marked, as expected, but with bags and kids, the fact that it was clear which way to go was little consolation - we had to hike a long way from train to train!



We were very relieved to reach our hotel. It is on a tiny little side street, which as it turns out is what most streets in Tokyo are like. It is just wide enough for one small car, yet it carries two way traffic including delivery trucks and the ubiquitous delivery motorcycles that buzz around like bees. Here is a picture from our window.



After settling in, we headed out to rustle up some grub. Aleeza's vegetarianism has been a bigger challenge than we expected, so we aimed for some Indian food since she is known to eat Dahl which is basically lentil curry. We walked barely one block and found not one but two Indian places right next door to each other! We picked one and went in - the place was empty. The service was excellent (he of course spoke English!) and the food was outrageously good - better than Western Mass. by far! As I said to Jana - "We ARE in Asia, after all!"




After dinner we explored the neighborhood a bit. The tiny street our hotel is on was a little world of its own. There were all kinds of shops and eating and drinking places. Some were so tiny they could not hold more than four or five people. Most had traditional signs in front which meant we had no idea what was inside. This monster holding a plate of food was not typical but it was cool! Inside many of the places (I peeked into a few) the woodwork was amazing. Tonight perhaps we will get up our nerve to go in.



As a reward for walking around with us for almost an hour, we stopped into on of the many convenience stores and let the girls pick out ice cream bars. They were pretty psyched.