Arrived Safely!

After a long 10 hour flight (plus an hour delay to put a new wheel on - always reassuring) we finally touched down at Narita airport. Fortunately the guy sitting next to me had a screen that didn't work so he was moved, giving me a lot more room which was nice.

Managed to find the bus station absolutely fine although couldn't quite understand that there were at least 5 buses before mine so kept being turned away before mine eventually showed up. Caroline's school is in Shibuya and she had warned me in advance that there are very few street names and not many Japanese are confident enough to speak English so I was a little apprehensive about finding it.


















I got off the bus a little disorientated but with my map and directions I was able to navigate myself to the school successfully, pick up keys and head by train to Carolines without any mishaps. Caroline has a lovely spacious two bed house just outside Shibuya (the main shopping district) - much bigger than I was expecting from what I had read about Japanese accomodation.

The afternoon I spent trying to get myself acquainted to the area before Caroline came home. We then went to a Japanese pub for the evening (izakaya) with 14 teachers which was good fun. Having a set men was an eye opener where I got to try everything from boiled Yam/radish (not so nice) to tofu, some cheesecake thing and pumpkin and raw tuna on crackers. Things seem surprisingly good value for money too - £15 for dinner and drinks.

I was introduced to my first Japanese cultural differences of the evening too whereby you take your shoes off on arrival and place them in lockers and walk around in socks. When you go to the toilet flip flops are provided. You also never tip in Japan (although very occasionally some restaurants include service charge apparently).