Japan Day 1

We are in Japan. :) First off, im on my ipad so forgive the spelling/grammer issues! Also, we don't have the camera cord so you won't be seeing our pics just yet, though I'll try to pull some pics from the web (or you must look them up) to give you the feel. So, our trip started out on Thursday night with a flight to LAX (lots of phone calls in the airport to banks etc), interesting seat mates, people in airport, even saw a good friend from high school in La. We made it to LA, walked to the next gate (about 5 gates away, no switching terminals ps)and hopped aboard the flight to Tokyo. An ambien and 10 hours later I awoke, watch the big year, and landed (that ambien is certainly effective, though L seemed to remember quite a bit of the flight). We entered the Hareda airport at 5 am Saturday morning and were blown away, it was like we were in an upscale USA! Cleanest place in the world, not a piece of lint in sight (or a garbage can for that matter), and I would not have been scared to eat off the bathroom floor. The little golf carts in the airport were playing when the saints go marching in, the moving walkways start when you approach them, the people are all in darling uniforms and ever so helpful, the lines are super orderly and calm, all in all, it was like an airport run by Disney! We met Mi and his friend (extremely nice of him to come so early) outside the baggage area, watched as they were suitably amazed at our lack of baggage (point of pride with me, i never check bags and think I'm the world's most efficient packer, for this trip L and I have a backpack each) headed to 7-11 (yes, they are all over, though I'm not sure if they have slurpies) to get out some money (good thing our cards worked bc I did not bring a single penny of hard cash), and jumped on a train into Tokyo. We dropped off our bags and set out (a train ride away) for Kamakura. First impression of the first street we walked down in Tokyo: Like China town but less crowded and less festooned (it turns out it was less crowded bc it was 5:30 am and less festooned bc it was a neighborhood). Kamakura! Our first sight in Japan was the Rinno-Ji temple (a Shinto shrine, look up the pic so you can see what a sight it was!). Let's just say, right from the start Japan looks like what you imagined it should look like, but as very few places live up to expectations, we were so blown away! It looked like something from the movie spirited away, and you should have seen the lily pads in the ponds, so picturesque! I thought that all of the old historical stuff was gone and that Japan was just a bunch of skyscrapers-let's just say Japan needs to post a few more pics online and they will have no trouble attracting tourists! Here we learned about the purifying rituals (special ways to pour water on your hands and stuff) you do before entering a shrine (accidentally drank the water instead of spitting it out), found out how to offer a prayer at the shrine, bought fortunes (looked like pick-up sticks) (and my fortune was actually bad so I tied it up and sent it to the winds), and walked through the lovely paths (I'm starting to understand the appeal of these little rock gardens, water features-Buddhist sort of design stuff). This could seriously influence my future yard plans (or maybe just the suggestions I give my mom for her yard) A little side note-we met our Kamakura free guides (first free guide of many for the trip) at the train station. Apparently, there is a real shortage of native English speakers around here so many Japanese sign u to be free tour guides to practice their english. We were led around by two 20 year old girls (very cute, my new friends on Facebook :) ), who were just thrilled when I offered to show them around Utah some time :). They were super helpful in getting us to the sights and they had sme info, however, they were not exactly historians but hey, they were not charging us anything so I have no complaints and if you ever visit Japan, you should def sign up for the guides! So, after our first shrine we walked through a cute touristy street (I'm a sucker for tourist traps, I love them)and headed to lunch for soba noodles. These were....interesting. I cannot say they were bad, but I cannot say I'll be staying up late missing then. The presentation was neat though. Soba are buckwheat noodles, served hot or cold (we tried cold) served in soup our with a saucy (soy suace and green onions stuff) soup to dip them in on the side (how we tried them). They were....pretty hard to eat with chopsticks (which I'm not sure L has ever used before :). ) being in Japan in not quite like going to panda express, where your try the chopsticks for fun for a few bites, then pull out your fork or spoon for the real eating. Here, there are no forks. After this meal I thought this trip might be the start of an excellent diet :) (except for the fact that between the two of us we brought 66 snacks.) After lunch we set out for the Daibutsu, the great Buddha. (look at a pic of this online!!) this is the second largest Buddha in Japan and it was certainly a show stopper, particularly with the backdrop of trees. It was every bit as amazing as the guide book promised. From there we walked to the Hase Kannon temple, home of an eleven headed massive gilt statue (and a cave, and tranquil gardens, and beautiful vistas of the sea, lovely paths, calming bamboo water features, delightful little statues, I cannot wait to post the 500 pics I've taken already!). After all of that, we headed back to Tokyo, checked into the hotel, had hamburgers at mcdonalds, took a walk around the corner to the Eiffel tower of Japan (I think it is really a radio tower of something) before another knocked me out for another ten hours. Quite a day. It turns out Japan is a darling place (even the adults like hello kitty), full of hardly any Americans (we have seen hardly any), with really nice, non English speaking people (who want to take photos and be facebook friends with English speakers-so if you need a job come teach English here) who love to bathe-literally, and also full of a bunch of crazy kanji characters (which makes it feel incredibly foreign, I have never felt so completely bewildered, even in Hungary they at least had a few of the same letters!) Im off to bed for a bit. Our hotel room is the size of a shoe box (a nice shoe box though) and there is no wifi, apparently Japan has very little wifi bc everyone uses their phone Internet, so you'll have to wait to hear our about today's amazing adventures! And just in case your were wondering- I am fried like a lobster, L has not killed me yet (she has been on her best behavior bc she does not want M to know she is a crazy stress basket and I have had to be really nice and supportive bc she every so often whispers that she might pass out- and I have to keep her navigation mind conscious or it is unlikely that i will make it back to the hotel) and for the first time in quite some time I have gone two days without a diet coke (though I'm pretty sure mi be taking in a heft amount of caffeine tomorrow). And finally, L is worried about flesh eating bacteria. Until tomorrow (which is our first day on our own, sans M), b