What does this sign mean? I don't know, but the guy sure has a cool hat. 

With as far as technology has progressed in so many other areas, they still use keys for hotel rooms and make you carry around gawdy batons with them that list the room number! 

Vending everything! Even beer can be found in these public vending machines. 

Green Tea Ice Cream! Mmmmm.... 

Lively noodle house. You can look closely and see Pradeep and Jon :P 

I am going to make it a point to document Poor Translations (PTs) starting with this one from the lamp in the room: "Mind the burn." 

Their toilet (toire) technology far exceeds ours as seen in the view of the interface attached to the bowl. It is eerie to sit on a heated seat that feels like someone was just sitting on... but no one was!

Arrival in Tokyo

Okay, so we took this direct flight from LAX to NAA (Tokyo). Turns out that Tokyo is pretty much the only spot you can fly into in Japan and then you have to get to your final destination any way that you see fit. We saw fit the trains. So we made reservations for the next day and then went to the Prince Hotel in Shinagawa (close to Tokyo).

Upon seeing this Shinagawa, I have to say that I was unimpressed with my culture shock. It didn't help that most all signs were still in english too. I mean, I can feel more lost driving around Koreatown in LA at times than compared to here. We stumbled upon our nice hotel, and though the lobby and building looked very nice and spacious, these japanese rooms are freaking small. Jon and I shared one and it was about a quarter of standard american hotel rooms.

We got to eat at this great authentic noodle place though. It was probably like twice the size of our room and they fit about 20 people eating at a time. One nice thing about Japan, is that their restaurants always have food/pictures on display so that you can see what you are getting. The noodles were good, but I was still hungry so we had some ice cream, and I kept myself from buying something from the vending machines. They are so many and they all are display nice and brightly.

And.... We're Back

Folks, it has been a while, but I am out on the prowl again, so it is only fitting that it is back to blogging! And lucky for you guys, I am prowling Japan. The AAMAS conference is here this year, and I will be hitting up two cities primarily: Tokyo and Hakodate. For the next week and a half, I will try and keep this up. Pics are on their way shortly.... :)