Tuesday, January 16th, 2001
This morning starts early in the limo van on the way to the Portland airport. I am trying to take a nap. Of course, in my infinite wisdom, I chose a seat right on top of the rear axle. I do nap a little...between each expansion crack in the concrete of the highway! The flight I took today was surprisingly easy considering its duration. I still can't get over the fact that seventeen hours after leaving home, I am on the other side of the world in Japan. We seem to follow the coastline a couple of hundred miles offshore...of course I am on the wrong side of the plane to see much of the land, mostly just clouds over the Pacific. Each seat now has its own TV screen in the back of the headrest for the seat in front of it. I remember flying as a kid, before there were any in-flight movies, or headphones for music. When we flew in a plane with a movie screen, I remember wondering when there would become a way to give each person an individual screen on the seat in front of them. Anyway, we have twenty multilingual music channels, three movies, and two TV channels to choose from. The plane's GPS and airspeed sensors are also connected to the display on the screen. We get multiple maps of our flightpath and current position, ground speed, head/tailwind, outside temperature, time to arrival, and the current time at the destination. I do get to see the peninsula in Alaska which leads down to the Aleutians. I don't think I have ever seen so huge a land mass without a single sign of human habitation-no buildings and no roads! Coming out of Seattle, it was -65 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and coming into Japan we had 120 mph headwinds.

The airport isn't as difficult as I imagined; my bag shows, customs is a breeze, as is changing money. I decide not to try and get to the other terminal of the the airport to visit a Japan National Tourist Organization office. Lester had recommended taking the above-ground subway-like train line (Yamanote) to Shinjuku, and then take a cab to the hotel. It is about 4:20, I have two bags, and I have no desire to learn how to use the train station that night. Tokyo rush hour is always busy, and Shinjuku station gets 3 million passengers a day! There is an express train to Shinjuku for about $26 with reserved seats and luggage space, but then I would have to find my way out of the half-mile-long underground station. I take the $26 airport limo bus, which has luggage space, no stops, and takes me right outside the station, and then I walk to the hotel. The countryside here is so quaint and very picturesque. The sun is a red disc setting in an orange sky as we come into Tokyo. Small hills covered with trees come down to very narrow dirt roads that separate the hills from an area of what must be small rice fields. Sometimes there is someone out walking a dog around the fields in the glowing evening light.

The city...well...its a zoo. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; it all depends on what you make of a zoo!

I usually identify cars as they pass me on a totally subconscious level. If I can't identify it, or the car is one of particular interest, the situation rises to a level of conscious thought. Whew!-I am going nuts! Good thing I have played so much Gran Turismo, or I wouldn't have the slightest clue. As it is, I see all manner of car, minicar, micocar, minivan, micro-minivan, and truck I have never seen before. Sure, I have seen a few Mitsubishi Lancers and Subaru WRX's at rallies on occasion. I even saw an R32 Nissan Skyline in the flesh in Seattle once. But tonight I see S15 Nissan Silvias, late-model Toyota Sprinter Levins and Truenos, tons of R32/R33/R34 Nissan Skylines, Subaru Vivios, Toyota Mark IIs...Suzuki Altos! The list goes on and on. I just about laugh out loud when I see I micro-mini armored van!

Tokyo's architecture is in many ways foreign. All the big buildings are outlined with flashing red lights at night, presumably so helicopters don't hit them. Lots of smaller buildings have miniscule balconies tacked precariously onto the side of them; sometimes businesses, sometimes residential, sometimes random in their placement, sometimes every floor or every room. There are multiple-story buildings built with literally two feet of space between them! I guess that is what happens when you have property values figured in thousands of dollars per square meter. From the bus I also see round buildings! 3-D curves-one like an upside-down deep-v boat hull, or maybe half a discus sticking out of the ground-it is mirrored and smooth. Another is shaped like a hamburger on a bun-and it looks like brushed aluminum. There are also tubular metal space-frame-like structures, sometimes covered with glass, either on the exterior of buildings or freestanding.

My hotel is a basic business hotel...Western style single with a tiny bathroom...no room service or anything fancy like that...and I go to sleep.

January 17th, 2001

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