It's an odd dichotomy to be sure.

Somehow, I managed to not die of boredom from my overnight stay at San Francisco yesterday. Interestingly enough, I wasn't the only person with the genius idea to camp out. As I wandered through out the airport trying to make myself tired enough to be able to sleep anywhere, I saw a lot of people sleeping anywhere. Particularly, restaurant booths were very popular.

But, that all aside, we endured the 11 hour flight and are now in the land that provides me with my primary sources of entertainment, both in television and games. The flight itself was alright, with plenty of entertainment options and a fair amount of food, none of which was terrible.

Being in Japan feels both surreal and almost... normal. Obviously, despite cultural differences, Japan is just another first world country and, as such, has many of the same conventions as our Western world. Combined with the fact that we're just kind of nestled into their civilization instead of segregated out as part of a tour group or something, it almost just feels like we're integrating in, as it were.

Except we're very, very not Asian and everybody around us is. And I have no idea what to do in some situations, due to language barrier and intrinsic Japanese mannerisms. But, all should be good in Akihabara tomorrow, the otaku capital of the world. I expect to lose quite a lot of money...

Before I go on to pictures, I just want to tell a small story that amused me to no end. As we were checking into our hotel, the lady behind the counter was explaining various this: where the bathrooms and showers were, how to get in the back door if we came in after hours, but notably checking out. "You must check out before 10am and to do that, just put your key in the cat box." as she pointed to a simple wooden box with a porcelain cat on it. I don't know why, but it tickled me. I think it was part her earnest delivery coupled with her accent and just... it was called the "cat box". It was insanely cute.

But now, some pictures:

Taken shortly after taking off from LAX. Nice swirly pattern.

The western edge of the United States.

Complimentary beer and pretzels.

Also vending machine capital of the world.

On the train ride from the airport.

Our hotel room is really, really small. Basically, it's large enough for the two bunk beds and the TV in between. But, it's a bed and quite conveniently located to other stuff, so I'm not complaining.

That's all for this update, stay tuned for more.