Japan Updates

Stay tuned...

It's December 23rd right now, 10:30PM. We're getting a late start on our trip to Dallas but things ought to be good once we're on the road. Nothing here yet for the Japan trip since it hasn't started yet but we'll correct that as time passes.. =)

December 27, 1999

It's T Minus 6 hours till airport departure. In about 6 hours (hopefully after some decent sleep) we'll head up to the airport to go through the rigmarole of security and all that stuff, and be headed there by 11 AM. We'll be out of touch for a while until we get over there, and then more news from there!

December 31, 1999 (JP time)

Hello again, this time I write an update from Japn itself. Me and Alex are sitting in an internet cafe called Cyber Cafe Internet, which is part of a massive 10-story high rise computer store called T-Zone. The drinks are good, the computers are cool, the connection is ho-hum...and it's pricey ^_^;

So far we havent's managed to do very much sight seeing since we had to deal with a small financial problem -- namely, japan is VERY cash oriented. Don't come here without a lot of cash on hand. Remember that VISA card that's accepted everywhere? Well, too bad since it isn't here most places. Be ready to get a cash advance if you really want to use it.

Other than that things are going ok. We have done a small tour of the American restraunts here in Japan. McDonalds will floor anyone else who makes it here. The service is incredible, the stores are all clean. KFC was similar, although not quite as swank. Denny's was quite an experience -- it looks more like a pricey hotel restraunt than a cheapo 24hr place like it does in the states; and they have almost no American food like you might expect. They had pancakes and french toast, but it stopped there. Omelete? How about a rice omlete with scrambled eggs on top, some kind of mysterious spiecy brown sauce, and rice?

That everyone here speaks some English is also a big myth. Don't plan on getting out of the tourist areas if you don't know at least a decent amount of Japanese. We're still struggling a little with that, but it's getting better.

One final interesting thing of note is that the police officers here, as opposed to trying to figure out what you have done wrong at any given point, are there to help you and give directions. Kind of like they were meant to be back home. Being here has given me a respect for police that I may have to lose when coming back to the U.S. in order to survive =).

That's all for now! Good luck everyone on Y2K and maybe we'll write some more later. ---Dan