First Post from Japan

Well, I made it! Right now it's 3am Wednesday local time (I've just been too busy during the day). I got here around 3pm Monday afternoon, which is about 1am Monday in St. Louis. I managed to get to the hostel, called Khaosan Tokyo Smile! after some confusion, but a nice guy at the post office helped me with some directions. Jet lag wasn't too bad, and I managed to get a pretty good night's rest. The hostel is pretty nice- free internet 24/7, showers included, a decently equipped kitchen, and one free drink at the bar downstairs every night! I'm very happy about the latter option. I currently share a room with three other guys. David is a British guy who's been in Japan (and the hostel) for four months. He got a job at a bank somehow (even though he doesn't speak Japanese and he didn't go to "university" as they say) so he's just been biding his time in Tokyo. Luke is another roommate who comes from Utah. He's sort of a squirrely guy (I assumed he was my age or maybe younger but he's 28, apparently) and has been in Japan about 9 weeks, having started in Hiroshima. He's done a lot of backpacking/traveling- South America, North America, Germany, China, Australia, New Zealand, and now Japan. He hopes to go to Antarctica. That would be sweet. My other roommate is some German dude who doesn't really talk and I don't know his name. Let's call him Dieter.

I didn't have any time to go anywhere on Monday, but today Luke and I wandered around the area, (Asakusa, the older and more traditional sector in the Northeast part of town) and then took a daytrip South to Kamakura, an older capital of Japan. There were a lot of shrines, temples etc. One of the more exciting parts of the trip was seeing the Giant Buddha statue, or Daibutsu. I wish I could post some pictures but these computers don't make editing stuff very easy. Maybe I can figure something out. After that we strolled down to the beach and saw the ocean, and returned to the hostel. I got some food at a 99yen (1$) store. Food here is quite expensive. Eight slices of bread costs 1$, and that's about the cheapest it gets. I got half a dozen eggs for 99yen, which I was pretty excited about. They also sell tofu blocks for the same price, so I think I'll be getting a lot of my nutrition and protein from tofu and eggs mixed in with ramen or something. Egg and tuna salad sandwiches, maybe.

It was most unfortunate when I discovered the cost of beer here- typically sold by the can for over 1$. On the other hand, I've seen bottles of wine for 450-500yen (about $4.50). It will be a top priority to find a good medium between cost/alcohol/taste.

I should probably get some rest now!