Narita, Japan to Beijing, China

USA sign in Japan. I have no idea what it was for since I can't read Japanese.
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I got up early and got my free breakfast buffet from the hotel. I tried to check my e-mail using the hotel internet machine, but it was really slow. I only had time to send an e-mail to the baggage company handling my dive gear and that was a bit of a challenge. The space bar was the size of about three keys and there was a button right next to it that changed the keyboard into chinese characters. I would be typing and then it would change to chinese, which was frustrating. Also the underscore and at symbols were on these extra keys and took a bit of time to figure out how to get them to work properly. The hotel had a check-in desk at the hotel, so I waited in line about an hour, checked in, and got my boarding pass. I then jumped on the airport shuttle just as it was about to leave. I got to the airport about an hour and twenty minutes before the flight, which was pleanty of time to get through security. The flight left a little late, but I think we made up the time during the flight. I watched the movie Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell and had a pretty decent lunch on the plane. After arriving at the airport headed for the Immigration line. It was the easiest Immigration line I have been through, so far on the trip and they didn't even ask me any questions. It may be due to the fact that I had to get a Visa from the Chinese embassy before I left, but they didn't even ask about my outgoing flight details, which all the other countries had ask me. I grabbed my bag and got through customs just as easily. A Chinese guy named Shane was holding a sign with my name on it and we walked to the parking lot where a driver and our car was waiting. It did know this, but in China they also drive on the right side of the road the same as the US. I did see a few Scars masks, but no where near the number in Japan. The number of bicycles on the streets was astounding with dedicated lanes and traffic lights like pedestrian cross walks, Shane said there were around 8 million bikes in Beijing. I was also surprised at the number of signs that were that had the English translations on them, like most of the traffic signs and alot of the advertisements. Shane and the driver dropped me off at the Taintan Hotel, a four star hotel near the center of Beijing, which is were I will be stay for the next four days and then one more day after Shanghai before I leave for Indian. Beijing is actually a really huge city will about 15 million permenant residents and 5 million temporary residents and you could drive for two hours across the city and still be in Beijing. There were tons and tons of tall apartment building that looked a little run down like many old buildings in major downtown area in the US. There was also a lot of construction and removations going on for the 2008 Summer Olympics. There is a new stadium being built just for the Olympics called the Bird's Nest and it is a huge steel building that actually does look like a big bird's nest. The Olympics will start on August 8, 2008, so 08/08/08 because the number eight is a lucky number in China and the color red is also a lucky color. I worked on my blog a little and watched a movie on HBO in my room, since HBO and CNN are the only English speaking channels. I went to the Galaxy Bar on the 1st floor of the Hotel to get some food and have a couple of beers. I went to bed a little early, since I had to leave around 7am in the morning for my tour.

The number of bicycles on the streets was astounding with dedicated lanes and traffic lights like pedestrian crosswalk lights, Shane said there were around 8 million bikes in Beijing.