Big in Japan in Atsugi

Hon-Atsugi
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WE'RE IN JAPAN!!!  It's so gooooooooooood!

Had a really comfortable flight from Sydney to Changi (Singapore) where we stopped for a couple of hours, then we flew overnight to Narita.  It was pretty overcast when we arrived so we didn't see anything of the country 'til we pretty much touched down on the runway!  Managed to get ourselves sorted, picked up our baggage and figured out how to work the ATMs, then we bought our bus tickets to Hon-Atsugi where we were meeting Mark, our friend from Glasgow who's doing an internship out here for 6 months.  The bus journey was fine; we used our first Japanese phrase with the bus driver...he was well chuffed with our attempt and he clearly understood us as he let us know when we'd reached our destination!

We fed ourselves fat on octopus, wee noodle pancakes, and something containing pork and collagen

Wan restaurant
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The journey to Hon-Atsugi took us through some areas of central Tokyo and it looks just as crazy as it does on TV...constant crowds milling about, neon signs eerywhere - it looked amazing!!

First impressions of Japan...it's really clean.  They're big on recycling here, and we've rarely seen any rubbish on the streets; Hon-Atsugi smells really, really nice - not sure what it is or where it comes from, but it smells sweet.  That must sound really weird, and it is really weird!  People in Japan are incredibly trusting...we've seen things on streets here that wouldn't last 2 seconds in the UK: phone booths with seats, phone books and manga comics, vending machines lining the streets, umbrella stands outside shops and restaurants, and bikes left unattended without being locked up!  It's incredible...even in the busiest part of Tokyo we discovered this weird phenomenon of bikes being left unattended by their trusting owners!  Apparently the only bike thefts occur rarely by other communters who have missed their trains...often the bike disappears one day, only to reappear in the same place the next day!!

Arrived in Atsugi, figured out how to use the payphones and we met Mark...he's been here for about 4 months now and he loves it!  He's generously invited us to stay with him while we're here which is ATMAYsing; it's great to see a friend and have a base for a while!

So on our first day we wandered around Atsugi, checking out the shops and marvelling at almost everything we saw!  Met Mark after work and he took us to an Izakaya - a traditional restaurant which is almost tapas in style...check oot the photo!  Twas amazing - we fed ourselves fat on octopus, wee noodle pancakes, and something containing pork and collagen!  We didn't like the last thing!

It's as difficult as we expected it to be here in terms of communication...in Mexico we could make a guess at how to pronounce words as the text was in English lettering, but here we can't even begin to figure out what things are.  We have our little lonely planet phrasebook which we think will be our saviour while we're here haha!