Konichiwa from Tokyo!

First of all, we made it!  For anyone who was worried, we have reached a new continent safe and sound. Also our flight had amazing movies (I watched the Blind Side, Whip It and Its Complicated and Mike watched Its Complicated and Avatar!), also it takes approximately two years to get from Narita Airport to the city... not really, but it is quite a process (plus immigration took ages) so by the time we got to our hostel it was 3 hours later. In any event, the hostel is adorable (and despite the fact that we arrived in pouring rain and 6 degree weather) we were in great spirits. We decided it was a good night for some soup, and went in to the first place that looked appropriately soupy (with pictures and stuff).  We each got a bowl of miso ramen (it was huge and cost around 7 dollars...I can:t even begin to describe how much better prices are here than Australia). The best part? (vegetarians and koshers close your ears... ) they ask you what level of pork fat you would like in your soup! Your choices go from 0-3... we both went with a standard 1.

This morning we headed out to explore our neighborhood, Asakusa which has an outdoor market and ａ Buddist temple. Let me tell you my first problem, I want to buy EVERYTHING in Japan. The kitchy things (because japan RULES kitch), the kimonos, the pottery, the chopsticks with adorable things on them.... I cant remember ever wanting so much before.  That said, we are under control (so far...) but I:m sure will end up with a number of things from here.  Second, we keep buying amazing street snacks, they are sooooo good and each cost between 1-2 dollars... so its really hard to resist. First I had some rice dough balls (ｌｉｋｅ mochi outsides...) with a salty caramel sauce( delicious) on a stick which makes it fun.  Then we had cute little filled pancakes with red bean paste inside (mine was a bird, mikes a pagoda).  Later on our way home we got a giant filled pancake fish with green tea/red bean paste... amazing.  The funny thing is that it is rude to eat on the street, but there is a lot of street food ( a catch 22 you say?) so all the street vendors have little areas you can hover while you eat... don:t quite get it, but i will hover for delicious filled pancake treats under $2. Its just a fact.

Ok， we did a ton of other things, I will try to post later， but right now its dinner time and I am on a keyboard with a tiny space bar and if i hit the key next to it, it translates my last sentence into japanese...