Disjointed first JP-side post

Oh noooo, I failed in my mission to be jet lag free. I'm not sure if that's even entirely possible, but I definitely went to bed way too early last night. It was either that or caffeinated. Energy had plummeted straight to zero.

Let's see, though. As for the flight, pretty standard, low-drama. I sat next to a family of four, but the kids were more or less behaved. Didn't watch any movies, but played a lot of video games. Slept extremely minimally. It was annoying that they had the lights off for most of the flight even though it was light out outside. It was daytime in Japan! They were setting us up for jet lag fail from the beginning ;p

The bus ride from Narita is really the most dangerous, though. It is soooo easy to conk out on that ride. I stayed mostly awake and got off at the Grand Hyatt (where I'm not staying) to meet my supervisor, a couple co-workers, and the guy who helped set up my apartment. From there we walked a short way to Roppongi HIlls Residence D where I AM staying.

It's really too fancy. Although the kitchen is small, I'll be able to cook most things that I would want to, and it comes with dishes and stuff. The TV has cable. The balcony has a view of Tokyo Tower (and a Blue Man Group billboard, heh). Breakfast is include and served at the spa (which has a pool and gym, so I won't have to worry about finding a club to join).

The area is basically like an outdoor mall with lots of shops and restaurants and things. There are four residence buildings. Maybe I'll meet some people at the cocktail party they're having in a couple weeks?

The first night we went to one of the restaurants owned by Akira Kurosawa's family for oden and udon. I was pretty tired, but managed to stay up after that till after 11. Contrast this with yesterday when I conked out before 9:30. Ugh! So this morning I am up so early…

Yesterday was my first full day. In the morning I had salad, juice, bread, yogurt (apple kiwi!) and coffee for breakfast, explored the neighborhood a bit (there's so much stuff everywhere!) then met Yukari to head to the Digital Garage offices. It's a really quick trip on the Hibiya line, just two stops to Ebisu.

I met too many people to remember all their names, but hopefully I'll get the nearby ones down soon. There are a handful of people I know from the phone whose faces I just need to get to stick. Everyone was really friendly. I got to meet the CEO, too! His office has some fish in it :)

Steven took us to this awesome korean restaurant for lunch. Had kimchee, tofu, raw egg, and rice. I love when rice is served in a hot dish so the grains on the bottom crisp up.

Work was mostly uneventful, but I'm a little behind and there are some issues lingering from before I left that I need to take care of. Looking forward to being caught up! Hopefully I'll be less tired today, even though I didn't sleep perfectly and woke up really early…

Last night I went for some food in my neighborhood at a place called Arata. I have no idea if it's supposed to be good or not, but I liked it well enough. Had cabbage salad, tsukune (which is like a meatball), and mushrooms wrapped in pork. The staff there had some of the most energetic "irasshai" I've ever heard. There are plenty of places where you'll get greeted by the whole place as you enter (or leave), but they really nail it here, to the point where it can be startling when a customer walks in, haha.

Ha, I'm distracted from writing this because I found a channel on TV with nothing but Japanese movies. Really I'm just waiting for the pool to open. I have about another half hour.

The rest of today will be checking out Japanese schools and hopefully getting some work done. It's gonna be kind of hard to figure out where I'm going. But I guess if I get lost I will have to learn fast ;) I think there are enough places in Shibuya that once I get there I should be ok. And supposedly I can walk back to Daikanyama (where the office is) from there. Anyways, I'm not sure. It'll be an adventure I guess.

Mostly I'm just really happy to be in Tokyo. And I hope I can learn a lot of Japanese while I'm here in addition to getting a lot done for Twitter. I'm hanging out with a Japanese friend on Saturday, so hopefully that will be good practice? I know she speaks English, though, so I'll have to be diligent.

This blog is gonna be really tedious without pictures. I might try taking some with my iPhone and seeing if I can get them on this computer without accidentally deleting all my iTunes ;)