We finally made it to Tokyo!  Dan and I arrived in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon, after a smooth and quiet trip across the northern hemisphere.  We saw some beautiful scenery out the window as we flew over the mountains in Alaska.  I think I’ll put that on my list of places to visit.  But back to our current adventure…

It felt like we had A TON of luggage.  We literally only took what we could carry, er, fit on luggage carts.  Here is Dan under the arrival board at Narita Airport: 5 suitcases, 2 backpacks and a briefcase.  We’ve become minimalists (though I still managed to bring 11 pairs of shoes).

After the 2 hour bus ride from the airport into Tokyo, we took a short taxi ride to our apartment in Shibakoen.  Our studio is small but very nice.  Dan found the Super Toilet…enlightening. Later that night we took a stroll through the neighborhood and found a small izakaya restaurant, and after much pointing and head nodding, ended up with some delicious grilled skewers, sashimi and beer.

Our first few days have been eventful — lots of walking and checking out new neighborhoods for our next apartment, a little shopping and sight-seeing, but of course all I want to tell you about is the food.  There has been a lot of food.

On Sunday we had lunch at Curry Lab, a super modernish curry restaurant with tiny TVs at every seat.  Dan was lucky to get Alice in Wonderland.  I had a bean and chicken curry, “made especially with ladies in mind.” Dan had some sort of egg and curry mash-up.  In case you need a little help, this is the secret for a good curry (from the menu):

Sunday evening brought us to Nakameguro for a walk along the river and more izakaya, this time with grilled mackerel and crab and radish salad.  Mmm.

Today we found ourselves at our first ramen house.  I seriously need to practice my slurping.