Tempura House/first meal

Its all surreal at the moment but that is the lack of sleep, i expect.
I met Yoshiro and his wife (who's name has escaped me) at the hotel reception at 6pm.
They took me across neon streets to a smaller street in Shinjuku area to a traditional tempura house. Shoes off and we entered a medium sized room and sat legs wrapped in uncomfortable places (especially after a long day travelling). They took over, which i am pleased happened. A waitress came out and showed us the raw ingredients, which then asked me if that was OK. How did i know, there were things there i had never seen!
What followed was an introduction into tempura eating and thats not the same as my local in Brixton. There were small dishes of salts (sea, wasabi, +?), radish paste dishes that you mixed with a soya sauce tea. The starter i won't have again. I tried not to show the distaste on my face (which is difficult to hide) but it was a mini paste shape thing, that was so rich ad salty that I had to almost down the beer. Yoshiro got his electronic translator out, it translated into urchin eggs! I had not idea urchins had kids...Other more successful tempura dishes were lotus fruit, hen of the woods (mushrooms), manila clams, eel, squid, jellied agar with the usual accompaniments
A lovely introduction and the I was the only western there! And chopsticks skills did not let me down. My hosts walked me back to my hotel and we made arrangements for the first teaching day onMonday. Oh yes that's why I am here.

I have to comment from previous post: arrival. This hotel is amazing in terms of views. At night it really is a sprawl of lights, that do not seem to end.
However, I could not live here. There is not enough greenery.

In transit

The flight almost seems ages away, but only a few hours ago. Some observations that are still with me, which i thought i would share. Once abroad the plane England had almost vanished, as 90% of the passengers were Japanese. Many of them began to don themselves in face masks. Was there something i should be aware of, swine flu on the plane? When the young man/boy put his on then i was very aware of my own air supply.
It was the quietest, calmest flight i have taken. No screaming children or drunk holiday makers. Infact it was so quiet i wondered if swine flu had been that fast and taken afew out!
My young seat companion was in his early twenties and very sweet, with the odd nod at times. Until seven hours had past and human need for contact emerged. He struck up a conversation and what transpired was he was a student with UAL at Wimbledon and lived in halls at Elephnat & Castle. So our conversations covered visa, foundation art, London, murder, racism and then back to a nod as tiredness took us over.
Another odd image was of an elderly Japanese man on the opposite aisle. Wearing his face mask,which he only pulled down to eat or drink at times. He had the interactive page on for 12 hours, watching every km covered and every time zone crossed. The interesting thing apart from that was his wrist. He wore two watches, one large and one smaller. I wondered which was Japanese time and the other Greenwich time?
Face masks, bento boxes for airline food, no noise, no drunken passengers, lots of films, ice creams at 3am made it a pleasant trip, that's if flying can ever be pleasant.

Arrivals

I am sitting on the 29th floor of my hotel room. Extremely dazed and confused. With 50mins until i meet my Japanese hosts for dinner I am wondering how i can make myself human. The view is breathtaking, even with my vertigo.

departure

Its eleven thirty and i have time to kill before a twelve hour flight. This is my first blog, a virgin blogger at 42!
Slightly nervous all round; the flight, Japan, the teaching, the language, etiquette etc...
but also very excited to be off on a cultural adventure.
This blog will begin when in the hotel room in tokyo.
Stay turned for a 8 day blog through my teaching exchange experineces at Musashino Art University.