Sorry for the late update. I've done a lot of things this week and don't want this post to become too long, so if you want more details on anything, e-mail me.

I left for Japan on the 31st. The plane flight was long, but not boring. I had my entire row to myself. The plane flew over the north pole, so I was able to view some nice scenery.

I was supposed to call my friend Toshi as soon as I arrived in Japan and then meet him at Shinagawa station. After I landed and went through customs, I couldn't find Toshi's phone number (even though I had just used it to get through customs), so I just headed straight to Shinagawa station instead. I luckily didn't have many problems getting from Narita to Shinagawa. I could not find Toshi in Shinagawa station, so I decided to use a pay phone to call my sister to get Toshi's phone number for me.

It's kind of a long story, but I used the phone for less than five minutes and was charged about $150. Ridiculous price and no warning at all. Still trying to get that resolved. I called Toshi and he found me at the pay phone. He was there waiting for me for two hours :(. We went to his house in Yokosuka and slept. (I later found his phone number inside my passport)

On Tuesday me and Toshi went to Tokyo. I went to my new guest house to sign my contract. Toshi had a meeting somewhere else. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand anything the landlord told me, but I actually understood almost everything :). After I signed the lease, I chatted with my new roommates for a couple hours. Nice people. I'll post pictures and more details later. After that I took a nap and then left to meet Toshi at Shinagawa station and go back to Yokosuka. Then we ate dinner and slept.

On Wednesday me and Toshi went to Sensouji in Asakusa to celebrate setsubun. Hard to explain, google it :). Many famous people were there to throw beans into the crowd. I only caught 3 :(.

After that we went to Roppongi to buy a cellphone and do some sightseeing. Pretty place. We saw some of Japan's olympic figure skaters being interviewed there. Then we went home and slept.

Other things we've done:
-Explored sougenji. It's a temple/cemetary near Toshi's house. Toshi's family and ancestors are buried there. Toshi showed me the Japanese ritual thing that they do every time they visit their graves.
-Went to Shizuoka to see some kawazuzakura (a kind of cherry blossom tree I think) and Mt. Fuji.
-Hung out with Toshi's friend Ken in Yokohama. We drove around in Ken's Toyota Majesta. Really nice car. Yokohama was very pretty too.

Yokohama:


Today me and Toshi explored Yokosuka by bike. We went to the memorial of a ship (forgot the name) and a big multi-story department store among other places. For dinner me and Toshi's family went to a kaitenzushi restaurant. At this restaurant nigiri, sushi, soups, fruits, drinks, and desserts go around the restaurant on plates on a conveyer belt. Each plate is about $1.00. After you're done eating, you drop the plates into a slot machine type thing to win prizes.

Tomorrow we're waking up early to go to Kamakura, a place famous for it's temples and giant buddha statue. After that we will probably go to Yokohama to hang out with Ken again. Maybe we'll go ice skating too.

Here's a short video I took showing the restaurant we went to:


Pictures can be found on my facebook page :)