13 hours of jet-lag soup.

5:43 AM, Kizu-Cho Kyoto.

Today is officially my first morning in Japan. Yesterday I arrived at 6.30 PM on Kansai airport which is an artificial island near Osaka. The flight was fine, but I found curious that they offered me green tea in every meal.

Justin picked me up at the airport and we went straight to Keihanna Plaza where Yanagida-san picked us up, after that we went to my first real Japanese dinner, kind of exciting, we entered this small bar with even smaller rooms, some of them were Japanese style (you bend your knees and sit in a tatami) and some western style with chairs and everything. The waitress sent us to a western style room, probably because of my blue eyed blonde friend and my spiky hair, we had a delicious dinner, not so different from what I expected but definitely much better than what I knew. While we were ordering I pointed some dishes to Yanagida-san, asking what they were and if they were good, in a phrase "showing some interest in them", though not convinced of trying them, well I learned that you cannot do that to a Japanese, he ordered all of them!, Yakitoris, which is half grilled meat in sticks, then another thing made with octopus (delicious), also bean strings just as appetizer, then a dish with raw fish called .. Sashimi I think, then Dumplings, also some other appetizers that I don't remember the name, and also sticks with some kind of meat (I want to think pork) and then prepared like a KFC nugget, Oh!! And a HUGE sapporo beer.

After dinner he brought us to the apartment, funny thing is that for the first time I noticed they drive on the left side of the road!. The apartment is efficient and small, in a word is Japanese!. At the entrance it has a small space where you can put your shoes, because of course you cant walk with shoes inside the house. To the left there are two rooms that we are using as bedrooms, it wasn't too hard to decide which one to take, I have the smaller one but with a balcony and a built in closet, Justin got a bigger one but with AC, and he has some drawers.

To the right of the entrance there is the kitchen, I haven't explored all its amenities yet, but it seems to have all what's necessary, though the fridge smells a little bad. In front of the kitchen is the bathroom, Japanese style of course, it doesn't have a door to go to the common area, where you can find the sink and the washing machine, the first room is only for toilet, thankfully is not an squat!, it is a tiny little room with just enough space to ... you know, and when you flush the toilet the water comes from outside before filling the tank so you can wash your hands in that water, again small and efficient. Next is the bathing room, again Japanese style, it has a deep bathtub, that is used only to fill with water (no soap) and the actual showering is made outside, yesterday I sadly found that we don't have hot-water.

Further down the hall there is the common area, with a couple of tables, some chairs and the TV (yes, we have a TV) and another AC, then the Tatami to the right, which also has a balcony. I still cant grasp the Idea of what the tatami is used for, but I will get use to it pretty soon I bet.

I am hungry. 6:08AM