Sunday, January 24, 2016

First Morning of Tokyo

I had trouble sleeping, of course.  The upside was that I had far more time to explore and get sem-lost before today's meetings.

What did I learn?
  • I got pretty good at figuring out how to log on to the sporadic free wifi so that I could check the map and see where I was, which was usually not where I intended to be.
  • The street signs have enough English but can be confusing when some intersections seem to have the same sign in all four directions.  I need to figure out how to read those better.
  • Interesting mix of pedestrian elevated walkways and regular walking next to the street.  Of course, one legacy of having British style driving (driving on the left) is that the pedestrians tend to walk on the left.  
  • Japanese people mostly do not wear hats despite the chill today.  So, I could easily identify from a distance non-Japanese, including an Aussie who was similarly semi-lost.
  • More than 10% wear face masks.   I had seen Asian travelers in the US wear them, but I was not sure how prevalent they would be in Tokyo.  In China, I get it, but here the air is fine so fear of disease?  
  • It is good to be out of North America when one's team loses in a particularly frustrating game.
Got to meet the rest of my group.

Update: the rest of the Canadians didn't know I was here...  but they let me join them on the Tokyo Tour quick stop complete with view of Mt. Fuji.  Clear skies around here.

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