Strolls in the land of the cold sun

I made it!

I got to Tokyo and it only took 19 hours in total, three in Amsterdam, one flying to Paris, three more waiting for the next plane, a mere 11 more hours in the torture position flying to Tokyo and finally one more hour to go to my hotel in Shinjuku.

But I got there, the boys were waiting for me and gave me a warm welcome, like the homecoming of the lost prodigal son.

I have one more small detail do add about the flight before moving on: KLM lost my luggage.

It has to be stressed that if I do not have my luggage, I cannot do important things and I am in quite a lot of trouble in the next stop of my trip. I really, really need the stuff in my luggage in two days time or I will have serious and probably expensive problems.

But they promised to have it in the hotel the next day at around 14 hours, so I just got out of the airport and got into my most favourite city.

Tokyo is amazing, the people is amazing, the streets are amazing, the food is AMAZING and it's amazingness is obvious to everyone. I enjoy it everytime I come here and although I have not had a map or guide, we have had a very nice day today. I guided the group by memory from three years ago and we went to Akihabara, Ueno, Ginza and Yurakucho. We had great times in the Sony Museum, the Nissan Showroom, visiting temples, the Imperial Palace and specially I'd say I enjoyed the arcades in Akihabara.

I consider myself a gamer (albeit a quite unskilled one) and I was able to understand the quality of the people playing in those arcades. It was like going to a street basketball court in Brooklying and finding a team with Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash. Just like that. Welcome to Japan, where everything is as good as they can make it, no matter the effort it takes.

The only down side was how beautifully cold the weather was. We had a glorious sun but very chilly temperatures and today we had programmed a lot of walking, so I suffered greatly in my summer clothes. I fought it with a double ration of sushi. In Tokyo that is always the best possible menu and that is what we did.

I am going to keep my promise and not tell you about tomorrow but there will be surprises, rest assured.

To finish, two status reports: 

It is 20 hours and the luggage, promised for 14 hours, is not here.

I did not buy any gadget, but I have shaped something in my head. I will most probably wait till Holland, but it could be cool. Hint, it is NOT an iPad.

And no serious blog would be such without photos!

Gamers! Run away!

The house of a God