First rainy night in Tokyo

A long day of travel. 10 hours on a plane with Charley checking the state of the clouds every 10 minutes is trying. But other than an hour of turbulence - which left Alex and I feeling queasy- the flight was uneventful.

We came face to face with our first banks of vending machines selling cute toys as we left the airport, choosing instead to invest in umbrellas as it was pouring outside.

There was a long delay in exchanging our pre paid JR rail pass coupons for tickets, but we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves navigating the system to get into Tokyo and then across town to Ueno - near Asakusa where we are staying.

The cab driver got lost between Ueno Station and the hotel, but we got to see the Senso-ji Temple from several vantage points as we drive by.

This area - even at night, in the rain with most shops shuttered closed is very charming. The architecture is more traditional but seems to have been restored.

The Wired Hotel is very funky - but absolutely tiny and we are all wondering how we will manage to share this space for a week with sanity intact.

Mitch was starving so we left the girls to shower and went in search of food. By now it was 10.30 at night, but Mitch was determined to eat Japanese tonight and we stumbled across a very authentic looking small eatery. We ordered too many dishes; sashimi, tempura, udon noodles etc. It was all delicious and Mitch was very pleased with his choice. We scooted back to the hotel, getting drenched in the process and fell into bed after midnight.Read more