So we're in Japan! We arrived in Tokyo at around 6PM local time, and headed for the train station to get to the city, and our hostel. Having never set foot outside Aus before, it was a bit of a culture shock to find myself in a place where English isn't the native tongue. I guess I'd better get used to it... Luckily for us everyone seems really friendly here, and we haven't had too much trouble getting around - even though the train map is more twisted than the lead singer from Wolfmother's afro. Seriously, there must be 5 or 6 different rail networks, and it's almost impossible to find any information in English. Anyhow, we got to our hostel around 21:30 last night, after a short walk from the train station which included some huge wooden gates, and an awesome temple. We dumped our bags, and went in search of some local tucker. After looking at pictures of food at about 10 places, we settled for a place, and sat down. We were greeted with a hot tea (great since it was about 2 degrees outside) and pointed at a couple of photos on the menu that looked appetising. What we ended up with was a bowl of rice with some sort of meat and chilli cabbage on top, and a meal comprising miso soup, and a plate of meat and cabbage salad with a bowl of rice. It was really tasty. Today we wandered around the temple near our hostel, saw the poo building (AKA the Asahi beer HQ), took the long way to akihabra (Electric city) which is block after block of shops selling electronics. I was looking forward to visiting this district, but was a bit let down because most of the details were in Japanese, and I couldn't read them. Probably the biggest surprise for me has been the number of locals in Tokyo that wear face masks everywhere they go. I just can't comprehend living in a place where I felt I had to filter the air I was breathing. Anyway, that's way too much for one day. Later, Paul.