Tokyo- some thoughts

I wanted to say a few things about my trip to Tokyo. It was two weeks ago and the time has flown but I wanted to record my impressions. I flew into Narita Airport and then caught a bus to take me to the Shinjuku part of Tokyo. I stayed at the Keio Plaza Hotel (very nice) and taught in the building right across the street. I stayed awake on the entire trip so on the 90 minute drive I was almost falling asleep..until I started seeing "city". If you picture driving through the Times Square area in NYC...bright lights and if you look down the block there are lights and tall buildings as far as you can see. Same with Tokyo...except for almost an hour I saw block after block of tall buildings with neon lights....for almost an hour at 60 miles an hour! It was almost overwhelming! Once I was at the hotel the people were very gracious and really into service to their customers. Some places cannot be bothered to give service but Japan was very service oriented. The people in the class were also very nice. Humble and confident. This particular class was filled with Rocket Scientists (no kidding) so they were, obviously very bright and picked things up very well. The hotel housed a nice little boutique and I bought some neat chopsticks there. My favortie part of the trip was when I had checked out of the hotel in the morning and needed to change my clothes for the trip home. I just wanted to go ahead and change in the bathroom but, instead, they escorted me to a changing room where bridal parties get ready for their weddings. What a treat! The room was divided into 12 mats (about 3'x5', I would guess) and each person put their items on their mat kind of claiming that area. Then there were also little rooms to go into if you needed privacy. There was a bride getting "dressed" in a traditional Japanese Kimono (or whatever the dress is called that they put the "bustle" kind of thing at their waist.) The final thing they put on was the headdress. It was SO cool to be able to watch her friends dress her and tease each other gently. What a lovely custom! On the way back I went into another boutique and found a beautiful laquer box for Nick to put his wallet in. I thought it would look pretty in the house (even though it didn't "match") Once I put it where I planned I noticed that it matched the pictures above it perfectly! It really dresses up the area and reminds me of my trip! Can't ask more of a gift than that!