ok, so what is it like?!

We have been in Tokyo for a week, a whole week, beating jet-lag - the last 3 Tylenol PM dissapeared within the firs two days and after that Chuck and I were awake pretty much every day after 3:33 a.m. Luckily it was a long weekend so we spent those days trying to get in and out of bed (but doing so at the wrong times). This photo shows how we felt the first few days.

So, what is it like?!! well Tokyo is cool, alive, short, fun, clean, confusing and extremely polite.

- We have had people carry our bags, direct us, smiling and saying a lot of things we could not understand. Remember we are used to French service, so this for us is paradise! and by the way: no tips.

- Shops and restaurants are eveywhere, in the backstreet from our place, (between Aoyama-dori and Omotesando) there are at least 15 hairdressers, and we are talking about a 200 m street. To those of us reading this in Luxembourg: yes shops are open until 9pm (at least) and also on Sundays.

- The toilets .. Chuck has a whole post dedicated to them.

- Shoes size go to a maximum of 7.5 ... well, shoe shopping is out of the question. Shop assitants look at me with pity every time I ask for a scary 9.5

- I spent 3 hours in the supermarket, 2 of which were wasted (or invested depending on how you see things) trying to buy soy sauce and chili sauce. A whole wall full of them. After 1 h 45 m I had to drag (very politely) a Japanese woman and beg for help: "sumimasen ... can you pick a soy sauce for me please?"

- ... I am still trying to buy chili sauce

- When running in Tokyo make sure you do not try to enter a shrine with your (very small) running clothes, you will be summoned by a very polite guard, who will escort you out to Yoyogi Park.

- ahh and in Tokyo, Japanese people do not carry cameras around. We are! it's revenge now!