Arrival

Arrival
5/31
The plane ride was as interesting as any other intercontinental flight.  I lost a game of Civilization 5, lost Shogun II Total War, then gave up and read a kanji book.  Today's useful vocab word of the day is 'hariyama,' which means 'pincushion' and is also the name of a third-generation pokemon.  I'm not sure what to make of that, because Hariyama does not resemble a pincushion at all.
Sugimoto-sensei, my supervisor for this internship, and Koitabashi-san, the wife of an administrator who is helping me settle in, met me outside customs.  We met a pair of Toshidai students who were at the airport seeing off some Australian exchange students at TCU for coffee at the airport Starbucks.
Sugimoto-sensei arranged for me to stay two nights in Meguro, a neighborhood south of Tokyo.  We ate dinner at a nearby sushi restaurant, in which I tried a miso soup with clams. It was delicious.

Koitabashi-san, myself, and Sugimoto-sensei in the lobby of the hotel.  I'm a bit underdressed, especially with the jeans rolled up, but it's hot and I'm fresh off the plane.

I was very jetlagged, and asleep by 9:30 local time.