Singapore Airlines delivered us promptly at 7:05 pm. Then, breezed thru customs (after being fingerprinted and photographed). Rental phone from Softbank--check! Yen from ATM--check! Then, off to purchase a train ticket to Tokyo Station. This proved a little more difficult due to the automatic ticket machines being in Japanese. However, customer service spoke English. Then, as I worriedly glanced between trains, an English speaker helped me pick the correct train. By the end of the 1.5 hour ride, I was falling asleep between every stop.
It was so wonderful to see a familiar face waiting for me at Tokyo station! Hiro helped find the hostel, which turned into more fun with trains and tokyo addresses. By now, it was 10:30; and, the hostel has an 11:30 curfew. So, the staff showed us the back way to get in, a confusing mix of stairs, unmarked doors and an elevator.
Although there are a McDonalds and Starbucks not far from the hostel, I vetoed both. Instead, we ate at a restaurant with some interesting features. First, we had to take off our shoes and put them in a locker. Then, we had a doorbell type button on our table. the serving staff only passed by our table if we rang the bell. Lastly, everytime we rang, a different server would appear (i've subsequently learned that there is no tipping at restaurants in Japan, which means we've had exceptionally fast server response times at every food place we've visited, since no one person owns the table or tips). And even though I can't remember exactly what I ate in my travel stupor, it was all delicious!
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