Hello everyone: My group made it to Japan on time and safely, with no missing luggage. Yippee! Yesterday (my yesterday, remember, I am 14 hours ahead of CT in the USA) after a 14 hour flight, 2 hour wait and then 2 hour bus ride, I stepped foot onto Tsukuba soil.
It's more the "bustling little town" than I expected! Right now there is also the Tsukuba Summer Festival going on, so we stepped off our bus in the Tsukuba Center at 6:30pm (our 10-story hotel is right in the center of the town) to a street parade with lanterns, lots of people, drums and inflatable floats, plus the smell of delicious food booths! Mmmmmm...
After getting settled into the hotel (read: took a nice warm shower and got only two things unpacked), we all met downstairs and went out into the rain to watch the festival. It was on-and-off-again raining with less than a downpour, more than a sprinkle. There is a Houston Support Group contingent staying here in Tsukuba for months at a time for NASA and so we met them on the parade route and stood above the sea of umbrellas on a bunch of bleachers they rented. The sound of the drums were mesmerizing and the floats were pretty neat...although I think the parade route was only like 5 blocks long and we kept seeing the same things go by multiple times. It was neat none-the-less.
Half the group split off and the other half of us went to a Chinese restaurant (yes...Chinese) for some dinner. I was not hungry due to eating everything on the plane that they offered, and then my body being out of whack with the travel and time zone change. I did, however, eat a tiny bowl of egg-drop soup and had a few gyoza. The rest of the crowd each got a dish to share, which looked (and apparently tasted) absolutley delish. It was a nice meal. Also to note, the chef there was a contestant on the original "Iron Chef", so you can imagine how good the food was. That was neat too...and no, I don't know the name of the restaurant OR if the chef beat Iron Chef...doubtful :)
We tried to hit a local bar after dinner (it was Saturday night after all), but they were "full", so we couldn't go in. Strange. It was probably better that we just ended up going home to relax and sleep anyway.
That was day one. Not much to note, really, but it was a good couple days!
Today is Sunday morning (5am actually and I'm awake after getting only 6 hrs of sleep) and I think we might try to head to Tokyo to check it all out.
More to come!
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