Japan Day 1- We Made It!!!

I never knew I wanted to come to Japan but I’m so glad we did and the Rasmussen’s have been so fun to spend time with and see the sights!

Thursday (2/13) we got up at 2am to catch our 6:30am flight to LA. Well the plane had issues and it left really late (not til after 10am) so we MISSED our connecting flight from LA to Tokyo!!! We were so bummed because we pre-extended to spend more time with Becky and Greg! We made the best of it and Delta put us up in a pretty nice hotel (Crown Plaza) near the airport (LAX). I called Robin and joked that she should come and visit us— and she DID! So we had a party!! She came later and we had dinner together and played Shanghai Rummy til late!! It was so fun though!! It was good to see her!

We flew out the next morning (Friday) on the same flight we should’ve been on the day before at 10:30 going out of LAX! So we flew on Valentine’s Day! It was a looooong flight and GET THIS... our screens—BOTH dads and mine were NOT working! So we couldn’t even watch movies on the long flight. The flight attendants felt really bad for us because we’d missed our flight the day before and now that, so they credited us some miles on our account. (We’d also gotten some free tickets for missing our fight from the day before.) But still it was a REALLY boring flight... I tried to sleep but you can’t even do that!

Finally got to Japan the next day around 3:40 (Saturday). We went to our hotel with the Jones group just arriving, to sign up for our tours and then headed to Rasmussens. We went to this really amazing Sushi place and took the bus to get there. We went through a part of town that’s famous for being the worlds busiest intersection! People everywhere crossing in all directions... even the cars all have to stop when it’s the people’s turn to cross! It’s called the Shibuya Crossing. Before we crossed, we got a picture in front of the famous Hatchi statue-- the dog that became famous for following his owner to work everyday... I guess they've made a movie out of it.  This area reminded me of Times Square in NYC with all the flashy signs and amount of people! (Only WAY more people!) Greg said the amount of people was only about 30% of what is usually there at the Shibuya crossing!!! The sushi place was cool— you order it on a touch screen and it comes to you via conveyor belt!! It stops right in front of you and you take it!! Each piece of sushi is only $1!! It was SO GOOD!! Came back and visited for a while but I went to bed and was out fast!!