I arrive and we all make it through customs, get our baggage, walk through lines where we stow it off again for our time in Tokyo and ultimately until we get to our new homes. This we do very quickly even at a leisurely pace. We take about an hour long bus ride from the airport to Shinjuku and check into our hotel rooms. As one person put it, "They're swank!" They really are. I've now utilized my first bellhop and bedet (though I promise, not at the same time!).

I walked to a post office and used an ATM so that I'd have a bit of cash on my person and with one of my roommates decided to get a bite to eat near the hotel and met a couple of guys in our group from Denver in a noodle restaurant. I got a spicy pork noodle bowl of some sort and a hard-boiled-ish type of egg with a brown "white" and a pinkish-orange yolk. They were both great. Outside the lights were great as we walked around. Everything's great.

Except now... it's 3:00 a.m. here and I can't sleep even though I went to sleep at 9:00. Se la vie. I listen to David Bowie sing such songs as "Life on Mars", "Space Oddity" and "Heroes" directly into my psyche which parellels the otherworldy feeling that I- and I'm sure many others- are now beginning to experience as we begin to grasp what we have gotten ourselves into.

In any event, I am here. I am safe. I have taken the first steps in what I can only imagine will be...

I'll let the ellipse do the speaking. Thank you to everyone whose thoughts, words, prayers and deeds got me to this point. I will keep you all updated.