First Days in Tokyo

Greetings Everyone!

I am having trouble uploading pictures right now, but here is some news:

I finally made it to Tokyo! The city is tremendous, and I am already learning many things. Last night, when we arrived, we received 26,000 yen for spending money for meals. (Does anyone know about how much that is in dollars? Try this: http://www.xe.com/ucc/). I went out to a sushi bar with one other teacher and a student volunteer from a local university. It was quite an experience! We sat at a counter, and the sushi went by on a conveyor belt. We took the plates we wanted. I tried three grades of raw tuna, and loved every one! When we were done, we stacked up the plates. The waitress counted the different colored plates to figure out our charges! Everything was yummy, and not expensie at all!

One friend who is a teacher in Glastonbury asked me how the Japanese are conserving energy and recycling, so I am keeping an eye out for examples. (See her comment under my San Francisco post.) So far, I don't have any photos, but here are a couple of things I learned today. First of all, today was a bit warm, around 23 degrees Celsius. (How warm was that in Fahrenheit degrees?) We visited the Diet building, where the government is run, and they didn't have the air conditioning on! In fact, most places we visited did not have the air on. Also, while my group waited to be admitted to the Diet building, we noticed that the escalators are only turned on to bring a group up the stairs. If there is no one on the escalator, it is turned off!

Do you have questions for me? Click on "Comments" to send them along!