5/21 - Arrival in Tokyo

hello everyone....

it's good to be on solid ground after being in the air for so many hours. once again, i stayed up the 2 nights before to "prepare" myself for the 13 hour time difference, and as usual, it didn't work at all. i kept falling asleep on the plane when i wanted to stay up and vice versa. i guess we'll see how many times i wake up during the middle of the night.

once we landed, i tried to get through customs and grab my bag as quickly as possible in order to catch the keisei skyliner train to my friend's house. upon arriving there, i was also greeted by my wife pauline who flew in the day before from l.a., where she was matron of honor at a friend's wedding. we were treated to a wonderful home-cooked hiyashabu udon (kind of like cold shabu shabu on top of fresh vegetables and udon noodles). needless to say, it was delicious and a wonderful start to this year's tour and my first time in tokyo.

it was also nice to see our old friends after so many years. they used to live in boston and we know them from church. their children have grown up so much since we last saw them.

i am pretty exhausted but hopefully the jet lag will work to my advantage as i need to wake up early tomorrow morning for our first baseball game vs members of the tokyo symphony and new japan philharmonic. so goodnight for now.