Made it!

After 14 hours on the plane (and nearly 2 hours on the “Limo Bus”), 360 Team Japan is officially in Tokyo. We’re staying in the heart of Shibuya, the hip and happening “ground zero for youth culture.” (so says LP, and we’re happy to confirm!) Neon, crowds, aesthetic delights overwhelm (think “Lost in Translation”), especially culinary delights: as our fixers David and Shizu explained, while New York City has about 9,000 licensed restaurants, Tokyo has somewhere around 65,000. Tonight, we picked a traditional restaurant (tatame mats, woodwork, rock garden) 11 floors above the throng. (Check out our flickr page to see our absolutely heavenly first meal.)

But the combination of jet-lag and culture shock is sending this gaijin to bed early (not bad after being up for 24 hours) — after riding our hotel’s elevators up and down a couple more times.

– Jenny Lawton