First of all, not only did we not feel any earthquake yesterday, we had no idea there even was one until this morning. We're a bit in our own world, I guess. Earthquake aside, here are some highlights from Day 2 in Japan. In the morning, we took a mini-tour of the city which included: a trip to the top of Tokyo Tower (Tokyo's version of the Eiffel), a wet walk through the Meiji-jingu Shinto shrine, which was beautiful, despite the pouring rains; a stroll through the Imperial Palace gardens; and finally shopping and people watching in Ginza, Japan's equivalent of Times Square. We ate yakitori at Torigin Honten restaurant, where all of us gaijin were put in our room away from the others. We ended the evening eating Shabu Shabu with Ian's friend Endo-san and his wife. We all got a little drunk on Sake, which in Japan is an excuse to say inappropriate things. We went to bed early so we could rise at 3:30 am for a trip to the fish market. More on that later . . .

Some observations: I love how everything is so automated and organized in Japan. The construction sites are clean. They have a little thing you can press at the hotel elevator which is specifically for ridding yourself of static electricity. The soap dispensers are automated. High end toilets have all these sophisticated buttons, which you need a manual to operate. But if you know what you're doing you can give yourself a little wash and blow dry after your through with business. We didn't get that far, but we did enjoy the heated seats.

Keep an eye on the photo blog for ongoing photos.

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