Wednesday, March 31 (on the tour bus)
8:05 am, Toyko

The Shinagawa Prince Hotel
It's like I'm eight years old again. Actually, I didn't even have kid-sized furniture 
when I was eight. Everything is low to the ground. The top of the mirror over the desk 
comes up to my lower ribcage. I had to bend over to see myself in it. Breakfast is cool, 
though. They've got Western and Eastern style breakfast foods in a buffet setting. I 
didn't go full Eastern today, but I had miso soup with my protien and carbohydrates. 
We're going to be moving quickly and I don't want to spend huge amounts of money on food, 
so I stock up where I can and hope it will last most of the day.

I finally met EM last night, but she's a student, so she can't just come with us and hang 
out all day. Zannen desu, ne. I had to start of the day with some pictures of vending 
machines, just so everyone in America can see what they're missing. I'm also getting used to 
being stared at by the natives. I like to joke that I love being a minority when I hang out 
with the Stalker Chicks, but I really feel it here in Japan. It's cool. :)

8:12 am - we're headed off to Tokyo University. We're picking up the other tour group, so 
it's going to be a long ride to the opposite side of Tokyo before we actually start the 
tour. We're also handing in our passprts to get our Japan Rail passes, so they can turn us 
loose on the local trains. Buahahaa. Tokyo is just a mish-mash of every type of building you 
can imagine. There aren't any zoning laws, so office headquarters are next to apartment 
buildings are next to train stations are next to old houses or shrines. There are tons of 
12-15 story apartment buildings, but they way they were built was one apartment to a floor, 
they're just stacked high. I see no elevators, either, just stairs. I'd sure hate to live on 
the 15th floor in a building like that - especially if I was bringing in groceries.

Our guide, Oka Rie, has asked us to be careful and not draw out the a in her family name if 
we choose to call her Oka-san. (Okaa-san means 'mother'.) Not because she isn't happy to be 
our mother for a few days, but because it might really surprise the locals. Just as a note 
(there will be many random notes as our guides keep us entertained and educated on these long 
bud rides), tha Japanese fiscal year is April 1 - March 31st - so we're catching end-of-fiscal-
year traffic today. It's not as bad as it could be.

(Imperial Palace -parking lot- pictures) We didn't have much time to spend at the Imperial Palace. 
When we got there, they made us wait for a group photo (which almost no one bought a copy of), 
TAKE the group photo (which took too long, and wasn't that great), and then they cut us loose.
Since it was just the front gate and a nice view of the double bridge, I'm not disappointed. I got 
a couple of shots, and we moved on.

(Statue pictures) Right across from the palace grounds, there's a small park with an equestrian 
statue of Kusunoki Masashige. I don't know a thing about the man, but I think I'm going to look 
him up and see what I can learn.

We left two people behind. We met up with a married couple that came to Japan early, and then 
hooked up with the tour. (They did catch up with us later that day at Tokyo Tower, but uh, yeah. 
Listening to instructions and taking direction is not a bad thing. Anyway, Tokyo University was 
next, for the sole purpose of staring at the clock tower featured in "Love Hina." (Which I have 
not yet seen.) We were still behind schedule, but we all piled out, saw the tower, took pictures, 
and piled back on the bus. Woo. The campus (at least the minor part of it we saw) is a bit run down, 
as is the clock tower itself. The campus is between terms, so it was pretty abandoned as well. I got 
a shot or two of the tower, but what really caugh my eye were the two huge trees to either side of it. 
I got pictures of them, and am happier about it.

There were several stray cats at the University, a photographer and a couple of kids. One cat was 
right in the middle of a step, washing. It was a perfect shot, and the photographer was patiently 
waiting, and lining it up, and the kids were playing in the background. Just as the guy is about 
to take his shot, the kids wander right up through it, disturb the cat, and ruin the whole deal. 
The old guy took it all in stride. He didn't say a thing, just went back to waiting. I would have 
(kindly) waved the kids off before they got in the way, but maybe that's not a very Japanese way 
to handle things.

LLL and LS got a shot of me while I was sitting off to the side and watching the rest of the tour 
as if I wasn't one of them, so I took their picture at the same time. Heh. We'll have to trade a 
lot of pics when the trip is over.

About this time, I put on my collar. Yeah, the priest's collar. I blame Subaru. She was a 
Tokyo Babylon/X fan, and part of the Neo-Tokyo Tour. She ended up sitting by me on the bus. 
She's really stoked about going to Tokyo Tower. Really stoked. Embarrassingly stoked. She's 
a nice kid, but a little excitable - but hey, we cosplayers have to stick together, right?