ようこそ！Welcome!

I find this fitting as a welcome for you, dear reader, as it welcomed me once in I arrived in Japan. After a seemingly unending 12 hour flight from Dallas-Ft. Worth to Tokyo, enduring customs and immigration, meeting up with the rest of my party, taking the hour long trip on Keisei Skyliner from Narita Airport to Ueno Station and finally taking a 10 minute taxi ride to the Tokyo Garden Palace Hotel in Ochanomizu, this gentle image in the lobby soothed my cranky and exhausted soul. It sank in that I had at long last made it to Japan and was only minutes away from a bed and shower.

For those of you not familiar with the above subject matter, allow me to explain. In Japanese folklore, rabbits live on the moon where they make mochi - a festive treat made of glutinous rice. This derives from interpreting the pattern of dark patches on the moon as a rabbit using a mortar making the yummy and sticky goodness that is mochi. This heavenly bunny is referred to as "tsuki no usagi" (rabbit of the moon) or as the *drum roll* jade rabbit.

So, ようこそ (youkoso) to my blog about my exploits in Japan, a land where old and new, cute and bizarre intermingle at every opportunity.