Jet lag in Japan
This short post is about our first night in Japan. Both kids and I are sitting in the Business Center of the Park Hyatt in Tokyo at 5am. We have been here for an hour already.
Narita Airport in Tokyo is awesomely efficient. Short walk from the plane to passport control, bags on the carousel when we arrived, breeze through customs. We landed at 2h30 pm, and were ready to go before 3h00 (time difference is 13 hours from EST). Unfortunately, the taxi ride from the airport into the city is very long, and brutally expensive (almost $300 to the Shinjuku District). Part of the Japanese experience, I think. The triple-level highways and general Bladerunner feel of Tokyo are still cool to look at on the drive in.
India and I tried hard to keep everyone awake until at least 7 or 8pm local time. We took baths, the kids played with the super high-tech Japanese toilet (Zola: ‘I used Spray, then Softwash, the Dry, then Bidet, then Dry some more, then the seat got too hot to sit on), we unpacked. Eventually we went down to the bar to have dinner, but both kids fell asleep as soon as we ordered. That was almost 8pm, so we were pretty pleased.
Of course, both kids were completely awake again at about 3am (better than 1am). We tried for a while to get them back to sleep, but it was hopeless. Eventually, I agreed to take them somewhere, and let India sleep. The hotel staff was kind enough to open the business center for us: probably not the first time that a gaijin family has stumbled into the lobby at 4am with wide-awake kids. Zola is watching Pokemon videos on my computer. Lu and I found Dora the Explorer videos on YouTube, and watched a few short clips on another machine.
I discovered a great mashup of the song “Crank Dat Soulja Boy” overlaid on 3 minutes of Dora footage. Then I found the same song overlaid on Sponge Bob Squarepants, and on Barney the Dinosaur, and on several other kids programs. These were all done by different people. It is a weird little cottage industry of Web 2.0. It was fun to watch Dora and Boots dancing to Soulja Boy, though.
Kids are getting restless now. The fun meter appears to have run out on Pokemon videos in the Business Center. I think we will go out for a walk in the streets, and check out the park across from the hotel. I sure hope that India is ready to take over in another hour or so.