Tokyo (and around), 1st 24 hours

Hello there,

so, i have arrived in Japan. Some of my first impressions, quite random:

• waiting at the gate at VIE, the usual crowd. 1st Japanese experience on board: when i was already seated in the plane, an old couple entered, with their street shoes in their hands, wearing slippers. Like when entering somebody's home. They put their shoes on again in front of me. Dunno why (peer pressure?). Fortunately there was lots of space in front of me during the flight ("fußfrei") thanks to using a good airline changing my seat last minute - when boarding - because i had asked for an aisle seat at check in (at that time all of those were full).
• 1st Japanese experience on the ground, i.e., Narita Airport:

The buttons read something like "spray" and "stop" and at the wall there was explanatory text. English version starting with "Equipment to cleansing the buttocks with warm water". Whatever, i thought it funny at the time, after one or two days without really sleeping.

• general impression after my first hour in Japan: everything feels very clean and well organised - not surprisingly. And friendly including customs officers. Not sure if he asked me for my major (study field) out of curiosity or to check if I'm a student for real (age!).
• I missed one bus and had to wait one more hour to leave the airport thanks to ATM complications - but they also gave me friendly receipts for not giving me money :-P
• waiting for the airport bus a guy came up to me, speaking only Japanese, looked at my bus ticket and took my luggage. Trusting Japanese i rightfully assumed that he was personnel for 'check-in luggage' for the bus, with number ticket and all.
• bus into Tokyo cost more than 30 Euros, 2h10min drive to my station. I felt very much like sleeping but kept my eyes open to see everything. Felt fresh. I also felt like having a shower really soon (was going to happen) and sleeping a lot (was not happening too soon). I saw three baseball fields with people playing and watching - it was Sunday morning and the Japanese love baseball - and quite some interesting bridges. Then i got off at the wrong station (five minutes after my station) but managed to walk back to my meeting point. Already had three people asking if they could help me, some of them not speaking any English :D
• 1st big faux pas: when entering my friend's flat, i stepped in two steps, without taking my shoes off! Realised it immediately, stepped back, took my shoes off :)
  

Some more random impressions from my first day, with pictures:

• the national sport in the metro: sleeping. My first metro ride here (technically not metro), me still very tired, but not that much:
  

• all restaurants have the food they offer on display, all in plastic replicas that already look delicious:

• first local meal: raw fish. In Enoshima, at the seaside (I'm from a landlocked country, sunshine and seaside always wonderful for me!). Lots of very tiny little fish, my raw fish bowl being the one on the right - the left one is the same, just that the fish is cooked and not part of my meal. All other things belonged to my meal.

• got off the train at "HA SE" station, haha. That means bunny/rabbit in German.
  

On to see a big Buddha:
Great Buddha - Daibutsu in Japanese - near Kamakura. Not the biggest Buddha statue I've seen in Asia, but the most impressive: still huge, and: almost 900 years old!!!

• my first dinner in Japan: small and quite original BBQ place. Raw meat might look unusual for your usual European, but was really yummy! After bbq-ing it, of course.
  

That's the enthusiastic owner of the place. She loves Gaijin and made us teach her some words in our mother tongues (French and German) and wrote it down to remember it.
During our meal we even got a free beer, "because the barrel was about to end anyways". That's quite unusual, I've been told, with one "Krügerl" costing more than five Euros. Not that i needed more sleep encouragement at that moment, jet-lag and all. But the Sapporo from the tap was good :)

• first morning, in the metro: luckily i could avoid the rush hour by one hour, carrying my luggage and all. Metro was just "pretty full" according to Austrian standards. Right next to me was this guy:
  

Drawing caricatures off other passengers with a pen. For his own enjoyment. After a couple of stations he started talking to me in perfect English, asking if i was travelling (because of the luggage). Since i had shown interest in his drawings he took out another notebook, showing me how he coloured his drawings later on. Nice!

• after the cartoonist had left i noticed a young guy next to me reading a book. Training my Katakana reading i read the author's name: To-MaSu BeRuNHaRuTo. Holy shit! My first morning metro ride in Tokyo, and a guy next to me reads a Japanese translation of my favourite Austrian author: Thomas Bernhard! After realising this i saw that next to the Japanese title it said "Alte Meister" in small type. Hehe. Couldn't help but telling the guy that i was also Austrian like the author of his book :)
• during my first full day here i passed through Shibuya crossing about five times.There are better pics and videos off people walking all over the place after the cars stop. Google it or watch a recent movie playing in Tokyo :)
• on my way to registering:
  

• 1st lunch inside Tokyo:
  

• DoN KiHo-Ra (Don Quijote). A big shopping house with all things needed to start your household
  

including these pillows, directly next to the ones with comic motives for the kids:
(not Japan-specific, just surprised me)

• Tommy Lee Jones is right now on every second or third drink vending machine - and there's lots of them everywhere - advertising some kind of coffee (and yes, they sell closed cans of hot coffee!)
  

• yellow area in the metro is reserved for people in need. And please turn your mobile completely off there (see sign even on the handles)
  

• the picture gives away that it might be chocolate banana milk, but the Katakana also reads Chyokobanana :) must be Donkey Kong's favourite brand...
  

• one more food pic: I'd heard of this Japanese chocolate brand, so i had to try it:
  

Manufactured by the Chiroru Bakery, cf. this.

• I also already got a commemorative brochure for the 25th birthday of Mario on my first day. Hehe. And my first Manga: my Japanese is way too poor to read it yet. I didn't buy it: these are cheaply s/w-printed, quite thick (format is almost A4!) and people (usually office folk commuting) read it on the metro. And after reading place it on top of garbage bins, so other people - like me - can pick it up. Don't know much about Manga yet, but i had already heard of the one on the cover :)
  

Puha, that's it for now. Thanks for reading my blog! More will follow (not from the first day, i promise).