Downtown Narita

Hi Happy Readers! Steve & I are in our funky stripey PJ's (found on our beds), wearing our terry towelling slippers at the Narita Nikko Hotel. We have just been in the Skybar on the 11th floor, eating raw seafood & drinking martinis & Japanese whiskey. So far Day One of the holiday is all going really well. Our flight with JAL has been really good. I will tell you now that the closest I got to an upgrade was to check-in at the Business Class counter.... Service was very attentive & the flight was perfectly good. Our ears pulled through beautifully! A man was sick in his seat in the opposite aisle but the cheerful cabin crew were so fired up with the disinfectant that all we passengers were almost oblivious! Honestly, I have been the most awful example of a 'gaijin'. The flight attendant was offering me green tea & I was trying to get her to pour it into my glass with ice cubes. It was HOT TEA!! Tonight I asked the barman if we could have cooked sushi but, of course, sushi is always raw... I am an animal!! The highlight of our holiday so far is our electronic toilet in the hotel here. It is so complicated!. All I have managed to work out so far is how to spray my butt with hot water (a most unsavoury sensation). There are these glassed in smoking rooms where people go & puff away. Several customs officials were wearing facemasks & there are alot of white gloves being worn. The smoking has caught us off guard. However, what we have seen of Japan is very tidy & ordered & neat. I feel like an absolute wild, feral beast here. Steve has been a dreamboat. He went along with my mad desire to eat Japanese food tonight (even though he was dreaming of a Spam burger) & let me inflict raw squid, clams & fish AND exotic seaweed on him. Of course, we were animals with our dinner too, with bits of food flying about the place as we tried to control our chopsticks. I thought I was getting a marriage proposal from the waiter who KNEELED by my side to proffer my martini. Steve tried out the local whisky, Suntory, and found it to be delicious. Here are some photos to date. Here I am with the world's biggest Toblerone, a photo out the window as we flew over Fraser Island (I think?) and The Magic Toilet. Until the next chapter.... (& let that be as easy as this!) Au Revoir mes amis! xxxx

PS: Steve has the telly turned on to a channel that is giving us a rundown on the digestive system, in Japanese of course. If only we had 1/2 an idea of what is going on... Excellent Saturday night viewing though.

PPS: There is a sticker on the hotel window that says, "do not open this window in case a dewdrop or dangerous insect comes in".... I have always had a dreaded fear of rogue dewdrops, did I tell you?