What a weird but wonderful week in Japan so far

I hope this pots OK as Blogger has given me all of the template in Japanese!!!!!

Weird

mainly due to the journey times and the time zone differences plus of course the drastically different culture.

The week began with a 12 hour flight with its necessary additional travelling time to and from the airport and the inevitable waiting times and an 8 hour time difference resulting in a total journey of 22 hours!!

Having left Heathrow at lunchtime, no sooner were we in the air then we were offered lunch shortly after which the lights were dimmed and everyone went to sleep as we flew into darkness. The problem was that no-one actually wanted to go to sleep as it was still only the equivalent of late afternoon.

You would have thought that with that behind me I would have slept well but even after 3 days I am still not sleeping for more than 3 hours at a time!

Wonderful

Due to the amazing people, culture and totally different environment.

Japanese people in Tokyo are the most polite people I have ever come across in my travels.

Added to that the sense of community is amazing with the total absence of litter and graffiti.

My colleagues and I have enjoyed some terrific meals and meetings with our hosts and have been overwhelmed with the amazing service culture. We have even been assured that it is not customary to tip for service, even to the point that offering a tip would cause embarrassment.

We have two more days here before repeating the arduous return journey although travelling West will probably be less of a problem to our body clocks.

Further posts and photos will be forthcoming when I get home to upload them to my home PC as I cannot do so to my company laptop