It's 5 am--why isn't everyone up?

Reflections to begin the day. 

1.  Everything is different here. 

2.  I still can't get my head around what time and day it is here vs. what time and day it is at home. You guys are just now thinking about having dinner, while here it is still way too early to find anything open for breakfast-- except for me it's already tomorrow. 

3. I can count on one hand the number of non-Asians we have seen anywhere in Kobe (excluding the 3 conference colleagues of D's we have seen).  As a consequence, we do get some attention, especially the tall American man with salt and pepper hair. Possibly they think they are seeing this guy:

The conference starts this morning.  D will give his talk in a few hours and I will be in the audience!  After that I will take off on my own to explore. 

Adventures TBD!

So much!

I have so much to tell you about! So much plastic food, so many toilets, so many vending machines, so many sake breweries! 

We spent most of the day with a lovely couple who are friends of a Boston friend, and they couldn't have been nicer --taking us all over Kobe. Also it was a beautiful day. Let's see what photos I can share. 

Here is part of my breakfast. It was buffet style so I went back several times. Yogurt with cucumbers is very refreshing. Those little red things are pickled plums and they were super tart. 

This is not the best toilet I've seen but it's typical: heater, "shower," and bidet buttons. The one at the airport also had "flush sound" for the easily embarrassed. 

The baby receptacle is convenient. 

Random plastic food at the main train station in Kobe. 

Machiko and Yoshi took us to a conveyer -belt sushi place. Absolutely no English explanations so it was invaluable to have them guide us through. Fun! I ate octopus. Meh. Everything else was delish, though. 

They also took us to two sake breweries but I didn't take pictures. 

I'll close with this very strange product name (read the line at the bottom of the label):

Yup. It's a roll of toilet paper. 

Half-past Monday

We're in Kobe and are proud to have stayed awake until after 8 pm. Getting here was the entirety of today's activity. Plus checking out the hotel "drugstore" from which the attached photo of plastic food. 

Tomorrow, photos of toilets. 

Have a nice day, America--I'm going to sleep!

And we're off!

Fully outstretched leg room, and a banana ( from home). 

No sign of Mr. Friedman. 

D is in First Class while I am in business. 

I like to keep it real. 

See you on the flip side!

The mysterious east

Here we are in. . . 

the United First Class lounge at SFO. 

Where the sushi and whiskey flow free-ly. Of course it is 9:30 in the morning.

Also in this lounge: Thomas Friedman of the NY Times. I wonder how much he knows about laser com. . . and how much more he might know 12 hours from now. 

Enjoy Mad Men tonight all you lucky North Americans!! No spoilers!!

Next stop CA

Oh, it's nice to travel Business Class. 

All the bananas you can eat, in the B class waiting area at Logan. 

Three bags full

Two weeks worth?

We'll see. 

I wonder how I enter a caption. .  .