Yokoso~

Tsuita! Wilma and I arrived without a hitch and were able to meet up before heading to our hotel in Narita. We had planned on meeting at one of the "meeting points" in terminal 1, but ended up seeing each other as we were coming out of customs. The cash exchange place was right next to the meeting point so we ended up heading that way anyway to exchange currency. I found out that traveler's checks got better rates (2 yen per dollar more) than American dollars (which is unfortunate since I brought cash for now). I also noted that currency exchange place (and by association I'm assuming post offices) gave 118/dollar vs. 113/dollar that our hotel was offering, so it seems traveler's checks are best for exchanging money, with cash exchange at currency exchange places preferred over hotels. I'm not sure what kind of rates I'll get using an ATM card, but I'll be sure to note it in the future.

The first night we walked around a little bit, but not too much as we're not far from the airport and so most of the surrounding areas are "inaka." We did hit up the local mini-stop for some tasty onigiri (rice balls) and amai pan (sweet bread), but other than that and the local Royal Host, there wasn't anything terribly interesting to see on our walk. From our window, we can see a hotel that is Christmas-themed.... red and green Christmas lights, big Santa statue and all.... that was picture-worthy in our minds, so Wilma brought out the diji-cam.

Wilma's uncle is going to pick us up in a bit and take us to the train station so we can make our way to Ishikawa. We're hoping there will be a free meal in between the commute, but if not, we'll stop by one of the kiosks at the train station (read: I can't wait to get my hands on some more conbini onigiri). I came with two suitcases, so I used the takkyubin to send my smaller suitcase so I wouldn't have as much to carry. It came out to about $15, which is well worth the convenience of not having to drag it around the usually elevator-lacking train stations. Here's to getting to Ishikawa in one piece~ Ciao!