We landed at Narita airport Tokyo on the 31st January 2005, in the morning, after a long but not bearable flight. I had been well fed, been offered drinks almost continuously and had managed to do a little work as well as taking in 3 movies; short reviews : Dukes of Hazzard - Enjoyable Rubbish; Boy and Elephant story in Japanese (can't remember title) - very good, quite sad; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - great but suffered badly from the screen size (and being edited for small screen).

We made our way to our hotel near Akihabara (Electronic City) and were installed by 1pm. A long nap later, I made my way on my own (a bit scary - most signs are in one or more of the 3 written Japanese languages - and all but impossible had I not had an English tube map) to Nippori where I met up with the party - Owen (my brother), Mayu (his Fiance), Sarah (his friend), Haydn (my dad), Fran (his partner), Ann (my mum) and Howard (her partner). We headed to Asakusa and wandered along an entertaining tourist trap before sitting down to a meal at a nice Japanese restaurant. I couldn't tell you what we had, except that it was delicious, my chopstick skills held up and it was surprisingly cheap! Now I have heard that Japan is expensive and I guess like anywhere it can be, and I'm told that rent in Tokyo is astronomical, but even in England I think you find it hard to find somewhere that would do a sit down meal for 8 for £70 including drinks!

After that, I took myself back to the hotel to bed. Exhausted - flight now taking it's toll.