Ok, I’m up. I woke up every 2.5 hours, but overall slept very well. My plan on the flight yesterday was to stay up until 6am "Japan Time" and then go to sleep at 9:30pm or so "Japan Time" when I arrived. It seems to have regulated my sleep pretty well, so we’ll see.
I went to get coffee this morning. Coffee shops and breakfast places don’t open early here. Seriously – at 6am, Starbucks wasn’t open. So I bought a can of coffee. It came with a cool little toy sports car. Total cost – 120 Yen. I only had a 10,000 Yen bill because I left all my change in the room. Whoops! In the States I would have been shot, but here they happily gave me change. I donated about 500 Yen worth of change to a charity, or at least I think that’s what I was putting my money into. (Note for readers: $1 U.S. = ~103 Yen).
My trek to the AM/PM store with coffee was beautiful. I walked through a park alongside an ancient Buddhist temple.
After retrieving my coffee, I walked through the temple’s grounds, stunned by what I saw. I had never been so close to what I had seen in Kung Fu movies. I picked up a couple of stones for my Mom, who collects rocks from different areas in the world, and went on my way. Passing by locals, I would greet with "Ohayo Gozaimaste!," which means "Honorable Good Morning!"
On my walk back I noticed hemp plants, or at least what looked like hemp plants, grow everywhere here. I don’t smoke the stuff, but I wonder if they have problems with tourists picking them.
Ok, Time for breakfast!
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