First day at work, and I'm tired as hell. Had a long, long day yesterday in Tokyo yesterday, and didn't get to my hotel in Shin Yokohama until midnight.

Yesterday, my morning started at 7:30am. BC and I went to the Tsukiji Market, where they bring in the catch of the day and have the freshest sashimi in Japan. But, we found out when we got there at 8:30am that the market isn't opened on Sundays. Next was a visit to the Imperial Palace grounds, where we met up with CY, my ex-coworker in Taiwan. With limited time, we walked around the Imperial Palace and I.P. East Garden until 11:30am. BC left to meet with his realtor. CY and I went to Odaiba.

Odaiba is a full day's activity, if one could afford the time. We spent roughly 9 - 9.5 hours there, and still missed a few places. Shopping, mostly. Features?

• A man-made beach
  
• Rainbow Bridge: A suspension bridge with some lights - nothing special
  
• A replica of the Statue of Liberty, but on a much smaller scale
  
• Aqua City mall: lots of sales going on now, but I wasn't looking for anything
  
• Decks Tokyo Beach mall
  
• Fort Venus mall: where the interior is modeled to be like a street in Italy, complete with blue sky - really nice
  
• A huge ferris wheel: similar to one in Neihu, Taipei
  
• MegaWeb, Toyota's showroom building where you can test drive almost all the cars they have. Unfortunately, all cars were booked, and so we paid about $2cad each to sit in an electric car that drove itself for 7 mins. It was neat.

Rushed back to BC's in Roppongi at 10:30pm, packed, and left at 11pm. An hour later, I arrived at my hotel in Shin Yokohama. My room, on the 19th floor, is the 2nd smallest hotel room I've ever stayed in (behind one in Hong Kong that I paid for myself). It's got a single bed, a small desk with TV, a long but thin couch, a washroom, and that's about it. I found that the air in Japan is fairly dry compared to Taiwan, and my skin itches because of it. But through my last 2 business trips, it seems I can't rely on hotel rooms to have lotion. But I could really use some now.

Slept at almost 2am, up at 7:30am, and at work since 8:30am. I think I need this evening to unwind and relax a bit. But I doubt that'll happen tonight. At least I can try to get to work later tomorrow.

More Impressions/Notes:

Toyota has so many cars here that each brand (Corolla, Blade, Crown, etc.) have their own emblem on the front, with the Toyota logo on the back of the car. For example, the Corolla series has 4 or 5 different makes.

People don't eat while they walk, or talk on cell phones in the subways. It's just not done here.

I pointed out to BC some people who bought ice cream cones while out in 5 - 10 deg C weather. Which I thought was kind of crazy. And then a few hours later, CY and I had some DAMN good ice cream. Green tea ice cream so intense it was like we were chewing the tea leaves.