Very, very, very long plane ride. Followed by what I would describe as the cake walk of customs, immigration, baggage claim, exchanging JR Passes and hopping on a "limo" bus that eventually took us straight to the Prince Park Tower in Shiba inside Tokyo. On 26 hours of being awake, with less then an hour of sleep somewhere in middle of those hours, my brain was no longer functioning properly. Thankfully a friend I have known over the internet for sometime was in the lobby of our hotel, waiting to help us. She is pretty fluent in Japanese and immediately began a conversation with the concierge regarding a place to eat dinner, while we went through the process of getting checked in and helped up to our room. The room was huge in comparison to what I had expected in Japan, I would say the size of a nice hotel in the States. We had a balcony with awesome city view and large bathroom with jetted tub. While looking out at Tokyo Tower for the few brief moments we had before dinner it started to hit me that we were in fact in Japan and that I had finally reached a goal I set out so many years back. All too soon, we headed back down to the lobby, Sirena was prepared and promptly walked us over to a nearby (maybe 3 blocks away?) restuarant. It was very traditional, with the separated Japanese style rooms complete with drunk (I can only assume) businessmen in a nearby room. The meal turned out to be a good one, I kept it small by just ordered some assorted tempura, by this time I was more tired then hungry. We were promptly greated by some "normal" Japanese things such as fish guts as an appetizer (all but one of us were not daring enough to try them and the look on the daring ones face while trying it was priceless) and a cart full of "fresh" whole fish, eyes included, that we could pick out to eat (this time none of us daring enough to try). The meal turned out cheaper the anticipated, ranging around ¥1,000 a plate. With Matt ordering the Unagi meal, his was a bit more at around ¥1,500. 
After the meal, it was back to the Prince Park Hotel to figure out how to get to Tokyo Station the next morning in order to catch our 7:03 a.m. Shinkansen headed for Kyoto. After a lengthy conversation Sirena had with the concierge, we decided to just foot the bill for two taxi's, for which we could just call down to the lobby for the next morning (we had been warned taxi's are very expensive in Japan, so most of us were not sure of the decision at the time). We parted ways with everyone around 9 p.m. and headed back up to our room for the night in order to prepare for the early morning (meeting once again in the lobby around 6 a.m.). The view from our room was splendid with Tokyo Tower as the Point of Interest in the night skyline. Our balcony made for some great pictures. The large bathroom with jetted tub made the long trip worth it already.
1st things of the day:
- Vending machine use - Narita Airport (Tropicana Strawberry/Melon juice)
- Yen Purchase - On the airplane (Onigiri and Miso soup)
- Restaurant meal - Unknown traditional place near Roppongi
Prices:
- Dining: ¥2,000 per person including drinks
- Vending: ¥120 to ¥150 per can
- Hotel: $200 through Expedia.com
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