Jeff and I are on a little excursion this week to visit our colleagues in Tokyo, Japan this week.  We are scheduled for some internal DevCentral meetings on Wednesday (which is Tuesday Seattle time.  Did I mention this day change thing is hard to get used to...  We then have the first DevCentral user group meeting here on Thursday the 22nd and a partner conference on Friday the 23rd and then we are back on a plane on Friday night arriving back in Seattle Friday night at roughly the same time we left.  I'm sure for all you world travelers out there, this whole time-change thing is old hat, but it's hard for a noob like me to get my head round.

So, the trip started out at the Seattle airport at 2:30 on Sunday and off we went.  4 movies, a mystery chicken dinner, and an omelette breakfast later we arrived in Tokyo at around 4:00 Monday afternoon Tokyo time.  We grabbed a limousine bus for a 2 hour ride through the city and made it to the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka which is a very nice hotel with vintage Dick Cavett set decor in the rooms.

Jeff and I took off for a stroll through the neighboring streets looking for dinner and ended up at a grill with hot plates built into the table - not before being stopped by a man in the street showing me his longest finger and smiling and shouting !@#$ You!  I'm not sure what I did to make him so angry, but I'll attribute it to the company I was keeping (just kidding Jeff).  Back to the restaurant...  I think that was the absolute best gyoza I've ever had!  We topped that off with some shrimp, squid, and yakisoba.  I wish I could pronounce the restaurant name to recommend it - it was AWESOME! 

On the way back to the hotel we stopped by a Pachinko Gaming facility.  I was interested in giving it a try and Jeff was game as well.  There were these Star Trek type doors that slid open when you waved your hand in front of them - pretty cool.  Little did I know that they were sound-proof since as soon as the doors opened I was completely in sensory overload.  Imagine putting your head inside a huge liberty bell lined with speakers blasting electronic music at way beyond the capacity of a human ear, all the while someone has a sledge hammer banging on the bell and machines are dinging and chiming at a blistering speed - and then times that by 100.  Oh, did I mention that the room was a chain-smokers dream come true.  I joked with Jeff that I probably would only make 5 minutes in there.  I was wrong!  I made it about 15 seconds before we headed out the door.  I guess I'm a light-weight when it comes to the Pachinko gaming circuit. 

We headed back to the Hotel for one last drink at the "Top of Akasaka" cocktail lounge.  Great Kirin beer and some interesting Carpenters live piano music was a great way finish to the night.

Tuesday is off to visit F5's office and meet with some folks and try to get a little work done before doing some sightseeing.  Unfortunately for us, we brought a typhoon with us so the sightseeing may have to be trimmed down a bit.  Why didn't anyone tell me to bring and umbrella!  Oh well, next time I'll know.