I arrived in Tokyo this afternoon and found it's surprisingly easy to stay awake when you're chasing the sun across the international date line. While in line for the security check at SFO, I met three traveling women who took one look at my tear-stained cheeks and immediately began to do their best to reassure me I am not out of my mind. It feels right being here, but also so wrong being away from the life I loved so much at home. Damn all my friends and loved ones for making me so happy.

In search of cheap accomodations in Tokyo (of which there are few), I found a place called Suzuki Ryokan for about $40 a night in Nippori, one of Tokyo's less central and thereby less-touristy neighborhoods. OK, so I didn't actually find it myself, since the address numbering system in Tokyo is utterly mindboggling, but a lovely middle-aged woman who spoke no English walked me through a series of small winding streets and a cemetary (!) to arrive at what turned out to be an absolutely adorable, could it *be* any more Japanese, guesthouse. I took off my shoes and gasped with delight when I saw my room. I can't wait to sleep tonight.

(Me at the cemetary near Suzuki Ryokan in Nippori, where I stayed the first two nights)

I left in search of food (at one of those places that has plastic models of their food in the window so I could just point and smile), only to find myself on a three-hour meander through Nippori's tiny alleys. Past "The Boozy Enclave" bar and the "Come on my House" restaurant, past Pachinko Parlors and bus-waiting salarymen playing with advanced functionality on their top-of-the-line cell phones, I found myself darkening the door of "Kura," an adorably quaint restaurant with a posted menu of which I could not make out a word. With the waitress's limited English, I ordered an incredibly tasty fish and rice dish for about $6 and chatted with her throughout the meal. She said she was bored of Tokyo because she always met the same people over and over. I guess that's what happens when you work at your mom's restaurant in an untouristy neighborhood in what could possibly be the most homogenous country in the world. I seriously have not seen another person of any nationality other than Japanese since I left the airport.

With a budget of $100 a day in Japan, I am not sure how long I will last before departing for warmer and cheaper locales. In the meantime, this place is really freakin' cool.