Hello and welcome to a story you did not expect to read. ^_^  The day we left for Toyko a major typhoon hit, so the first day of the tour was spent stranded in Narita. The trains were not running because there had been damage to the tracks. We still have no idea why the buses were not running.  Narita closes down at 10PM, did you know that? We were about 20 people from the front of the line, when they closed the bus counter. The airport handed out sleeping bags and crackers. Dinner was some senbei and a packet of dried vegetable chips which were legitimately tasty, so there was that.  ^_^

When they distributed the sleeping bags, we kind of all knew it was time to accept we were stuck. I was actually asleep on the floor when I was woken up by my wife – a new bus had been chartered that would take us to Tokyo Station. We took it and grabbed cabs to the hotel, so we finally got to sleep at about 4 AM. 

Nonetheless, there we all were, the next morning, ready to go!

First stop, we hit up the Yayoi-Yumeji Museum for a historical first step, to discuss women’s lives in Japan a century ago. The current exhibit was about kimono and fashion in the early 20th century. It was magnificent. (I have a few pics, I’ll add in when I have a chance!) There was a corner on author Yoshiya Nobuko and they even had a kimono of hers! The whole thing was a great start to the trip.

Two of our party went to the Swallowtail butler cafe on Otome Road. The verdict was that the food is excellent and the experience is really unique. They won’t let you do anything for yourself, in a kind of over-fastidious approach to service. ^_^

While they did that, the rest of us went to Yamashiroya for shopping. We crashed for a few and then went to dinner with James Welker, who was entertaining and charming as always. 

Day two is going to be a lot of shopping, with Harajuku and Shibuya on the plate. Report later!