I made it!

I’m here! – two planes, one giant pair of pliers, two bags of ice, one courier, three trains, two hotels, several small children and a whole lot of pigeons later. Spent a night in a very nice business hotel in Tokyo, just outside the airport and then yesterday I arrived in Nagoya via the Shinkansen (high-speed train line). Nagoya station, incidentally, is the largest train station in the world.

Nagoya-eki - Nagoya station.

Tomorrow through the 9^th is our pre-orientation orientation in the castle town of Inuyama, after which I meet my 65-year-old host mother and then receive several more days of university orientation, until which time I will be entirely out of touch with society.

But there are many, many pictures to come.

A random street near the eki.

Storefronts lit up at night - and bicycles clustered all the way down the sidewalk.