Whoooo! Japan!!

Okay, here we go!  I am officially in Tokyo!!!
I am on the Shinkansen as we speak.  I can't connect to the internet though,  so I'm just typing this on the note thing on my Mom's iPad.  I'm hoping it will let me copy and paste it onto my blog once I have Internet.  
It's strange typing on an iPad, but I'm getting used to it.  It would be a major pain if it didn't capitalize and add apostrophes for me.  
so far, the journey has gone amazingly smoothly.  I made it to both of my planes, and I got to watch Les Miserables after the connection flight left from Canada.   Thats one way to get all emotional on the plane.  Heh.  
I arrived in Tokyo and got my train pass, and then hopped on a train to Shinjuku.  Despite an amazing lack of sleep, I was glued to the window, taking in everything about my first views of Japan.  
Although I'm not sure I could explain how it's different from America, I could definitely feel it.  
At first, it was mainly rice fields, bamboo, and big vine covered trees.  It was all so beautiful and green.  Then we started passing some buildings and I started to notice differences in the architecture.  A lot of it was modern, but a lot of it had Japanese twists.  Especially the rooftops.  
I was afraid I'd have trouble finding my hotel because my map sucked.  But the map in the station meant that I had no trouble at all.  Which is awesome because the first day here was making me a bit nervous.  
It's very strange being in a city where no one looks anything like you.  Heheh.  I've been to places like this before.  Little places, like the Asian fair.  But never on this scale.  Even In China, I was surrounded by my classmates the entire time.   So now I am completely immersed in a different country and different culture.  All alone.  Let's see how it goes from here on!   Hopefully getting from here to there will continuei to be as simple as it has been.  
I finally went to bed after 24 hours with no sleep (except for briefly passing out on the plane. ) 
I woke up about 4:30 am and checked out a couple hours later. 
Japanese transportation really is amazing.  We should really try to copy them more.  Their trains are awesome and their stations are easy to find your way around in.  Plus they make it very easy for us poor saps who can't read Japanese and can only speak a little of it.  
The train from Shinjuku to Tokyo was for women only? That's a new one for me. I got to the Tokyo station way early,but that meant that I was able to slip on an earlier Shinkansen.  So, here I am, zooming south on one of the fastest trains in the world, headed for Kyoto.  Whoo!

Aaand I'm in Kyoto now! And once again, I'm exhausted. Stupid jet lag. Hopefully it will go away soon.
Got a bit stuck tryin to get from the Kyoto station to my hotel, but I figured it out. And I spent the rest of the day just walking around downtown. And my feet are ready to fall off. ,
I really should try to speak more Japanese while I'm here. I'm afraid I'll accidentally say something morning, I guess.
Gonna meet Ellen day after tomorrow! I haven't seen her in ages!