Hello everyone!!! I am in Nagoya Japan right now and all is going well. I have arrived safely and am starting my week here. The flights were fine except for the landings. I couldn’t believe how much a Boeing 777 could float around the landing into Tokyo. I have admit it was one of the first times I’ve ever been nervous on a landing. The landing in Nagoya wasn’t exactly sane either, it took two tries to get that one. But once I was on the ground in both places all was good and nice and easy. I have to say this for the Japanese, their trains are SUPER smooth. I had to take a train from the Nagoya airport to the station closer to my hotel and I was amazed at how smooth and quiet the train was.

Any way, I arrive here in Nagoya at about 19:00 and settled in. By 20:30 I was joining my new boss and a bunch of people at a restaurant called Amatoro and it was nice. It was kind of a cross between Korean, Chinese and American. Yeah I know weird combination but they had a barbecue in the table, were serving pot stickers and also pizza. It was good. After that we went to a bar here that is owned by a Canadian and I have to say I haven’t been in that tightly of a packed bar in a long long time. It was nice to be around people at midnight and I think I’m going to like it here.

Yesterday, New Year’s day, I was pretty happy that I managed to sleep into about 8:30 and finally got out of bed around 9:00. I went for a walk around a little and found the convenient store, found a barber and just started exploring the neighborhood a little. I even managed to find a Denny’s so that is where I”m going to breakfast today. Speaking of today, Jet Lag has finally caught up with me. I guess yesterday was just a fluke sleeping experience from the lack of sleep on the flight because this morning at 4:30am I was wide awake I think I should be able to kick it in a day or two but of course the jet lag when I get back to North America is going to be hell I’m sure.

I was supposed to call some friends on New Years eve but I have to say I’m sorry I didn’t even try. When I got the the Nagoya airport I was supposed to go rent a cell phone for the time I was going to be here, yeah you can do that here in Japan, but I figured I’d check out the train schedule when I landed first and unfortunately, for the sake of getting a phone, one left in like 10 minutes so I boarded the train instead of renting a phone. I might pick up one up if stores open up today or tomorrow or maybe I’ll just make a trip out to the airport again and pick up a rental but I’m not sure yet.

So what this means is that you can’t call me just yet. If there is an emergency you can try the Hotel at +81 52-203-8565. Or if the world is coming to an end or someone is in the Hospital you can call my boss’ cell phone @ +81 80 1387 9974. If you call this one it truly had better be an emergency and I hope that you all have consulted the World Time Clock before calling.

I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful new year. I have to run now because I’m running on battery power at the moment due to a plug adapter issue I haven’t solved yet.

ALL MY BEST TO EVERYONE IN 2008