We arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and after clearing immigration and customs, took a train to Tokyo Station.  It was late when we arrived, and yet the station was bustling with well dressed people.  In all the places we visited, many women wore long dresses or skirts.

At the airport, there were uniformed officers directing the traffic of people through immigration and customs, and everywhere else in the cities of Japan there are uniformed officers stationed at office building driveways and at construction sites where vehicles go in and out to safely guide people and traffic.

Tokyo and all the other places we visited were clean and orderly.  I saw no trash cans in the cities, and yet, there was no trash.  People simply took their trash with them.

Departing Tokyo Station, Peter and I, as is our custom when it is crowded, walked on the right side of the sidewalk, but soon discovered that people tend walk on the left side (just as the cars drive on the left side of the road).  There are even yellow tile lines in the sidewalk to demark the dividing line of the human traffic to promote the orderly flow of people.

After checking in to the hotel we roamed the alleyways around Tokyo Station and discovered many bars filled with black suited salarymen drinking and smoking cigarettes.  While smoking outside is not allowed – there are enclosed smoking areas in various parts of the city – some restaurants and bars allow smoking.

We ate dinner at a noodle shop near our hotel. When we entered, the counterman took us back outside to show us how to use the machine outside the door to order and pay for our meal, after which we brought in our ticket to give to him and we sat down to wait for our food. There were several solitary women eating alone at the counter.  We chanced upon a Pachinko parlor on our walk back to the hotel for the night.

Our next destination was Osaka. That visit is documented at Part 2 of this Travelogue.

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