I actually have a book on my shelf called Red China Blues which is by a Chinese-Canadian journalist who got caught up in Mao mania when she was visiting China as a young woman and ended up denouncing people (and spending time in a work camp herself.) It was a long road back.

I just want happy thoughts like Hec and Matilda in Japan .

That I can provide. I'm glad I'm far from the shitshow for now.

Matilda and I made it safely to Tokyo. Flight was very long, but for the first time in living memory we were on a flight that wasn't completely booked out. In fact, I was flashing back to memories of flying home from college in Ohio, when there were entire rows unoccupied and people immediately pounced on them and stretched out to sleep.

Japan Airlines is famous for the quality of their Economy Service and they were fully staffed and then some. Also true at the gate which made a huge difference in getting everyone aboard quickly.

Had two meals on a 12 hour flight which left Matilda hungry but we could always grab more snacks. Meals were good, but still airplane food. Still, in the Japanese style there were a comically large amount of little tiny courses that overflowed the tiny tray.

Anyway...twelve hours is a long time on a plane. I watched two movies (The Wild Robot and Guardians of the Galaxy 3, which I'd never seen. Both good!)

Got through Customs very quickly though we hadn't filled out all our forms ahead of time. But it was basically a card, and another single sheet.

Then - though Matilda was reluctant to do so - I asked the Information desk where to find our ESim vendor for our phones, and found them. Got our codes for the phones to be activated.

Matilda was annoyed that I rushed us out to the Taxi line and was wondering why she couldn't just call an Uber.

Reason: the activation process had lots of steps and the WiFi at the Airport was hinky.

But the taxi line was right there and it moved very fast and we found a nice young cabbie with a mod scenester haircut who whisked us through Tokyo directly to our rawther nice hotel in downtown Shinjuku (which seems like the Mid-Town Manhattan of Tokyo): [link]

Beds are gloriously comfy, bathroom is large with separate shower and deep tub, and the requisite fancy toilet with bidet. All a welcome relief to decompress after the flight.

Though Matilda had been craving ramen all the way in, the hotel's Japanese restaurant was closed so we had a prix fixe meal at the French restaurant.

Dinner came with an amuse bouche (some tasty mixture of tuna and potatoes), soup (burdock), appetizer (mine was a fantastic thinly slice roast beef with onion confit), fish course (Matilda had grilled lobster tail in an herb sauce, I had duck in a wine reduction), and dessert (chocolate mousse and cassis sorbet).

All the portions were small and beautifully plated and our waiter was sweet and solicitous.

We both conked out about 9:30 local time so I was hoping I wouldn't have any jet lag, but I woke up at 2:30 with my body convinced it should've been morning. I took a long, hot bath that did not disturb Matilda's deep sleep.

We're waiting for room service to arrive because breakfast is included free every morning of out stay including at the fancy French restaurant or the buffet or the Japanese restaurant or (as we're doing Room Service). Sweet!

Today we're just going to explore Shinjuku, since we're walking distance to the Emperor's Palace and gardens. We'll get Matilda her ramen and see if we can find a massage for her.

Tomorrow we'll branch out further hitting nearby Shibuya, and eventually the Ghibli Museum (and surrounding area which is supposed to be rife with thrift shops). We're going to see if we can get tix to one of the teamLabs environments: [link]

We're in Tokyo until the 28th, which feels about right for the first dip of a toe.

Already fabulous!

That all sounds so good and is cheering me up immensely

Fabulous! The teamLab spaces look amazing. Enjoy!