First message from Japan!

Hey everyone! Here's my first update from Japan. The subject line says Greetings from Tokyo, if you were wondering. Excuse any spelling mistakes and missing punctuation, it's an annoying keyboard. The space bar is about 2 cm wide and next to it is a button that makes me type in Japanese letters so whenever I accidentally press it, I have to press another button and delete what I wrote.

Anyway,update so far. We arrived last Saturday at around 11am local time. The flight was 10 hours, not 12; I had calculated it wrong. XD We were pretty tired. On the plane we did have extra leg room (that we had to pay extra for, more about that later) but I was right below an airconditoner so I was freezing for the entire trip. >< I got 2 blankets which I ended up pulling all the way up over my head so I wouldn't feel it. I did get to see Avatar; hadn't seen it before, it's very nice! So we arrived at Narita airport in Tokyo and it took us almost 3 hours to get from there to the hostel. Meanwhile, my IBS (Irritable　Bowel Syndrome) had started acting up, so Koosie was not a happy camper. >< The hostel room was the tiniest I have ever seen. It had a double bed (the next hostel, where I am now, has single beds the same size as that hostel's 'double beds') but the AC worked really well. It was in Jimbocho, the booksellers district, and there was some sort of festival going on for the manga One Piece. So they had a sort of treasure hunt about the manga and there were stands displaying original drawings and stuff all over the street. Oh; the heat and humidity are indescribable. If you've ever been to Burgers Bush (or any other zoo that has a replica of the tropical rainforest) in the middle of summer, you know how it feels. Coincidentally, it smells the same as well; a very humid, planty smell. Not unpleasant. The smell, I mean. The heat is very unpleasant. Luckily you canwalk around here fanning yourself and people won’t look at you crazy; they all do it. They also all carry handkerchiefs with which to wipe the sweat off their faces. As I thought before; I am much taller than 90% of the Japanese here, which is useful when looking for something in a busy street (you can see over everyone) but I do get gawked at by schoolkids (and some really cool goths, I was like: yay, they're impressed by me!). So on Saturday night I went to sleep at 9 pm and I was sleeping soundly until 11, when some #%&$ Americans (no offense to the Americans I'm sending this to, but you know you can be loud) started talking really loudly outside our door and in their room which was next to ours. Even after they had stopped, I still couldn't sleep and I was　awake until about 6am. >< That was really the worst night of my life; IBS, heart racing, homesick, everything. >< The next day, Sunday, we went out at around 1:30 pm to meet up with Tomoki, a friend who lives here in Tokyo. We met him at Harajuku station and we walked down Takeshita Doori, the main street for Harajuku gothic/lolita fashion. It was really crowded and really hot, so at first I was like: Meh, I can't handle this. >< After a cup of tea it went a bit better, so we walked down the street. It reminded me so much of Camden Lock Market in London. We went into the main store for Goth/Loli fashion. I swear, I wanted to buy everything there! But it was all quite pricey, even though there was a sale on, and the clothes were all made for Japanese sized people... Eddie bought a belt thatwas priced down from 1999 yen for 300 yen!! That's less than 3 euros, for whoever is wondering. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there, I would have loved to!! We also went to a 100 yen store; everything costs 100 or 200 yen. I got a gorgeous bento there for 200 yen!! Marlies; I stocked up on bento stuff for you as well! It's unbelievable how cheap all that stuff was, compared to buying it online. Got some souvenirs for other people as well and some stuff for myself. Then we went to Meiji shrine; which is on the other side of Harajuku station. That was just amazing. It's got big paths leading up to it through a forest, the noise of the cicadas was incredibly loud, I videoed it so I can let you guys hear when I get back. The paths all had big torii gates at their starts. We learnt how to do the hand cleaning ritual and I put a prayer for good health for myself and safety for my family, with some money, in a box for prayers. Wrote it all in kanji! (Tomoki showed me how; I had never seen those kanji before!) Wehn we got to the actual shrine, it was already getting dark (sun goes down at 7 here) and the shrine was closed, that was too bad, but it was nice walking through that peaceful forest. We got out of the park and it was much hotter outside, back in the city. We got some food at a supermarket (they microwaved it for us) and then we went back to the hotel. this morning (Monday) we had to check out at 11, which we did. I was feeling fine earlier, so I had the rice I had left over from the night before, but as we were walking towards the imperial palace my IBS flared up again, much worse than before (maybe you cannot keep cooked rice overnight after all?) and we had to stay there until 2, until I felt better. I'm pretty sure it's jet lag, because I always get it when I get up early, and my body still thinks it's 7 hours earlier. So yeah, we were contemplating maybe going home sooner (Eddie has been feeling bad as well) but it would be such a waste of money and we wouldn't get to see the nice things outside Tokyo. We can't take day trips as I can't reallyfunction before 2 pm yet apparently. But hopefully by Friday, when we move to Osaka, it will be better. Today we went to Ikebukuro. Here we have a hostel with a much larger room, bunk beds and it's en suite! Ikebukuro is a district with lots of restaurants and some shops, which I saw when I walked around for a while earlier (I bought a gorgeous yukata here; like a kimono only different proportions) for less than 30 euros. However; no postcards to be found anywhere! not even in the post office or the bookshop. So you'll all have to wait for your cards a bit longer. So I'd better end it now, this is costing me lots of money. I'm posting this on my blog as well. Please keep your fingers crossed Eddie and I feel better soon, because this is no way to travel; feeling sick all the time. >< I came here to see all these nice things and I feel like I'm reallymissing out so far.