Lee driving on the way to Albany International Airport on March 6, 2003!

It was quite early in the morning; Peter fell asleep as we waited for the plane in Albany.

After a quick flight to Newark, we boarded our overseas flight to Tokyo. It was sparsely populated. That's Lee playing games.

There were LCDs in the seat backs. Here is a blurry image showing our progress after a few hours.

That is all snow and ice; we passed over the Arctic on our way to Tokyo.

After 16 or so hours on the plane (about 3 of it on the runway due to weather), we got to Tokyo and Peter picked up his bags.

Gathered in the baggage claim area in Tokyo; left to right: Ana (Carlos' sister), Mr_Cadaver (Mike Yatsevitch), Carlos, Lee.

We were amused by the animal and plant quarantine signs in the airport.

At the airport we boarded the Narita Express, the train to downtown Tokyo. Carlos and Mr_C joked around.

Eric and Ana (covering her face) on the Narita Express.

A blurry Lee enjoying the ride.

Self-portrait number one! Me on the Narita Express.

A dim picture of Tokyo Station. We sort of got there around rush hour (I think).

Thus, it was insanely busy; Lee was amused. Despite being busy though, it was still very organized.

A blurry image of part of Tokyo's advanced ticketing system for its trains and subways. Japan is light-years ahead of the US!

An initial look outside of the Shinagawa train station, near our hotel. I need to remember to stand still when taking pictures.

Our hotel was the Shinagawa Prince; one of its several buildings is visible here.

After checking into our hotel, Lee and Peter enjoy lounging in our ultra-small, ultra-modular room.

After a short stay at the hotel, we went out exploring. We briefly walked around Shinagawa and then took a train to Shibuya (here).

It's like a Japanese Times Square! (Except that Tokyo probably has fifty of these.) The 109 Building is relatively famous.

Also, it was very, very busy. In fact, this intersection in Shibuya is often cited as the single most crowded intersection on Earth.

This picture was a little hard to take in the mayhem of crossing the street.

A blurry view down a "side street" in Shibuya.

Carlos leads the way through a 'shopping district' in Shibuya.

A familiar car (Mini Cooper) trying to get out into traffic.

One of the exits from a shopping center attached to the train station in Shibuya.

The Tokyo subway/train map. We almost exclusively used that greenish loop in the middle, the Yamanote Line, which travels around downtown Tokyo.

After that we went to sleep; in the morning, we were back at Shinagawa station, ready for a day of exploration.

A view down the platform at Shinagawa; hooray for the Yamanote Line.

Our first stop was Akihabara Electric Town, where the exit from the station included this gratuitously long escalator with a horizontal component.

Here we are at the Electric Town exit. It is nice that nearly all transit-related signs in Tokyo are in both Japanese and English.

Akihabara Electric Town, as its name implies, is a clearinghouse district for electronics, games, etc. They also have lots of vertical signs.

A very colorful software store. Unfortunately we arrived about half an hour before anything opened.

Gamers, a very famous anime store.

The front entrance.

A view down the street in Akihabara; that bridge provides a good opportunity...

For this better view down the street!

Everyone looking around on the bridge. We had to carry our bags around since we had nowhere to leave them.

The other direction.

Another small side street in Akihabara.