She Says: WTF Japan?

You know, it figures that we would save up for 2 years for the trip of the lifetime, we get here safely, and the ******* PLAGUE follows us here.
As of this morning 2,384 schools were shut down in Japan to help contain the spread of the H1N1. I suspect more of the Japanese populace will be staying home in light of this. That's fine, just means we'll have a better shot at getting places quickly. I just worry that we'll be going to government-run places and they'll be shut down.
For those of you about to worry that we're close to spending the remainder of our vacation in one of the lovely hospitals, be advised that the majority of the outbreaks are in Kobe and Osaka. We won't be there. The closest we come is a trip on the 21st out of Kansai Airport to Okinawa. Kansai is just outside Osaka. I am guessing we will be scanned again if they let us go at all. Bob and I are wondering if we'll even be able to fly down there given the scare going on.
At one point my father mentioned how we seem to close things. By that I mean we are usually there on the last day something is open. The Hershey Drug Store, the Wanamaker's building in New York, and a host of other places just happened to be some of the places we had a meal before they shut the doors behind us. It even happened to Bob and I at a cafe in Linglestown. So... it would appear I am carrying on the proud tradition of our family by going to Japan before everybody gets sick and dies.
I am, of course, invoking hyperbole when I say this.
We'll keep you posted. For now breakfast downstairs, Meiji-jingu shrine, and possible a trip through Akihabara.

She Says: Day 1 - finale

I have partaken of sushi so tender and fresh it would make you folks back in the States weep. I had the perfect piece of uni sushi, and they did things with eel that I am fairly sure can't even be duplicated elsewhere in this city. It was ~phenomenal~, and I come away from it sated, pleased, with an eel bone in between two of my bicuspids and a weird reaction to something across the left side of my tongue.
Don't worry Mom, it isn't spreading and it's probably due to the grilled shrimp head we ate. This happened last time I had one, too.
That being said, my mind is blown and I'm calling it for today.
New word(s) learned: Itamidome. Meaning "painkiller". We had headaches in the AM and had to go find a shop with tylenol.
Also chizu, meaning "map". We had no idea where we were and the gentleman at the front desk didn't speak English too well.
The growing number of people in masks outside and news that 23 students came back from China infected with H1N1 and a school had to be closed down was top news. They take these things VERY seriously. The number of people in masks is growing.
WTF moment: Walking in to a pachinko parlor and being knocked senseless by the commotion. Between the reak of cigarette smoke, the deafening noise of the clanking pachinko balls, the machines themselves playing music and the roaring ventilation, and the harsh fluorescent lighting on white linoleum, we could only stay in one for a few brief moments. It seems to be the abode of older men who smoke a lot and teenage boys with lots of hair product.
I now present you with the images for today.