After an epic 19 hour journey around half of the world, Craig and I arrived at Narita Airport, Tokyo. And what a journey it was. After an emergency landing in Dubai and roasted tuna for breakfast we were glad to have reached our final destination...after two hours of apartment hunting, where I met two of the three other people I know in Japan, Rachel and Lina. Having lived with and had quite an adventure with since then, it is safe to say to the SaltireFoundation team that you have picked a great bunch.

We are currently GMT +8 hrs here (I say currently because of British summer time) and as a result it took quite some time to recover from jetlag...jetlag and stupidity. For us, the British GP was on at 11pm and the World Cup final happened at 4 am with work at 9 am the next day but you can't blame us! We were quite relieved to hear most of our colleagues had indeed stayed up all night to watch it as well. And so our first week has been all about getting to know the team and building on a basic understanding of the logistics industry which I am glad to say has really become of great interest to me! My boss, Takeda-san, has allocated a number of mini projects to keep me busy for the time being with my own big project due to commence in week 5 of my internship. I am currently doing a fair bit of translating of documents (thanks to freetranslation.com), analyzing financial spreadsheets and exchanging business cards, like mad! I am really pleased I took the time to make some up before I left for Japan as they have really impressed all of the recipients so far. As my fellow interns have said in their blogs, we can't get over just how nice the Japanese people are being to us, both in and out of work. Today I paid for my second lunch at work - every other day someone has insisted on taking us out and paying! We have been treated to:

Udon noodle soup - where it is considered rude to not make as much noise as possible.

Italian with a hint of Japanese - officially the smallest restaurant in Japan where your knees touch the bar and your back is against the door. Also note, this is the only time I have used western style cutlery since living in Tokyo.

Sashimi - our Global Scot Donald McGarva, President of DHL Supply Chain Japan, President of DHL Asia Pacific and our bosses made me eat raw chicken. Turns out it is my favorite form of chicken, but please do not try it at home! As well as the chicken I ate sea snail, octopus, raw fish & jelly fish. Now for someone who doesn't eat tomatoes or mushrooms back at home I am rather impressed with myself!

To be honest I could go on all day and night about the food here - it is simply the tastiest food I have ever eaten. So work is going well, and so is the getting to know Tokyo side of things. I have made a number of Japanese friends thanks to our mentor Zach for inviting us to every party he hears about - We were at the British embassy on Saturday night for a BBQ, going out for dinner on Thursday to a nice restaurant (courtesy of a man called Steven), and I heard something about a boat party in Tokyo Bay - all I know is I'm in!

I do have one small complaint as such, that is that I want to get a pair of trainers so I can go for a run every other day round a local park, however, the largest shoe size I have seen here is a UK 9. You should see their faces when I ask for a size JP 265! Ergonomic difficulties aside when it comes to food shopping it can take us a good 45mins to pick something for dinner due to the language on the packaging, and most importantly, the fear of what is inside. Last week I craved cereal and so chose the Japanese equivalent of Frosties. I don't know of anyone that does this on a regular basis but to anyone who has been caught out by Japanese labeling... Frosties with banana milk...what do you think? I can't decide.

My apartment

It is situated 10mins from work, 5mins from the station and 20mins from the heart of Tokyo making it absolutely ideal. It is really tiny but this just makes it really easy to live in. My toilet seat is heated, the wet room dries my clothes, acts as a sauna, a chiller and bath & shower all at once and has the best air-con ever. So I couldn't be happier where I am just now!

Things to look forward to:

Donald, our Global Scot, has mentioned the possibility of meeting his family and staying at his place at the foot of Mt. Fuji where we could hike up the volcano at night (in some trendy bright yellow and red DHL gear) to camp at the top and watch the sun rise over the Japanese country side the following morning.

Trips to ancient Japanese towns

Getting up as stupido'clock to witness the famous fish market in Tokyo

More karaoke...and loads more!

For me the last week has gone in quite slowly which is great. I recon it is because the four of us make sure we get out and explore the place as much possible, every day of the week. I am simply having the time of my life here and I can't wait to hear everyone's stories when we meet again!

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