We arrived at the airport on time and we went directly to the desk to buy an "airport limo combo" a.k.a.-  bus ticket +1-day metro pass. The service rep promptly gave me a ticket for the next bus leaving in .... oh no... 6 minutes!!! I left mom by a pole with the bags and ran frantically downstairs in search of a place to rent a cell phone. I found 3 options easily enough and went with the cheapest at first glance at Y250 per day from Softbank. I quickly picked out a phone and filled out all of the paperwork, BUT was told I needed my passport, so.... I ran back upstairs to grab my passport out of my bag where mom was and then ran back downstairs to the Softbank desk. Two minutes left...tick, tock, tick, tock. The rep was waiting on the phone for the amex rep to approve the transaction. AIYA!! 30 seconds left. Run back upstairs, calmly grab mom (uh huh).. and rush outside to station 6! Negative 17 seconds left. So,.... if you have been to Japan before, you know how this story ends. If not, well, there was a bus waiting at station #6, but it was not our bus, because everything leaves promptly ON TIME in Japan. (so, much like our pre-trip breakfast venture I came full circle ending at the starting line, back at the airport limo combo desk) after a rapid attempt to defy all odds against a ticking clock). I very hesitantly asked if I could change our tickets to a later bus, Whew! YES I CAN!

After a long and windy bus ride ( I don't think we will take a bus again), we arrive at the Grand Prince Hotel. I call Mai on my new rental cell phone and she comes to meet us from work and bring us to our hotel. Mai tells us our apt is about a 15min. walk from the hotel and asks mom if she wants to take a taxi. Mom says no. Everyone was worried about mom being able to walk around Tokyo as there is alot of walking to be done, but I do not like to walk and will give up much more quickly than mom. Anyway, we walk and walk and walk and walk and then we are there. We went to dinner at a local place Mai had researched... forgot to take pictures (I will get better). It was a small place, probably could hold 15 people max. There was a very happy, very loud table of 4 women next to us and a couple of smokers on the other side. (hmm.. they still allow smoking in restaurants in Tokyo. That was tough.) Anyway, we ate  mixed veggies, avocado tempura (really good), rolls wrapped in shiso (even better), mushrooms, 30 min tofu (GREAT) and several other small dishes. 

Mai walked us back home and that completed our first day in Tokyo.