I love Tokyo

I've only been here a couple of days and I can already tell you that Tokyo is one of the best cities I've ever visited. Where to start?

First off the hotel we stayed in the past couple of days was without a doubt the best hotel I've ever stayed in. And I've stayed in a lot of really nice hotel. The Grand Hyatt is simply awesome. Everything from the ambiance and wonderful breakfast to the heated toilet seat and remote control blackout curtains was exquisite. It had every modern amenity including remote control lights, an enormous bathroom with a rainfall shower head, two flat-screen televisions with a Bose audio system, DVD player (and check this out, DVDs are regional so DVDs from the US won't play on a Japanese DVD player, but after calling the front desk they replaced my DVD player with one from the US), and a ridiculously comfortable bed.

Tuesday night I went to a jazz club with our trumpet player (Louie) who has many friends in Japan. The musicians we saw were really great, there was a singer, guitarist, and a guy doing human beat-box. Unusual, but really good. It was nice to be in a club that locals hang in ... We definitely were the only foreigners there. It was a lot of fun.

Yesterday we had two performances for Cartier. They were having some sort of conference that we played for. I was thinking about running off with a tennis bracelet for Carrie but logic got the best of me. Afterwards our hosts from the Blue Note took us to a great Japanese restaurants that looked a lot like the restaurant from the end of Kill Bill. It was traditional Japanese, we had to take our shoes off, no forks, etc. The food was great as was the Saki. I've discovered a great Japanese liquor that I like called Shochu, good stuff. Somehow I got overserved last night ... How did that happen?

So we changed hotels today, this new hotel is very nice as well. We don't have anything to do for a couple of days, I plan on soaking up as much of Tokyo as I can.