Land of the Rising Sun

There is something very important that you should know about Japan: the sun rises at approximately 4:45am during the months of May and June. This wouldn't be a problem except that only 50% of our hotels/hostels/inns this trip have had shades. Initially, we thought we were just waking up so early the first week because of jet lag, but it became readily apparent that we were, most definitely, in the land of the rising sun. So, voila, a picture I took one morning at 4:54am after awaking from a sound sleep:

Pretty bright, eh? And my window wasn't even facing east.