Domo Arigato

I was able to trade one of my three day Barbados trips for Japan the second week of the month. This is the primo trip out of my base and I had not been there in a few months so I was looking forward to it. The flight going over was fine, although strangely enough, the majority of the plane was Vietnamese instead of Japanese, as I guess the arrival times well with connections to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). My aisle partner was a gal named Sharman, who was a stitch and had me laughing the whole way over.

We arrive in the afternoon of the next day, and so I quick changed and caught the 2:30 bus into Narita. It was incredibly hot and humid. It hit us as soon as we got off the plane, as the air conditioning in the airport was so/so. I wanted to go to the Ramen Bayashi noodle shop, a favorite for crews laying over, to have some Chili Pepper soup. Catherine, one of my co-workers was also interested in having a late lunch there, so we ate together. It was an enjoyable meal and she was real interesting. She commutes from Seattle, where she lives on a houseboat downtown. Like me, Catherine is a big traveler, so we had swapping stories about the places we had been.

After the meal, I headed to the Yaoko grocery store. It's the smaller of the two grocery stores I have been to, the other being at the mall. I love Japanese grocery stores. Everything is so orderly and neat and they have such unique packaging, but at the same time, nothing is in English so I have no idea what half the stuff is.

A few months back I had noticed some funny looking packaging which was actually baggies to pick up when your dog poops (http://ronno1976.blogspot.com/2009/02/6421-miles-for-best-noodles-ever.html) and so I got a few packages of those for when I walk Gretchen, and well as some seaweed crackers (don't knock it til you try it) and this sports drink called Pocari Sweat (nothing sounds more fun than a drink named after sweat).

We got back to the hotel right as the cafeteria was opening up for dinner, so I went down for a Kirin beer (the fun part is the mechanical draft machine that serves it) and visited with the crew members hanging out and having dinner.

The next morning it was up early for a work out before heading home. All in all a good trip.