Konichiwa

After an absence of several month (I think it was November of 2010) I finally was brave enough to venture back to Japan.  I have been avoiding it since the earthquake and tsunami in March (who am I kidding, I am not senior enough to even smell the trip on a regular basis).

I managed to grab one out of open time when bids finalized for July.  I was a bit worried the weather would not cooperate because a typhoon was supposed to skirt around Tokyo right before our arrival.  The last two times I was in Tokyo it rained and rained, so I was really hoping to have a nice day to go into Narita.

Fortunately the storm turned to the south and when we arrived in Tokyo the weather was great!  Since I was on the early trip, I got to the hotel in the early afternoon.  I quickly changed clothes and caught the next bus into town.  I forgot to bring socks and all I had were my knee high compression socks for work, so I wore my sneakers without socks and by the end of the day had a blister on my toe.

I spent an hour walking around the grounds of the Narita-san Temple.  It was nice and quiet and just what I needed to decompress after 13 hours on a plane with 250 other people.  I managed a new foot shot for my Facebook Album.  I am up to 52 pictures on it so I perhaps one day I can publish a Coffee Table book and make my fortune.

I know it is customary for people of Buddhist tradition to leave material things at shrines honoring Buddha or ancestors.  I guess this one must have been a fan of Evian and Thomas the Tank.

I made my way from the temple down Green Street to the Jet Lag Club.  It's a bar that caters to the airline crowd.  It's run by a guy named Vincent, who was Cabin Crew for Sabena Airlines, in Belgium until they folded after 9/11.  He moved to Japan and opened this bar.  It's a neat layout, with lots of airline memorabilia.  The highlight for me was Peanut, the Italian Greyhound, who serves as "Assistant Manager".

During my stay there were no earthquakes, or if there were, they were small enough that I did not feel them.  There were several major aftershocks a few days before our arrival, so I was a bit on edge about that.