Business Hotel Teradai Narita

... slot machines at your local casino, all in a row but much longer rows that in Vegas. Smoking is allowed and they have the most ingenious ashtrays. There is a little ashtray at each game, the smoker puts his/her cigarette in the little holes and it is taken away by a little conveyer belt under the counter – incredible!

Then a train ride home, a stop at the grocery store, fixing dinner, some house cleaning and probably Christmas decorating!

More later . . .

... to wait in the 4 hour line but they were hanging about the fringe of the crowd that gathers to see us. She was smiling and waving and trying to get my attention. I turned and waved to her. She turned to her mom with the biggest grin, telling her that I had waved. Then I blew her a kiss. She was over the moon with giggles and blowing kisses back. At another little break when I could, I waved again and she broke out dancing.

Earlier this ...

... to Japan last summer, I didn’t remember how long the flight took and after hour 4 on the plane, we were feeling every second of that flight. When I get restless it’s very difficult for me to get comfortable much less sleep or watch some random romantic comedy that was showing. Poor Paul. We used frequent flier miles for our airline tickets and at the time Paul tried to convince me to upgrade to Business Class but I refused. I’m frugal and ...

... s and goodbyes to Mr. Yamaguchi, Eve and I decided to make a quick stop at the AM PM convenience store across the street. We picked up a few drinks and some interesting chocolate bars and went back to our room. The Blue Jay baseball game was on tv when we made contact with my mom and dad on Skype. It was a clear line. We chatted for a few minutes as we were winding down our day and they were just starting theirs in Regina. Tomorrow: the journey home low.

... home". Nobu is the son of one of Mamas old neighbours, and he has the most amazing family, Amie and Ike. They are the sweetest - but of course only Amie speaks a little bit of English. They drove us home and told us about the "Japanese door" they were going to show us when we got home.... door? And we could take photos? Ok? Anyways, after a couple of weird looks between Angus and me we realised that they meant "Japanese doll".... silly Japs and their inability to say "L". ha ha ha ...

... but now we're back in sunny Narita it has been brilliant sunshine and warm (15 degrees). We are having a day of rest - well it is Sunday - in preparation for the 7 hour flight to Bangkok tomorrow. Latest update - Japan did have an earthquake at 21.13 yesterday registering 4.3 on the Richter scale - insignificant for Japan! We also hear that they are planning a coup in Bangkok tomorrow - so who knows what tomorrow may bring!

... cafe/burger bar under Maihama Station so we gave it a whirl for dinner. The service was good and the food nice enough but, again, nothing can top our memorable MOS Burger experiences in Sapporo. Afterward it was time to retire for the night and cleanse ourselves from our encounters with "the great unwashed" throughout the day. The evening was capped off with the fireworks show from the resort's 2 theme parks being viewed from our room, adding to the excitement of hitting Tokyo Disneyland the following day.

My flight from Cairns to London was with Japan Airlines. It included a free night stopopver in Narita, Japan. We didn't arrive till about 8pm so there wasn't really any time to go into the city (hotel was near Airport - hour out from Tokyo). Just had a snooze. Really nice hotel.. probably spoilt as it was the nicest in my whole trip! Ha! Breakfast was ...

First things first, I need to thank some people in particular for helping me in Japan. The first is Erin who is willing to manage the boys and the world back in the states while I am traveling. She has been awesome and I am fortunate to have her support and understanding of my travels. I am so lucky to have her as my wife. The second is Steve Deese. He showed me around Japan for the first 7 days including riding the ...

Day 3 Tokyo - Saturday It's Saturday and I'm going to try to visit Disneyland tonight. But, first I will tour several Japanese gardens, Shires and Temples that I missed before. As planned I visited three Japanese gardens, but I don't know why. I'm not a big fan of gardens before or even more so today. I thought that I could relax at the gardens. However, Hama Rikyu Garden, Shinjuku National Garden, and Hibiya Park are all big gardens, which required a ton of walking. When I ...