Crowne Plaza Ana Ana Narita

November 17, 2009<br><br><br><br>Good evening all!<br><br>Today was another rained out day. We sat in the break room reading, talking and laughing. Mel said on Saturday that he had emailed a friend that we were "three fat guys sitting around eating Japanese snakes!" (what he meant was Japanese snacks &#8211; we all got a kick out of that but I guess you had to be there) So ...

... Kids who are trying to be "different" but end up looking like every one else their age. All of them are interesting to me. And that is who I got to see yesterday.<br><br>My day started with a little boy, about 2, who was enthralled with Santa and Duffy. When he came up, I put my arms out and he ran to me and squeezed my neck for a very long time! His parents were so cute as they watched him. Then we took pictures and he hugged Duffy and they were on their way. I don&#8217;t ...

... time I was quite confused! Now, it&#8217;s just part of the system. Then around noon they told us that we were going to be cancelled for the whole day. The other system we had to get accustomed to is that if we are being paid for the day, we stay there. So from noon until 5:00 p.m. we sat in the dressing ...

... old and new faces. Our Japanese friends are always surprised when we remember them. Already the lines are approaching 3 and a half hours wait time&#8230;that will only increase as the season goes on.<br><br>After work the other guys, and one of the ladies joined me for dinner with the Mano family. Those of you who have followed my adventures in years past know that they have a restaurant on the first floor of their home. They serve Shabu ...

... padding is only used when the young boys (face-characters) play Santa in the parade. They took the pads out and, WOW, it was so much better.<br><br>The exciting part came after work! We we to the 100 Yen store (like our 99 cent store but better stuff!). I love the store and love to find things to decorate my apartment and stuff to fill my kitchen drawers and cupboards. Today I&#8217;m going back!<br><br>More later . . .

... never thought you'd actually do. Everything about the airport somehow seemed better, brighter and cooler than your average western airport (Maybe the transition from China helped this)- it was clean, efficient, everyone was polite and most people I engaged with at desks etc spoke basic english. Woo hoo!!! I arrived quite late and so headed directly to my hotel- The Radisson in Narita which was neat, clean and had a pool, gym and even a mini golf course! It's a stop ...

... had other than just the standard flushing. This observation is based upon the toilet in our hotel room as well as ones located in the airport. The toilets had a remote control like area attached to them where people could decide if they wanted to use the bidet functions, have music to listen to why they&#8217;re taking care of business, create and determine the loudness of a fake flush to mask what else is going on, and more. Geez, all we get at home is a handle to flush.

... the first thing that I noticed was that deer were stalking the cleaners much the same that ibis's do back home. At first I thought "Oh cute!" but then remembered how I used to look at tourists who thought that ibis and butcher birds were cute and I reconsidered... Mind you, their eyes are so sweet even if they are pests and try and eat your food! After walking past all the touristy shops (where they even had american style chips - and called out to you if you looked western ...

... first class. The international first class tickets entitle you to free use of the WorldClubs lounges, so we went to the lounge near where we speculated our gate would be to relax for the six hours we had to wait. I say "speculated" because we were too early for our gate even to have been assigned. As it is, we had to wait 20 minutes for the lounge to even open. The lounge has a nice assortment of drinks and snacks. It also has free wireless.

I got a nice aisle bulkhead seat. I slept several hours on the flight. It's amazing what 3 hours of sleep before a trip can do to help you pass the time and adjust to jet lag. So I was talking to the guy sitting next to me. He is a Unix system administrator who is relocating to Singapore, where his wife is from. After several years in the ...