09 - Japan Layover

Trip Start Dec 17, 2007
1
9
Trip End Jan 08, 2008


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Flag of Japan  ,
Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Left Korea from Incheon airport at 11:30 Korean time, almost on schedule, heading for Narita airport on the outskirts of Tokyo. Although I was on the same flight number to Los Angeles, everyone was forced to disembark, get a transfer back to the same plane then go through another complete security scan -- really weird. This change-over turned into a planned two hour layover (ah, the advantages of the cheap flights -- not); at least I got to stroll around on terra-firma for a while. They had a neat oregami museum/store - it was incredible what could be constucted with mere paper (hopefully the pictures do it some justice).

Took of from Narita at 15:00 Japan time and arrived in Los Angeles at 07:05 Pacific time the same day, courtesy of date line (which lost me a day in the other direction). Boarded an American Airlines flight at 09:40 Pacific time and landed back in Toronto at 17:25 Eastern time.. 01-Oregami
01-Oregami
 . A direct flight from Korea to Toronto (costing extra money of course) would get you back before you left :)...

Trip likes:
- The "Templestay" programme; longer would have been better.
- Heated floors and sleeping Korean style on thin futons.
- Excellent, inexpensive local and intercity transportation.
- Fabulous food; especially the stews, spicy chicken dishes and shellfish over live coals all cooked on your table.
- Impressive Korean historical artifacts covering a wide timeframe.
- Communications, especially mobile, is far superior to ours; electronic technology also extremely cheap (e.g., 1Gb SD card for $7).
- Too many others to mention but the market shopping is fun.
- Koreans are extremely honest and helpful to everyone, especially tourists.

Trip dislikes:
- Considerable smog in their large cities; even less noticable in winter! Best time to visit probably in the fall; would be too humid in the summer.
- Korea taxes all imports heavily -- this will cause problems with other countries soon.
- Ongoing wars continually ravage the country (they are actually still at war).
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