Tokyo: Day One
Today I went to the National Museum, which is closed on Mondays, along with everything else. This is the same reason that I have almost no photos of the inside of anything in Hanoi. I met a couple of Australians, Brian and Prue, who also failed to read their guidebook carefully. We ended up spending most of the day bumming around Tokyo together. They’ve lived in Scotland for five years and are taking the long way home over a few months. More than half the tourists I’ve met have been Australians. I’ve not met any Americans. Prue was looking for…
What time is it?
I just wanted to drop a quick note that I made it safely. The flight wasn’t as bad as I expected. The 747-400 that I was on had trouble with its Betamax player at first, but we eventually watched some movies. They apparently still make Beta tapes just for the airlines. We flew over northern Canada and Alaska overnight, but we followed the sun so it was light out all the way to Japan. Can someone tell me if that was the Yukon River that I saw out of the starboard window soon after we crossed the Alaska/Canada border, or…
Japan or Bust
I’ve decided to blow all of my vacation time at once, and I’m headed to Japan for a month from late November to late December. I’ll manage to be home for both holidays, but gone for most of the time in between. I’m pretty stoked. It looks like I’ll be able to spend quite a bit of time in Kyoto, including a few days at the Tekishinjuku international Zendo. Through a friend mine, I may also be able to visit the Shokoku-ji Zen Monastery in Kyoto. It sounds like an intense and amazing place. I’ll also be doing a bunch…