And, in a flash, it was over. During 13 days of non-stop travel we had covered almost all of the western half of Japan by plane, rail, and ferry.
We saw castles, ate everything in sight, went to onsen, saw kabuki, saw sumo, visited temples and shrines… about the only famously Japanese thing we didn’t do was go to karaoke!
Maybe next time…
I said goodbye to my parents at Tokyo Narita Airport, then boarded the first of several shinkansen back towards Beppu to go find my girl…
Kanazawa Station had been completely rebuilt since my home stay in 2002. What had been a large, rundown stop on the line was now a work of art in its own right.
Just look at this Shinto gate!
Continue reading Heaths Come to Japan – Day 12 – To Tokyo We Go
Saturday rolled around and it was time to blow off some steam, so the usual suspects were rounded up and plans were drawn. It was going to be a typical sushi & karaoke outing, but with a twist – we were going to visit a brand-new SCBR that had opened a few kilometers west on the same road as the one we usually patronize… bit of foreshadowing here for you: we were not going to be disappointed.
Sunday found 8 or so of us, the core 4th Floor Team and a handful of associates, shivering inside of a pathetic excuse for a bus, steadily trundling our way towards Destiny. That’s right, we were headed to Safari Land. Just in case you’ve somehow forgotten, I live in Japan. This was a fact I had to remind myself as well, as my feeble mind tried in vain to visualize anything remotely resembling the plains of Africa in the land of samurai, shinkansen, sushi, and skyscrapers.
After disembarking from our rusty freezer on wheels, we were all fleeced to the order of 3000Y, and then unleashed upon the majesty, the wonder, that is… Safari Land!
As it happened, our first clue that we had mistakenly ventured into an alternate reality was the motor pool. Mistake not the true nature of these vehicles!
