Category: Personal

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Japan Personal Photo Essay Photo Journal Photography Travel

Culture Day – Japan

Note – All images are scanned from slide film.

Tokyo Tower 01
Guard Gate 01
Guard Gate 02
Dwarf Pine trees
Samurai Warrior Monument
Tokyo Tower 01

Culture Day (Japan)

This morning I woke up around 04:00 A, and I have been puttering about the room. Getting the presents together to
take over later.

07:00 Breakfast

09:00 Meet Mr. Akasu in the lobby

Back to his home for the first time

  • We exchanged gifts
  • We watched the Waterloo Gardens tape

First experience on the Japanese train system

See the young men walking around in full decorative dress with wooden shoes that sounded like horses on
a cobble stone road.

Bus tour took us by…

  • Emperors place
    • Walked around the Emperor’s Place…
      • 500 yrs to build
      • 2013 Dwarf Pine trees in the Main Compound
      • Over 3 miles in circumference around the compound
    • Monuments
      • Samurai Warrior
    • The small stones around the gates where used to detect when someone approaching
      • Guard Gate 01
      • Guard Gate 02
  • The Diet (Japanese Government Building)
  • Russian Embassy
  • Tokyo Tower
    • Tower 1
    • Tower 2

Dinner at the Akasu’s

Agadashi and Delivered Sushi!!

Categories
Personal Photo Essay Photo Journal Photography

Arrive Tokyo/Narita

We finally arrived at Narita airport just as the sun was going down. I got to see some of the southern part before it was too dark.

Getting through the airport was a breeze. My luggage was the first off, and there was no problems with customs.

Mr. Akasu and another gentleman picked me up, and drove me to the hotel.

On the way to the hotel, we passed the Indoor Skiing place. I was told that it contained a 300 ft. slope, and was open year round.

I was also amazed to see children, and single women freely walking or riding bikes around after dark.

I also noticed many vending machines, that serve food, beer, cigs, etc. They are all over the place!

We finally arrived at the Dai-Ichi Hotel Hikarigaoka around 20:00 . I was checked into Room 612, and said good night to Mr. Akasu.

I got to the room, unpacked and crawled into bed.

While laying in bed, I was channel surfing, and I came across a show that had people sitting in wooden tubs, and they would have liquid poured over them, and I think they had to guess what the mixture was.

Another scene had the contestants running through corn fields, and strapped to their back was a 6 ft long bamboo shaft attached to the persons back, with a little yellow flag attached. They would then end at a table which had different plates of food covered with tops, and once again they had to guess what it was.

I think I finally fell asleep around 22:00 P (Local)

Categories
Japan Personal Travel

Start of the Adventure

10:00 - UA Flt#195 - Philadelphia->Chicago/Ohare (2B)
12:30 - UA Flt#881 - Chicago/Ohare->Tokyo/Narita (3A)

Once again, I managed to sleep through my alarm!

Holly woke me up with her phone call.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

I checked in and went to the First Class lounge, were I had two cups of Cappuccino and then called Brian with a final check in.

On the plan from Phily to Chicago, I noticed a very tall black man moving through the First Class cabin.

As he took off his long leather jacket, first I noticed that the jacket was as tall as I was! I also realized that it was Julius Erving!! a.k.a. “Dr. J”!!

The flight for the most part was uneventful. The gentleman next to me, did have a death grip on his seat during some of the turbulence.

In Chicago, Dad was waiting for me at the gate, and then we headed to the First Class lounge. We did wait and see “Dr. J”.

Finally, we got on the plan for Tokyo and we settled in. Your personal area was huge! One could fit another seat in front of you.

The first meal that was served seemed to me endless. Caviar, smoked salmon, crackers, cheese, fruit, etc.

For my main meal, I got the Japanese meal which actually turned out to be quite large, and had some beef! After that, there was another round of cheese & fruit, then the desert, which I did not partake in.

The two movies shown were “Speed” and “The Shadow”. I had already seen “Speed” on my trip to LA last week.

I was never able to sleep during the plane trip. I tried on several occasions, but I would sleep for 5-10 minutes and then wake up!

I do remember flying over parts of Alaska. The endless ranges of snow covered mountains. So isolated. Nothing in sight. Just snow and mountains.

– Andrew
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