Any mistakes?

In honor of recognizing the mistakes we all make as human beings, lets review the Nihon Sun's 10 things not to do in Japan and see what happens?

Number 10 - Visit the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and snap a picture of a pretty stone bridge rather than one of the Emporer.

Ahem, well I got a pic of a pretty stone bridge, but we never got anywhere near the inside of the Imperial Palace. Our tour simply walked along a stretch of the moat. Oh well....

Number 6 - Chase a Geisha down the streets of Gion in Kyoto trying to snap a picture of her and wondering why she is for not stopping for yet another tourist with a camera!

We did not have to chase any geisha through the streets of Gion. We went to a private tea ceremony ourselves. I started to get a pic of a fully dressed geisha in the terminal in Kyoto, but she walked away and this advice popped into my head, so I stayed in one spot figuring I would get my chance later.

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Random Photos

The streets in Gion, while we were waiting for the tea ceremony to be set up. This particular area had been kept in cobblestone/brick with storefronts in olden style to give a more traditional feel.

This little cat was so pretty. The neko was also terribly used to gaijin tourists with cameras. He did his best to ignore us and pretend we were not really there photographing him. ^_^

My memory is lapsing and I am totally forgetting the story behind the boy getting his pants pulled down by the dog. Its an iconic image the way the Morton Salt girl is in America.

One of the ubiquitous vending machines. I decided to be a little daring and try the iced coffee in the upper left. Yatashii, I believe, is the name. It was brewed right into the cup and then ice drops in. MMMMmmmmm so good!!

At the Narita Airport, waiting for the bus to take us to our hotel in Tokyo. Sitting down and watching the kanji scroll by on the sign was when I had the first "How are you going to do this?" panic moment when realizing that I could not read the sign. Most of the signs in the airport had enough English on them so that you never got that feeling; however, the kanji scrolled by fast on this sign, fast enough that it induced a panic moment. Never had another moment, even though deciphering the subway ticket system gave me fits at times. (Ok, the second time I got a little panicky was at the Shinjuku Rail Station - the place is a maze)

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Japan Health ministry to stop onboard flu checks

When we arrived in Japan the procedure went like this; in addition to the customs and immigration forms all passengers were required to fill out on the airplane prior to landing there was an additional Questionaire with questions regarding health, i.e. Have you been to or come from a country with a known H1N1 outbreak? Do you have a fever? Are you coughing frequently? Do you have nasal discharge? etc. When the plane landed all passengers remained in their seats until the Health team could board and check everyone. First was a guy in full anti-germ suit with respirator and googles carrying an infared camera. He slowly panned it around checking everyone's tempature. Then proceeded to the next section of the aircraft. More Health Ministry team members went up and down the aisles checking everyone's questionaire and handing them a paper with quarantine info on one side? When we got off the stewardesses handed out the surgical masks (like I am awkwardly modeling above ^_^ had the thing on upside down). They told us we were "required" to wear the mask as we left the plane.

Upon moving to Customs and Immigration we had to show the paper we were given on the plane to prove we had been checked before we were allowed to proceed on. By this time I had dropped the mask to my chin so i could breathe clearly. Don't ask me how the average Japanese wears those things for hours at a time.

These elaborate procedures were meant to stop Swine Flu from getting into the country but I couldn't help but to think that someone carrying the flu would slip right by all this before it had any effect. Apparently thats what happened because H1N1 popped up in Osaka/Kobe and immediately spread. The confirmed count is up to 193 and rising.

Now the Japanes government is stopping the onboard plane checks to focus on internal prevention. Via JapanProbe:

“We need to shift the focus of our human resources from quarantine efforts to domestic countermeasures,” Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said at a hastily arranged press conference Monday.

“That doesn’t mean there’s no point in trying to detect infected people at our airports, but we have limited human resources available,” he said Tuesday, adding he wants to divert some medical personnel involved in quarantine checks to efforts across the country to grapple with the new flu.

The checks of passengers on flights from Mexico, the United States and Canada–the countries that have been hit hardest by the new strain of the H1N1 virus–could end by the end of this week.

Well, that is good news, if a little late...

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Tips for going to Japan

YAY!!! - 200th post

today we will share some lessons learned on the trip to Japan, hopefully make things easier for those contemplating trips of their own:

1.  Schedule some downtime after you first arrive - just time to relax and soak up the feeling of being in Japan. Just a stroll down the street will help you relax after a long overseas flight.

2. Get your money changed to Japanese Yen ahead of time. It was so gratifying to pull out a bill and get a drink from a vending machine just after clearing Customs at the airport and waiting for a bus to the hotel and I was thirsty after 12+ hours in an airplane.

3. Try to learn what you can about the subway and trains before you go. Many train signs are in English as well as Kanji but it is still mighty confusing. Tokyo has two seperate subway systems. Tokyo Metro and the Toei. Just looking at a map and figuring out the shortest route will not always work. Transferring between lines will raise fares considerably and potentially cause problems when adjusting fares/tickets.

4. Take a tour. Half a day on a tour bus will give you some of the major sights like the Tokyo Tower and Asakusa Kannon Temple without worrying about transportation and traffic and fares. You can use the rest of your time for other things that you want to do with the big tourist sites out of the way.

5. If you get stuck then ask someone for help. We had people help us several times in the train stations and elsewhere. People always did their best to help us even if the did not know enough English to answer us directly.

Japan is a wonderful place to visit and I encourage everyone to go at least once. It is worth every penny.

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back from Japan

Sorry for not posting lately, will make it up to everyone  though with a huge amount of photos and videos from Japan.  Over 580 photos and videos on my camera cards.  

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