Friday, April 24, 2009

Sayonara Nihon

Our Japan trip has ended. It was so full of impressions, it is hard to comprehend. Amy was doing pretty well with the Japanese. I was at least able to thank the locals in their native tongue. I was a big hit with the girls from the Onsen staff when I used my Japanese.

We managed to pack in a lot of Japanese culture in our three weeks there. We rode the bullet train, we ate the octopus, we visited Buddha's, we stayed in the ryokan, we soaked in the Onsen, we did the rotemburo, we watched the fashion victims, we bathed in neon, we drank Sapporo beer, we fed the deer, we used the vending machines, we stayed in a love-hotel in the red light district, we admired the blossoms, we experienced Tokyo, Niirita, Oga, Sapporo, Hokodate and Osaka. And my favorite: we went to "Canadian World": the relict of a bankrupt theme park that actually hired Canadians to portrait Canadian life. The theme park was doomed to fail, but it is still there, now a ghost town. I felt like a social archeologist. It was truly fascinating stuff.

Today we left Narita airport, taking off from runwy 16R and we landed 8.5 hrs later on Vancouver's runway 8L. The trip west was faster then the trip east, due to winds.

5 comments:

jacco said...

It seems that Oranda Mura has been faring better than Canadian World...

No gaming related activities? Not even a visit to Sony HQ? :-)

Bram Stolk Sr said...

Nou, geen idee eigenlijk wat je nu gezien hebt in het land van de rijzende zon....wat een vreemde namen en attracties. Dat madurodam van Canada is natuurlijk wel een beetje vreemd voor een canadees om te bezoeken...misschien kunnen jullie daar als tourguide ooit nog eens aan de slag.
Grappig vond ik die nationale vlaggetjes op de hoteldesk...

Maar East-West-Home-Best of zeggen ze dat in canada anders? Anyway het lekkerste vind ik zelf altijd weer mijn eigen Bed en WC...!!

Bram said...

I am not sure about that "faring better" though. According to the article:
But 16 amusement parks here have collapsed between 1998 and 2003, the biggest being Nagasaki prefecture's Dutch village, which faltered in February 2003 with a staggering debt of ´229 billion ($2.7 billion).
No gaming, not even "Pachinko". But I did see the Japanese retail version of SOCOM, which was fun.

luc said...

Damn, now I need to go back, sleep in a ryokan in Kyoto and eat ramen...

Anonymous said...

gaaf man, jij komt ook echt overal zeg
top, elke dag mooi weer??
groetjes robbert en kim