Well, I'm dealing with the Jetlag Depression. It really sucks. I dont' want to do anything and when I do, its nerve racking and I dont want to do it. Thinkin about the future is painful. But i went out bike riding with Vinnie, so that helped alot. Then came back and updated this journal and had a nice dinner with the folks. I went out to a couple haunted houses with Vinnie as well tonite.

I thought the country was absolutely beautiful. I had a blast while I was there. Its not as clean as what we as Americans may think. From all we get here is that the country is analretentive about cleanliness. From what I saw, the country is just as clean or dirty as the US. However, I have heard some negative things about hospitals from foreign teachers that are over there. John and I used to tease Yumi and Rumi that all of Japan smelled like a hospital because it was so clean. Not the case. They just like to take their shoes off before going into the living quarters of a house.
I really liked Japan it was quite beautiful. It was very cramped, but pretty. Every city I stayed in, you could see mountains. Lots of green stuff. Unfortunately, I didnt see Godzilla. I wanted to so bad.
The people were great and polite and good to spend time with. However, I hear that they are polite to your face and you don't want to see them when your back is turned. I dont know how true that is, but thats the impression I get from business folk and people who deal with the Japanese alot. I haven't met 2-faced Japanese people that I know of, yet.
I had a blast in Japan and spending time with Yumi was wonderful. I want to go back. So i guess i give it a positive review.
Anywho, its late. Goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So i got up around 730am and that allowed me enough time to make the train with about 10 minutes to spare. We took off an headed for the airport. Around the second stop, we picked up lots of people. I got to the airport around 11am. I checked into my flight no problem and had to spend the rest of the time killing time. I tooled around on the internet and talked to Yumi on the fone. I managed to kill the time and make it to my flight with about 20 minutes to spare.
The line up for the plan was a disaster. They were calling out the row#s like they usually do, but there was just this giant blob. So, the guy that checked me in showed up, and boy, I hope the airlines pay him well because that guy is very talented with languages. He speaks Mandarin, English, and Japanese fluently. He has a slight chinese accent to his english, since he was chinese. He was very skilled. Im sure he could get lots of money in jobs with his skills. He basically herded everyone into the correct areas.
The flight home was 11 hours. I tried to sleep. I had a little pillow, one of those eye masks and earplugs, but I was always attentive. I was resting and trying to sleep, hopefully that was good enuff. That was for like maybe a total of 3 hours throughout the ride.
I ended up watching Herbie: Fully Loaded. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. It did what it was supposed to do. However, the second movie I watched, was just utter crap. XXX: State of the Union. I was just appalled at how bad it was. I really just want to ask the director: Lee Tamahori, and the writers: Rich Wilkes and Simon Kinberg....WTF were you thinking? Did you actually thing this was a good thing? It was utter crap. I had so much more thought up to talk about this ,but I realized how much i would talk about this utter crap and realize it was just a waste of time. This movie sucks. Its worse than the first one, if thats possible.
After that load was finished, I looked at the Chinese guy next to me, held out a thumbs down and gave a rasberry, he laughed and said, "Yeah, that movie was shit." I'm serious. he said that!
I then tried to sleep.
When I took off my mask, they were wrapping up "March of the Penguins" The one film I wanted to watch. Damnit!
I finally got home. Gettnig thru the customs checkpoint was easy this time, however, getting my baggage wasn't. The machinese weren't working properely so the luggage wasn't coming off. And because of this, there was a huge line at the bag checkpoint.
My mom was waiting for me and my dad was circling. We headed out. I had pizza for dinner, it was yummy but overcooked.
Well, goodnite. I am really really really tired.

Posted by Phil at 09:14 AM | Permalink

Yumi and I made plans to meet up at the Minami Koshigaya train station for our day together. I got there and there was an LDP, Liberal Democratic Party, rally there. Its the reigning party of Japan. The one Prime Minister Koizumi is in. Its pretty much the only party that really matters there. They have been in power for like 50 years unbroken except for about 4 years in the 90s.
Yumi was surprised to see the rally because the place was really crowded and she was also kinda star struck because the people standing on top of the van spouting lies to the Japanese people were quite famous. Yumi sees them on TV almost everyday, when she's in Japan. They are always in the news. I got some video.
We decided to go to Asakusa, which has a very old/traditional street. It also has the largest lanterns in japan apparently. The old traditional street was covered with tourist shops dealing in traditional styled items. Mostly made today. They also had a bunch of Power Rangers and Ultraman toys. I totally wanted to see Voltron, but to no avail.
We walked around the city. Walked down by the river. Bought things for family and friends. It was a good time.
We headed back and Yumi had to go to her folks to attend to some family matters. I went off to Omiya station to buy an Airport destined train for tomorrow. There was only one train from Omiya and that was at 9am so I would have to hang at the airport for 4 hours. Great. Just what I wanted.
After that I met up with Yumi later and we had dinner and hung out. We then had to say our saddened goodbyes. Being with her the past week was wonderful.
well, goodnite.

Posted by Phil at 09:05 AM | Permalink

Yumi and I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today. Looked for socks with the little toe slots in them. Found some. Went out for dinner and drinks with some of Yumi`s friends.

Posted by Phil at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yumi and I went to Tokyo Disneyland today. It was alot of fun. Most of the rides were the same as Disneyworld and Calif Disneyland, but they got a new Nightmare before Christmas ride. The Japanese love this movie.

Posted by Phil at 11:38 PM | Permalink