Blogs from Chiba, Japan, Asia - page 3

Disneyland, here we come! Early start for breakfast in the Hilton's dinning room with a full buffet to fill up for the busy day ahead. The hotels bus picked us up at 7:50 for the 5 minute ride to the Disneland entrance, and have a look at the size of the crowd. Huge crowds were lining up ready for the 0800 gate opening, luckily Kate has good Japanese skills so we could move straight to a shorter line to purchase tickets. Right on 0800 the gates opened and within 5 minutes we had our 1st fast pass and were lining up for our 1st ride of the day. Tomorrowland - Star Tours, Captain EO , Space Mountain. Toon Town - Gadget Coaster, Roger Rabbit .. Critter County - Beaver Canoes where we also last saw Koala ... read more

arrived in Narita Japan yesterday around 4:30 pm. I was exhausted since I didn't sleep on the plane except the last 20minutes. (At that time I fell asleep and I was the last one on the plane. The flight attendants had to come by and wake me up). I took a look at the airport terminal and thought about staying 20 hours sleeping stretched out on a bank of seats or the floor and went straight to the hotel reservations information desk and did something that is so uncharacteristic of me. I booked a relatively cheap room in a nearby hotel with free shuttle service for $64/night and came straight to the hotel...Narita Gateway Hotel. I tried to explore the area/neighborhood but we're right on the freeway -- one of those hotels typically near an airport ... read more

De techniek van Vipassana meditatie is een simpele, praktische manier om echte gemoedsrust te vinden en een gelukkig, nuttig leven te leiden. Vipassana betekent “de dingen zien zoals ze echt zijn.” Het is een logisch proces van mentale verfijning door zelfobservatie. Overtuigd dat dit nou écht iets voor ons is, stortten wij ons in het diepe van ons eigen bewustzijn voor een tiendaagse cursus. Tien dagen mediteren brengt veel inzichten met zich mee. Niets om te lezen, te zien, te luisteren of te doen en bovendien niemand om mee te praten. Er zijn wel andere mensen, maar er is geen enkele vorm van communicatie. Je leeft alsof je helemaal alleen bent. Met zo weinig op de voorgrond komt de achtergrond ineens naar voren. De achtergrond van je eigen geest. Wat een gesprekken ga je eigenlijk met ... read more

I had an unexpected stopover in Japan on my way to meet MaryAnne in Kuala Lumpur. I left Salt Lake a day earlier than I had originally expected, in the event of a flight delay and I was really happy the delay happened in Japan as I had been hoping for a visit to this beautiful country for quite some time. It's quite easy to get around here. Most of the stranded travelers stayed in a hotel called the Narita Excel Hotel near the airport. There is a free shuttle from the airport, a free shuttle to get downtown and it was less than $80 per night. From the shuttle stop downtown, the Naritasan Shinshoji, a Buddhist temple, was within walking distance (about half a mile) but getting there required walking in all sorts of directions ... read more

Hello from tokyo. It's been a few days now since the earthquake and the situation here seems to be constantly deteriorating. The first day after the quake, everything seemed like it was back to normal. Now nearly a week has past and the city seems to be shutting itself down slowly, bit by bit. Looming over everything is the threat of the nuclear power plants which are spewing out radiation a short distance to the north of here. There are currently rolling blackouts throughout the area to conserve energy. Trains are sporadic at best and quite often simply stop running for hours at a time. I am still going to work, but my commute has become the hardest part of the day. The food and supplies situation is getting pretty bad as well. A few days ... read more