First I need to acknowledge that Josh was correct in his assessment of Tokyo, it is a wonderful city. Last night walking home from dinner in the Ginza the lights from the signs and videos made the street as bright at what you have on a murky day. It is unexpectedly knock-your-socks-off gorgeous. We started the day at the Sumo wrestling school. The best wrestler was by no means the heaviest but he was strong and fast. Not ever having seen a Sumo match I was surprised by the huge amount of energy that these guys expend. There is a lot of ritual attached to the sport. Only the very best wrestlers receive a salary, the rest train year round without compensation. Their days consist of training, napping, eating and playing video games. After the practice ... read more

The morning of the 18th we were on our own in Kyoto since our train to Mt. Koya didn’t leave until mid-afternoon. Since we thought we had only seen part of the traditional crafts museum which was really cool, we decided to head back there. When we arrived we found we had in fact seen 90% of it. With only an hour or so before we needed to head to the train, we walked a couple of blocks to the “Handicraft Center”. It was mostly chatzkes but we did find some cute cotton robes for Jess and me and t-shirts for Jack and Josh. I saw some lovely $6,000 pearls, but they were just a little out of my price range. The neighborhood was quiet and laid out around a canal so it was a view ... read more

We arrived in Japan at 11:30 AM and as “Premiere travelers” we made it off the plane and through immigration in a snap. Our “Premiere suitcases” also made it off the plan first and came on the carousel in a neat row with all the other suitcases of the same size. With our JR train passes we headed to the station for the 12:24 train to Kyoto that left at ??? you guessed it 12:24 after being thoroughly cleaned and having the seats turned round so they were facing in the correct direction. Just as we had expected our taxi to the hotel had white doilies and the driver wore white gloves. This is a no tipping world and it’s a pleasure not to have worry about who you should be tipping and how much. The ... read more

The first leg of the trip is behind us - Thank God! We're in JKF waiting for the flight to Korea. Coming in from Boston was a little exciting and mightly unpleasant. We were caught in a thunderstorm with lighting visible over the wing. When the turbulence hit, all the flight crew that were handing out Terra (not potato) Chips were knocked off their feet and fell in a big pile next to where we were sitting. We took a pass on the chips and cookies. Traveling as "Premiere" gets us into a pleasant lounge which if I didn't want to be asleep would be very comfortable. 2 more hours until take-off at 12:50 AM. As Jack commented, anyone who knows me knows that this is not prime time for Audrey.... read more