Our JAL 777 has WiFi and we just flew over Ajax, which is near Toronto. Never heard of it. Assuming JFK is OK and the traffic is not bad, yeah, right, Fran and I should be at our apartment in a couple of hours. Our day was long but relatively uneventful. I enjoyed writing this travel blog. Next bloggable trip, ????????? David... read more

Day 7 First, I need to clear something up. One of the readers of my travel blog pointed out that I had a "tone," which I didn't know I had. He or she read the previous posts, and concluded that I'm not really that happy in Japan. That would be very wrong and so I'm adding another picture, one taken at the Golden Temple, you remember, where the crowds of school children had my fight or flee instinct engaged. That place. Well, I wasn't as miserable as I might have sounded. I'm having a great time. Now on to Day 7. This was a travel day with a trip to the train station and a two-hour train ride. But we are old hats now and breezed through the process. Taking our seats in our not high-speed ... read more

Day 5: Our full-day tour began with a rickshaw ride through a bamboo forest. The rickshaws were waiting for us as we entered a neighborhood of Temples (Shinto not Jewish). As we got going it became quickly obvious that a whole lot of tourists have rickshawed this way before. The experience reminded me of the “Handsome Cab” carriages along Central Park South in New York. The difference being that instead of horses pulling the well-worn route there were 20 something young men. Being in rickshaws differed from being on our own two feet in the distance covered, or maybe just how long it took to cover the same distance, but there were thousands of tourists and even more students walking this same route. The drivers had their places to stop for pictures and they took them ... read more

Day 3: Today, was a travel day beginning with a 3 hour drive to Mt. Fuji. Normally an uneventful ride, it got complicated because my stomach was trashed. I was sick as can be and we had to make two emergency pit stops along the way. Anyone reading this who has traveled overseas gets it. But we drove on, our goal being the Hokado Sculpture Park. Judi was feeling the effects of a long drive down winding roads and being stuck in traffic. On arrival there was lunch to be had for two, maybe three out of the four of us. On the menu there was a sandwich.Tomato, American cheese, Canadian bacon, and lettuce on white toast. Perfect. Judi and I asked Cheers to get us some plain toast. She tried. But like a lot of ... read more

JFK to Tokyo: II'm going to try to write this travel blog/essay, whatever you call it in a way that is interesting and informative. I am going to fail a lot. Your solution is to skip over parts that are about things not interesting or informative. Some of you will be done reading within 12 seconds, others, the more discerning and open of you will read and hang on every word. I'll never know. In this season it's only appropriate to start with politics. As a Democrat, I am all for equality and equal opportunity, but with all due guilt and humility, I’ll tell you that that sitting and sleeping in the front of a JAL 777 is the way to go. Even Democrats can enjoy this. You know what Obama said, the one thing he'll ... read more