Layover in Japan

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I was fortunate enough to have a layover in Japan on my way to Chongqing. I arrived in Narita (Tokyo's main airport) early in the afternoon and didn't have to leave until the next morning. After checking into my hotel (Nikko Narita) I caught a bus into the town of Narita. I made my way to the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple.

This temple is super old (founded in 940) and includes a lot of buildings on a large area of land. I walked around the grounds for a while and ended up getting VERY lost. The grounds are very beautiful and full of amazing landscaping! I highly recommend a visit to this temple if you have a layover in Narita. Even if only have a few hours (4 should be enough) you could easily see it!

After the temple I went out for dinner. To be honest, I had high hopes for sushi in Japan but I soon realized that ramen noodles are much more common. I ended up having some delicious udon noodle soup and gyoza. They were both delicious! On my way back to the bus I grabbed some Japanese 'street meat': deep fried octopus balls. Its basically cut up octopus in batter and deep fried into balls. They are then covered in a few sauces and sprinkled with garlic and green onions. Not bad!

The lowlight of my trip to Japan happened just before 4am. I woke up and next thing I knew my room was shaking. At first I thought that the people in the room next to me were 'doing it'. Then I thought that someone was trying to break in. My whole room was shaking and I could hear all of my coat hangers banging against the wall. I realized, finally, that it was an EARTHQUAKE! I was panicking on the inside but not really acting on it. I thought about going under my desk but I realized that I couldn't fit. So instead, I just sat on my bed and waited for it stop.

After the shaking stopped I thought that people might be going crazy outside. I imagined everyone screaming and running outside. I poked my head outside my room and all was quiet. I thought I was going crazy so I grabbed my laptop and went downstairs to the lobby. Again, I was expecting a flurry of people down there because of the earthquake. Instead, everything is quiet and the receptionist is calmly typing on his computer. I checked the USGS website and sure enough, there was a 6.4 magnitude quake at just before 4am. Apparently there have been hundreds of aftershocks since the big quake a few months ago so people must be used to them by now.

I will try and post photos soon. I still need to get a converter for my laptop!

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Comments

[anonymous]

Tina, are you sure it was an earthquake? Perhaps the octopus balls were just not sitting well? What are those cards hanging up in photo 6? Great find on the vending machines!