Toilets of Japan.

Alright I fully admit that the toilets in Japan had me a bit worried. Worried about a toilet you say?  Well, yes!  After all they do all sorts of things.  Play sounds to cover up any unpleasant noises that might escape while you do what you do, buttons that deodorize the bowl, warm seats and warm water that sprays you clean in various places, some even blow you dry.

I dare you to find the flush button on this toilet.  Thank goodness I had Yuko with me to show me what one to push.  My fear was that I might push one that was meant to wash and I would end up with a toilet shower.

Even when English was written on the toilets it was not always clear.

This was the easiest to operate so it was the first one that I had enough nerve to play with.

Try as I might, I did break the rule of stepping into the toilet room in my stocking feet.  I did not put on the slippers that were placed outside of the room.  I only took one step in before I was pulled back out by my arm and instructed to put the toilet room slippers on. 

The verdict on the Japanese toilet?   We all should have one!  Should I ever have the occasion to build a new home, and have the extra cash, it just might be on my list of must haves.

Foods of Japan

Now the foods we ate in Japan were interesting to say the least.  The things that I found the greatest differences in were breakfast and the size of a cup of coffee.  For breakfast each morning we were offered a ever changing menu that always included mini hot dogs, macaroni salad, potato salad, spaghetti and a green salad.  It was much more like lunch cuisine than breakfast.  Also the coffee.  While it was always a wonderful tasting cup of coffee, it was the smallest of cups.  I think I needed three cups to equal one of my normal morning cups. 

One constant was that every single thing we ate was presented beautifully and had a very delicate taste.

Here are a few photos of some of the things we ate.

Potato Salad w/ fish eggs

Salmon

Home cooked meal at the Yamaguchi home.

All sorts of yumminess from the wedding.  Even octopus.

Beautiful fish from the wedding.

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More wedding fare.  Note the pink stick thing is ginger and it was outstanding.

Point at the menu and hope you like it lunch.  Mine was curry and it was good.

The Menu.  We had no real idea, other than the price, what we were getting.

Tempura lunch with Yuko and her mother.

More wedding goodness.

Grand Adventure Japan, part one

Earthquake, tsunami, and an ongoing nuclear disaster threatened to derail our plans to go to Japan.  After studying wind directions, mountain heights, ocean currents, filtering out misinformation being reported and consulting the State Department it was determined that southern Japan and the island of Kyushu were completely safe to visit.   

So, adventure Japan began on March 23 with the alarm ringing at 5:00 am.  Now a 5:00 am wake up would not bother me on most days but being excited and unable to settle into sleep made that 5:00 am alarm more like an electric shock sent into my body.

I would be on my own several days while Kenny toured Nissan and spent a day with one of his friends.  Knowing that we would be getting around by train and I would be wrestling luggage on my own, we each  packed only one suitcase and our laptops.   

Checking in at Charlotte Douglas airport went smooth.  No long lines and security was a fast process.  Grabbed a cup of coffee and waited at our gate for our flight to Chicago.  Then it started.......Flight number XYZ is delayed 5 minutes, 10 minutes, then 30 minutes.....  the crackle crackle of the intercom then announced that due to bad weather flight number XYZ would not land in Chicago until sometime after our All Nippon flight from Chicago to Japan was to take off.  Kenny was up and at the counter before the entire message was finished.  Within 20 minutes they had us rerouted onto a United Airlines flight to Washington Dulles then to Narita.  Again, the airport intercom cracked a message about moving the Helman luggage to a new flight.  The ticket change also meant that the time we had to make it through customs, after landing in Japan, and make the connecting flight to Fukuoka was only one hour and twenty minutes ( only one other flight that day from Narita to Fukuoka and it was full so if we missed that flight it would cause us to spend the night in Tokyo). So, while I am happy that we will be leaving on our scheduled date, I am disappointed that we are now flying United and not All Nippon Air. ( more on ANA vs United fights on a later post)
 
The flight to DC and the flight to Japan went well.  We got off of the plane at Narita and made a dash to collect our luggage so that we could then go through customs.  The luggage made it's way around the carousel and my medium sized black Samsonite was among the first to make it around. Kenny's luggage was another story.  All of the luggage had been removed from the conveyor belt and Kenny's large hard shell suitcase was not to be seen.  The luggage attendant scanned the luggage ticket and said " I am so sorry but your luggage is in Washington DC."  He showed us where we needed to go to fill out delayed luggage paperwork.  Tic toc tic toc...were we going to make the next flight?  The lady working the luggage counter said that it would be the following evening at 8:10pm before the luggage could be in Fukuoka but our plans were to be in Takeo the next morning.  If we wanted the luggage to be delivered to Takeo it would take another two or three days.  She explained that most workers had been sent to the north to help with the disaster and the lack of man power would make it difficult to make the delivery.  Tic toc tic toc only 20 minutes left to make the Fukuoka flight.  Agreed to stay an additional day in Fukuoka, signed some paperwork and made a mad dash to customs.  Because we did not have all of our luggage when entering the country they needed more paperwork.  Tic toc tic toc.  A mad dash to the gate where they are already loading a bus to take us to the plane.  A massive sigh of relief that we had made it onto this flight.  

Landed safe and sound in Fukuoka.  At this point I have been awake for a solid 27 hours.  Try as I might, sleep never found me on any of the flights.  As we walked out of baggage claim to our great surprise Yuko and her mother were standing there waiting for us!  It has been six year that we last saw Yuko.  She is not a big internet user so we only talk to her once a year at best.  Tears flowed and many many hugs.  This was the first time that we had met her mother and it was very emotional.  Yuko lived with us for 11 months when she was 16 years old and I had always hoped that I would have the chance to see her mother.   Bleary eyed and disorented, we were thankful to have her escort us to our hotel near Hakata Station. 

Stay tuned for more "Grand Adventure Japan"