Welcome To
Tom and Jana's Japan Journal!

Nine days in the Land of the Rising Sun

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A Map of Our Journey

My good friend Mark and his family, who had spent nearly two years in Japan, graciously hosted us during our visit. Having people help familiarize us with some of the challenges we would face during our visit was a tremendous help. A special "Thanks" to them!

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Mark, Traci, and Tom on the shinkansen (bullet train)

Another "Thanks" is in order for my brother Steve, who contributed some vouchers from Delta to help with the cost of our tickets!

OK, I admit from the beginning that Jana wrote this journal,
so full credit, or blame, goes to her.
I did take some of the pictures though! (The really good ones.)
An index is provided at the bottom of this page
if you want to jump to a particular day.

So now I will turn these pages, beginning with this introduction, over to your lovely host...

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Your Lovely and Talented Host... Jana!

It's a long flipping way to Tokyo from Tennessee - an hour flight to Atlanta, five hours to Los Angeles, then a monsterously-long 12 more hours to Japan. If only it were that easy. To make a long journey even longer, the incident to which I am so obliquely referring is our cancelled flight from LA to Tokyo and subsequent rebooking on the same flight 24 hours later.

Now, although we both certainly prefer a one-day delay in our trip to plunging into the ocean in a big ball of flames, we also would have preferred if Delta would have let us off the plane as it was sitting in the gate for four hours instead of making us sit there in a plane reaking of diesel fumes. And we also would have preferred not being given a different story as to the cause of the delay every half hour or so, such as the one where we were told a sensor was making the check-engine light come on, though we could easily look out the window and see mechanics dismantling the engine. And yes, surprisingly enough, we would also have preferred not being treated as a major inconvenience in the ticket agent's day.

But anyway, one day late, on Thursday, March 1, at 5:00 p.m. Tokyo time, our story begins...

Begin Here

Day 2     Kyoto
Day 3     Kyoto and Yokohama
Day 4     Tokyo and Yokohama
Day 5     Nagasaki
Day 6     Nagasaki
Day 7     Fugen-Dake
Day 8     Yokohama
Day 9     Tokyo

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