Thursday, March 1, 2001
So like I was saying, we arrived at Tokyo-Narita Airport at
about 5:00 p.m. We only knew it was 5:00 p.m. because the flight
crew said so. Our brains said it was 3:00 a.m., the time in
Knoxville, and our bodies didn't know what the heck was going on. I
was able to catch some sleep on the plane, but Tom stood in the
galley hanging out with the sky-waitresses and looking out the
window for the entire flight. We flew over Siberia, so we actually
caught some pretty dramatic scenery on the way.
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This sign pretty well describes
how we felt by the time
we finally arrived in Japan.
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We "deplaned," did the customs and immigration thing, then we
went to find Tom's buddy Mark who lives in Japan and was to pick us
up at the airport. The departure board had the wrong information
about our arrival gate, so it took us a few minutes to find each
other, but we finally did and were on our way to Mark and his
family's house in Yokohama. We got to Mark's about two hours later
and met up with his wife Traci and their kids Amanda, Eric, and
Madeline.
Leaving the kids at the house, the rest of us went out to grab
some dinner at a yakitori-ya. Yakitori is a popular after-work meal
in Japan. It's not so much a meal as it is an accompaniment for
beer. They grill the food over charcoal and you order it by the
skewer. We ate bunches of skewers of chicken breast and beef and
even had some some quail eggs. We also drank bunches of beer. We
met Mark and Traci's friend Shinozaki at the restaurant, and the
five of us drank 25 beers. Kampai!! (Cheers!!) The restroom at this
restaurant was equipped with an ingenious device that would make
the sound of a flushing toilet when you pushed a button, you know,
to cover up any rude sounds you might be inclined to make in there.
Ha!
We got back to Mark and Traci's about 11:30 or so, and while
Traci and I wisely crashed, Mark and Tom stayed up most of the
night drinking Australian rum. Good thinking. As if Tom didn't have
enough jetlag.
Mr. Jetlag
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