April 15, 2014

April 15, 2014

After breakfast, we packed our bags and boarded the bullet train back to Tokyo. This is our last day in what the Chinese referred to as Nippon (Land of the Rising Sun). We are ready to return to the land of sunshine and warmth. We loved seeing the cherry blossoms but we are tired of the rain and cool weather.

Aimee said she is making tacos tonight. I can’t wait. Food was my biggest issue. I might not be the most objective since my stomach hurt part of the trip. We found the food to be rather bland, over reliant on fish, and lacking in meat and fresh vegetables. Sushi was the only dish that came with wasabi (a very tiny dab). Where else is fish on a stick, or bag of dried sardines and almonds, a comfort food?

I think the Japanese must also have difficulty choosing food they like. Virtually every eatery had displays of plastic food in the window. It can’t all be for the sake of tourists. The other reason for the plastic food display could be language. Japan probably has the most complex writing system. They have three alphabets. The 2000 Kanji pictograms are used for the adopted Chinese words, but they have two other phonetic alphabets, one for Japanese words and another for foreign ones. Add in the Latin letters they intersperse and I bet there are more functionally illiterate citizens than they admit to. Hence the need for food pictures.

Aimee says what they lack in food, they make up for with politeness and…..toilets. In her mind the Japanese toilets are to die for. She wants one at home. When I sat down on one with its many switches, lights, knobs, music, and heated seat I was afraid I might actually get ejected and sent into space.

In Tokyo we switched trains to the Narita Express that takes us to the airport for our evening flight home to Tucson. Thanks to the International Date Line, we arrive before we leave. LOL