Here I sit at 成田国際空港 (Narita International Airport), awaiting my slightly-delayed flight back to San Francisco. After clearing security* and immigrations, I grabbed a bowl of delicious tenpura udon, chatted over lunch with a military wife on her way back to the U.S., did a butt-load of shopping, and am now at my gate.
It would seem that Japan still had one more adventure in store for me on my final day here. One the way, the bus driver made an announcement that we would be needing to take a detour because of a big accident on the expressway. This required him to drive some “back” roads through the idyllic, picturesque Chiba countryside. I snapped some photos from the bus, but don’t know how they came out. I think that I’ll just wait to post them all to my Flickr photostream after I get home. Right now, I think I’d prefer to drink my Pocari Sweat and relax while waiting for my flight.
With that, I’m signing off for now to enjoy my Almond Choco and relax, pending the boarding of my flight. See y’all on the other side of the pond.
– – – – – – – – –
* The T.S.A. should be required to do their first 6 months on duty here, being trained by the staff at Narita. I think it took me a grand total of 18 seconds to pass through security. Everyone was polite and respectful to a fault. And not one single loud-mouthed jackass could be heard yelling at the herd of bread-dead traveling cattle to put their liquids in a baggie, take out their laptops, throw out bottles of water, or make sure their firearms are unloaded. These things are posted on signs… which the Japanese, apparently, read.