You may notice that I changed my shirt...finally. Going on 12 days w/ no official laundry, just sink washing!
Sadly, the last two pictures taken with my rice hat. I left it on the wrong side of customs in Osaka, but I got a lot of use out of that 20,000 Dong ($1) hat.
Hong Kong airport, Main Terminal. I don't think John Elway could throw a vortex football high enough to hit this ceiling.
Today was a standard travel day. For whatever reason, the cheapest ticket to Japan took us through Beijing (well North and much farther than is necessary to get to Japan). However, we did get served a decent airline meal on each flight, so our food costs were relatively low this day. This would loom even more crucial after several days of eating sushi for every meal...so worth it. So we ended up at Osaka/Kansai Airport (for which they created an entire island, which is currently sinking at about 3 inches per year, down from 2.5 feet in 1994). The airport cost about $20 billion. The planners expected some settlement to occur, but after 3 years of construction, the island had sunk 25 feet. It was regarded as a civil works disaster, but is now largely accepted as an engineering monument because of the changes made to accommodate this sinking. They better start making 747 sea planes!
Landing in Beijing. We looked around for the downtown area or any Olympic sights, but apparently they are not near the airport! I had read about the pollution, but as you can see here, it really is quite bad. Maybe we're lucky we did not leave the airport. I've heard that some people wake up in the morning and cough up brown or black on particularly bad days. Strange place to hold the World's largest athletic event?
The only real excitement came when Mark and I landed in Osaka and realized we were pretty clueless as to how to get to the hotel. The hotel address we had said that we were staying in downtown Osaka. We got directions from a train staff member that sent us on a 1 hour 15 minute adventure w/ 3 transfers. All in all, pretty good directions since we made it there eventually!
Upon arrival, we discovered a thing of beauty. The Japanese toilet. Heated seats, built-in bidet, it is the filet mignon of the porcelain throne. Just like in the above link, curiousity got the best of Mark and I, so we tested out the water sprayer. It nearly took Mark's eye out. That's a lotta pressure!
What else lies in store for us in this futuristic land?!
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