The final page

The last few days were all work and not really any play, so there were not many amusements to write about. Obviously I made it home, so I'm documenting my final thoughts on the trip.

First, the Lavamat Turbo, turbo in name only. I think I've written before about this device which washes and dries your clothes in about the same amount of time it would take to walk to the laundromat, drop them off, wait for them to be done, try to pick them up and find they were lost, and file the lost article claim. OK I'm being hard on it, I guess 3 hours+ isn't too bad for a small load. You do get used to throwing something in every day before you leave for work. In the picture below we're on "economy" mode, which will take 199 minutes to process. And it'll still be damp when it gets done.

I tried to sample everything in the vending machines. We found we liked Coffee Boss a lot, and even the Georgia coffee wasn't too bad. Here's a couple of holdouts - CC Lemon and Bikkle. CC Lemon is very lemony, like a carbonated lemonade.Apparently it's the third-best-selling soft drink in Japan and even sponsors a sports stadium. Bikkle had been bothering me for a long time because it looked to me to be milk-based. It turns out it's not, it tasted like some odd fruit, but according to Wikipedia, it's yogurt based. Weird.

During my travels I noticed this building out in the Bay. Really round. Interesting.

On my last night I played with the camera settings and tried to get some better night shots of Tokyo. I liked spending time on the roof, it gave an interesting perspective on the city.

The emergency ladder on the little balcony. I don't know I would have been able to handle it.

As I was hanging around the Tokyo Prince waiting for the bus to the airport, I looked at this tree/bush, and at first I thought it was poorly maintained, but the longer I looked at it I decided it was intentional, since the base is meticulously trimmed. Maybe it's supposed to look like fire, or a forest? I don't know. I went to take a picture of it and someone walking by made me have my picture taken in front of it, and my Japanese being limited, I did not argue.

At the terminal 2 departures hall of NRT - I didn't remember this being this renovated last time I came through, but I may have gone to the other terminal.

It's big.

They had an observation deck and I was very early, so I watched the planes for a while. I liked that the ground crew bowed and waved to the planes they pushed back.

Near the observation deck was this train simulator, and I had the time so I played it. Well, I tried. It was cool and even had physical feedback in the seat as if you were going over the rail seams. Too bad the graphics seemed kinda VGA-ish.

Yes, I'll drive the JR from Tokyo.

It took a while but I got it going. I think I had 620m to go here.

I stopped way too early and took too long. Guess I'm not a qualified engineer.

I wasn't sure what I was going to get at the Admiral's club so I stopped for a simple lunch. Found this noodle shop that was selling Pho, in this case a chicken-pho. Not bad but not nearly as good as at home.

On the plane for the 12 hour journey home.

All uneventful, tried to sleep but didn't. Here we're flying over Montana near Fort Peck Lake.

Home at last! The Metro NY area.

And finally, our taxi was delayed while these two Delta jets played chicken.

Customs and Immigration were non-issues, waiting for the bags look longest, but I was outside 20 minutes after getting off the plane, which I think is really good, especially for JFK.

Thanks for following along, hope you enjoyed it. See you all soon!