shinkansen

we just returned from a 2wk trip to japan. a beautiful country although like everywhere else there are too many people packed into too small a space. the parts of the country that haven't been raped by industry and urban sprawl are gorgeous. we enjoyed the culture--in my mind far superior to american culture. the food got old though. probably had something to do with the stomach flu i acquired and the evening spent praying to the porcelain god (they have many gods in japan).

by far my favorite aspect of japan travel was the effeciency and speed of public transport. the shinkansen (bullet train) is the best mode of travel i've ever experienced. the trains are extremely clean, quiet, plentiful, spacious, and travel >100mph. a welcome relief to today's pleasant airline travel experience. and you generally don't have a 350# american spilling into your seat.

we toured a few sake factories. the language barrier limited our learning of sake production, but the sake was tasty nonetheless. we even discovered sparkling sake.

spent a couple days in hiroshima. inconceivable and indefensible what happened there, and at nagasaki. one of an endless number of dark days in american history. it's a cool city now...streetcars and all. even have a temple to the porcelain god. the most i paid for a temple admission in japan...oh wait, that was just our hotel room. funny, it was immediately after our visit to the peace park/bomb memorial that i had my vomiting sessions.

we spent a morning in the busiest fish market in the world in central tokyo called tsukuji. big tuna was there. ate sushi for breakfast.

i wanted to go watch a taping of ninja warrior (one of my new favorite shows), but apparently it's only taped once or twice a year. next time.

speaking of tv, did anyone see last week's simpsons episode? i thought it one of the best/cleverest episodes i've seen in a long time. still nothing compared to the mid-90s, but hey, i'll take what i can get. did you know they don't even air jeopardy in this godforsaken place? education is highly emphasized.

we'll post some japan pix when leslie gets home...i'm lazy and computer illiterate.