Unexpected Japan

I had wanted to keep this site classy and did not intend to start out with a Manhattan and a witchlike Jack-O-Lantern. But, what with the “classy” juxtaposition of the downward pointing cocktail glass and the upward pointing hat, I couldn’t resist!

I did not expect to see representations of Halloween in Japan, expecially this early in the season or this early in my trip. This was night one, having spent a long time on the plane and endless confusion at Narita airport gathering up train tickets and getting lost. I figure that “lost” will be my default status for the next two months.

After a difficult night of sleep and continuing jet lag, I am now in the Tokyo train station awaiting my first Shinksen that will take me up to Morioka. This is a little known small city in the north of Japan that, in 2023, was named, second only to London, as one of 52 pleces in the world to visit. Even the Japanese were shocked. Anyway, since I had already known that I wanted to start my trip out of Tokyo and up north, this seemed to be a good choice as a place to get my bearings. I was right to think that Tokyo would NOT be a good place for that, having just spent too long in the madhouse Tokyo train station trying to find a good cup of coffee and a place to sit down that wasn’t named Starbucks.