Scanned from the original in December 2001 & cleaned up a bit. 

This will be a new approach to the "trip letter" writing, for am going to print it while on the airplane (actually starting it on the Inland Sea Boat Trip the day before flying home) and Dawna promises to type it, as well as to add some paragraphs, after we get home. Seems like a hard way to do things but I've got time now, and won’t after the flying ends. 

Basis for the trip was my participation in a meeting in Tokyo, a Japanese-American get together for a seminar on Solar Flares. There were about 15 Americans and 20 Japanese, so was a nice small group. Dawna was the only non-local wife, which meant we got special consideration at social doings. I gave a 20-minute paper on some of our new satellite data and it was well received. As you will see the 5-day meeting really only had 3 days of talks. We managed to get charter-like airfares by booking some specific ground arrangements for the 2nd week, 6 weeks ahead of time. Now into the day-by-day: 

Saturday.....8 May..... Left SFO on a plane to Honolulu at 10:00 AM, had a 5 hour wait in Honolulu, flew onward and arrived Tokyo about 8:00 PM on Sunday night (crossed dateline). Planes were full (of bargain rate people) 747’s of Northwest Orient Airlines and rides and service were quit good.,...better than TWA or United from SFO to East Coast. Now, in studying Tokyo information we had never been able to find the location of our hotel and I'd even called the meeting organizer but only had the name and phone number.....but got a taxi, and after a bit of wondering, we got there. Turned out to not be a regular hotel but rather a spot for meetings and accommodations for participants only; etc. So was very clean, friendly, convenient and a really good deal, WENT TO BED and neither of us awoke very jet lagged. 

Monday..... 10 May. I had meetings and gave my talk in the afternoon, so only day highlight was nice lunch of a soup with lots of noodles and other goodies. Dawna's Day: I left the hotel for a day of getting acquainted with the subways and take care of a little business. First, I wanted to reconfirm our return flight, so looking on my Tokyo map found Northwest located in the Ginza district. I also needed to get some vouchers from the Japanese Travel Bureau (JTB). These two errands took most of my morning. Turned out that the Ginza area was a big department store area for downtown Tokyo so I had lots of fun window shopping while walking around doing business. And in the bottom of one of the large department stores I found a marvelous selection of "take out food counters." So I purchased lunch - two pieces of smoked fish, two skewers of squid pieces and a steamed bun. And I took my sack lunch to a near by park - in Japanese tradition - to eat. I spent the little bit of the afternoon that was left wandering the looking, returning to the hotel by 4:30, when Jake's meetings were supposed to be over. That evening there was a nice reception sponsored by the Japanese Government Science folks. Lots of good eats, beer and talk. Several Japanese scientists had their wives and was a very social time. Afterwards we hopped a subway to the Ginza and walked a bit looking at the city and its lights.  

Tuesday.....11 May. More meetings and another good lunch (the Japanese fellows lead us to a good spot and ordered for us.) And another reception that night, this time at a fellow’s (Dr. Takakura) house (apartment actually). We all took a bus to get there. It was a nice time with nibbles, drinks, and talk and an opportunity to see into a residence. The evening, was topped off when Mrs. Takakura put one of her kimonos on Dawna (who had admired them earlier.) Dawna says: Getting the whole outfit on took the better part of half an hour. Needless to say, I felt very elegant. Dr. Takakura comment was how well it suited me, and I was very flattered that Mrs. Takakura suggested and went to all the effort to put the whole outfit on. After we left the Takakuras we headed (by subway) to a different area of Tokyo called Shinjuka which includes several blocks of pre-war old Tokyo with tiny streets, many stalls of food, etc. We walked around looking and finally ate at a 6-stool bar while they fixed us a big bowl of the noodle-soup type stuff and it was very good. Dawna’s Day - I had decided to look for a kimono for Sarah, so hopped on the subway and headed back to the Ginza area. The kimono part of the department stores seemed to be located on the third floor - so getting off on the third floor, I asked if someone could help me that spoke some English. Everyone rushed around and finally a little Japanese girl came up to me and asked if she could help me. I explained that I wanted a kimono for a little girl, showing Sarah's height with my hand. She took me to where there were kimonos on display and I said, "Yes, that was what I wanted.” Then she proceeded to try and find where the stock was - that took sometime. I finally decided on a kimono. Then I wanted an obi and started looking for one. She showed me one with a neat little bow already made on the back but I insisted I wanted the ‘real obi’ and she would shake her head no and I would shake my head yes. Finally she took me to a model and proceeded to undue the obi and by now I was getting quite embarrassed, but........by

the time she had the obi off and halfway back on I was agreeing that the original pretty one was the one I should have. Then for the tab! and getas (shoes and socks). She finally found a conversion chart and we decided on what we both thought would be the right size. She went off with all my stuff to wrap and came back with a very pretty package and my bill. And as I paid the bill, I had to smile at her patience..... she provided me with one of my most fun experiences of the whole trip. I should mention that while waiting for the package, I looked at adult obis and kimonos and was very surprised to see how expensive they were. Three hundred dollars would be almost minimum for a nice silk kimono and obi - so I gave up the idea of getting one for myself. That afternoon I looked at a lot of jewelry and things in general. 

Wednesday,...,12 May.....Decent breakfast as usual in the nice eating room at the meeting center, then more meetings which finally ended about 4:00 p.m. Lunch today was the best so far....unagi and rice (unagi is eel and its broiled and its very soft, very rich and. very good). Also a nice spot. After the meeting ended we headed to Tokyo central to give me some sightseeing around the palace and then walked to Ginza area to see the general area. Did a bit of shop looking and lots of walking, as the sun went down. We like the area,...clean, interesting modern architecture and lots of neat bright lights and then on various side streets where there were lots of clubs and eating places. We were looking for a tempura bar (i.e., a place that only serves tempura). Didn't find one but found a nice place that served tempura among other things and ate dinner. Twas good. Dawnals Day - lots more window shopping, but nothing specific. 

Thursday.....15 May......Field Trip..As part of the meeting an excursion was organized that went as follows. About 20 Americans and 10 Japanese boarded a chartered bus after breakfast. An hour got us to the outskirts of Tokyo (all this way was on city roads so lots of window views) and to Mitaka where the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory is. For about an hour we toured the facility, signed the guest book, accepted literature and had tea and cookies. One fellow especially thanked Dawna and myself for being the first foreign couple to visit his lab. Very gracious hosts. Back to the bus, on to toll ways, views of countryside (and Mt. Fiji), stop at a toll way eating place for lunch (pretty good actually) and arrived mid afternoon at our destination in the mountains.....Nobeyama and the radio telescope observatory there. The bus ride showed us lots of towns, crops and scenery. Nobeyama is in a 5000 feet high valley and pretty and cool. Toured the facility and played ping pong and LOST (those Orientals are good). Accommodations for the night were at a Japanese Inn (ryokan) which is full during the summer tourist season but basically only our group was there this early. Mighty chilly place this early in the year. Fancy dinner of many Japanese items. Lots of beer and sake. And ended up singing songs in a small group and talking. Then sleeping on-the-floor which really means on soft beddings on the floor. 

Friday....,14 May. Breakfast was poor (because it was cold, i.e. two fried eggs). Plan for our bus group was to return to Tokyo via Hakone-Fiji National Park for some sightseeing. We had arranged to not do this but rather went to Toyokawa. Observatory so that I could visit with a Radio Astronomy group. So one fellow drove us there which took most of the day. We got a little tourist looking in along the way....lots of nice paddies and lots of tea plants. It was fun and nice talking with the scientist who was driving us. The visit to the lab was good from my work point-of-view and we'll probably do some collaborations in the future. The boss of the group had us, the fellow who drove us and two of the fellows I'd been talking to to dinner at his house. He cooked Sukiyaki at the table and it was very good and we ate lots Plus fun talking and nice to see a house (and two children about the ages of Nate and Sarah). A general comment before leaving the business portion: Our Japanese hosts had been unbelievable gracious and took extremely good care of us, were very social and overall made the week an extremely enjoyable time. In fact we wonder if the vacation could equal the business portion on this trip. Our host drove us to our hotel after dinner. 

Saturday.....15 May. We took the train to Kyoto (super fast bullet train.) When we got off the train we tried to get a taxi, but after waiting in a line for 1/2 hour decided to walk to our ryokan. I think the lack of taxis (very, very unusual for Japan) was because this was the day for a super major parade-celebration. Anyway, we were struggling along with our bags in the right general direction but unsure (working with a poor map in a town where very few streets have names is not easy) when a Japanese fellow stopped and insisted on driving us. He had a hard time finding our ryokan but finally managed by asking people. So again Japanese hospitality aided us. The greeting at the ryokan was gracious as it is supposed to be and the rooms nicely decorated and very clean. The cost was high (as we knew when we prepaid) and there was a confusion as to meals being included. We put our bags in our room and were off to the parade 'Hollyhock Festival’ via cab. There were millions of people and rather a dull parade but one of Japan's annual highlights and "we were there." The activities in the temple grounds were actually neater to us - the parade started here. We were a couple of miles north of the ryokan and did a slow walk home. Lots of very nice small shops (bought a hand broom from a broom making shop) also stopped by a big shop for tourists (ugly loud Americans basically) and bought a couple of things and also ate a not super (and too costly) meal. Slept "on the floor" which vas very comfortable though the thin walls meant it was noisy.  

Sunday..,16 May. We carried a map in hand and did a "self-guided" temple/shrine tour with lots of stops at neat shops and eating spots. Many temples were having services, which added to the effect and overall we saw lots of impressive sights. At one corner a bakery smell hit us so we found the spot and bought some good treats. For lunch we found another cute place and by getting the lady to come outside (often there are pictures of the food choices outside), we pointed to what we wanted. We had a very good meal in a small, clean spot where we sat on the floor. The tempura-style shrimp atop a bowl of rice was especially good, as was the soup. One very routine item was to see many many school children (in uniforms) at every temple or shrine and they all wanted to talk with Americans. Initially talking, to them, signing autographs, etc. was OK, but soon it became a pain and we tried to avoid them. Conversely the few children we met on the streets were shy and cute. We finished off our walk around tour by going to the Kyoto Museum. Quite nice but the special exhibit of National Art Treasures was mobbed.... the regular exhibits were not crowded. Back to our inn and they produced tea and snack crackers about 5 minutes after we walked in the door. We did a bit of resting and cleaning up and then splurged by having a Japanese dinner served in our room (sitting at a table on the floor). Quite a gourmet spread of various items from raw fish right on through two types of soup like items, etc. Good fun and worth the $30.00 (no liquor) for one night but not for three. Did some night walking and looking in a club type area. 

Monday.....17 May. Our main goal was to see Katsura Villa in the suburbs....an old estate/famous for the gardens and architecture, which we had obtained permission to visit. So we figured out the streetcar system and used it and feet to get there. The place is impressive but not a highlight because the group was too big (about 50-60 people) and for a small type garden and the walk was too structured and rapid, so we felt we didn't get to see much. So not as neat a deal as it could have been for the buildings and gardens are very nice. Walked-streetcared back to town. Then off walking in a new direction looking for a place for lunch. Picked a very nice looking spot (though no food in the window) and after lots of interplay agreed we had tempura which was prepared in front of us while we sat at a beautiful wooden bar. A good meal and a reasonable price. The next find was a shop of obies (kimono belts) which are made of beautiful material about 14" wide and quite long. Neat store, no English but fun people … bought one to use as a runner for the dinning room buffet. 

On toward the main castle of the city, quite impressive. Then took a cab (feet tired) to a theater to check on Kabuki performances and one was just starting so we went. Tis old style Japanese drama and slow moving and dramatic. We (especially Dawna) enjoyed it. Walked 'home’ through fun streets and tea was produced immediately after we walked in. We then collapsed into bed. 

Tuesday....8 May. Made our accommodations change to the Miyako Hotel (Japanese section) as per plan. This was more convenient for the next two days pre-paid tours had a bus that left from here and also a much less expensive place to stay. It was OK but mighty commercial compared to our last 3 nights with people, tour groups, busses, etc. After leaving our bags, we began walking toward a temple on a route in the local hilly suburb. Got lost, but refused a suggestion to go back and start over and ended up finding a woodsy fountain shrine, very small but very kept up and no other people which we liked. We tried to make our way up the mountain but the trails dissolved into thickets....very pretty though and wild azaleas. Finally, we back tracked out off the mountain and caught a cab to the temple we were trying to find in the first place. Good temple. Did some walking and on the way at a tiny meat market a man was cooking breaded pork cutlets so bought a couple of hot ones. Then caught a street car heading way north. Bought more to eat at the end of the streetcar ride. Then caught a cab and went to Villa Shugkin (another must reserve ahead place). We had our picnic lunch sitting on the stones at the entrance of the villa. Then took a tour of the villa. The grounds were larger and the tour group smaller. The tour was slower and the whole setting was beautiful. Even great to watch about a dozen gardeners doing their careful pruning - every tree (and there are hundreds) a show place piece. Walked back to the streetcar through the suburbs. Then a long ride westward to a shrine.... nice. Streetcared/walked to the motel for a bath and rest. Went out looking for Shubu Shubu (a meat and vegetable dish which you cook at your table in a boiling stock). Found a nice place, had it and enjoyed it (with beer). Then home to bed. 

Wednesday.... .19 May. A one-day tour bus to Nara (a city 30 miles away) that was old old capital with famous shrines/temples. Saw one on the way, two in Nara and one on the way back. Good sights including the largest bronze casting in the world (a Buddha). Lunch was included and was at an old fancy hotel and was western and was lamb and was OK. We were glad we took the tour but sure didn't like the constant lecturing and the hurry up-and-see-it-like-cattle aspect. Hopped off the bus when it reached Kyoto downtown. Hit the luggage and shoe stores area and bought green shoes for Dawna and a small carry-on bag for us. Streetcar/walked and found a spot with eel in the window. After hand waving etc, we ended up at a 2nd floor window seat watching people and eating eel over rice and drank lots of beer... .Dawna's first eel and she loved it also. Great place and meal/view/people and time. Walked home to bed. 

Thursday,...,20 May. We began our 2-day Inland Sea package tour.... which turned out to consist of 10 people (2 Americans, 1 German, 7 Australians (maybe 2 were British) and a fine tour guide. We took the bullet train to Okayoma, then cars to a park/garden/castle/museum area. This was very nice and quite uncrowded and peaceful. Then back into the cars and onward to a town that in maintaining its old character, Jurashiki (Ashland of Japan) with museums, canals, shops, etc. After being advised to eat at the hotel we slid away and found a small spot, pointed at some noodle-soup items and had a nice meal. Toured museums (very fine pottery and artwork and walked a little of the town. Then onward to sea and ferry to Shikoku Island and the city of Takamatsuy. Taken to our arranged hotel (which was fancy downstairs but a dumpy room) and tho we had been advised "its impractical to go back into town" we walked to town.... through lots of shopping arcades and found the "hole-in-the-wall" that had been advertised as specializing in fish. Dawna had scallops in a white sauce and I had two types of fried fish. Meal and place were OK but not sensational.., people were fun. Walked back and to sleep.

Friday.,.,,21 May. Had breakfast in the hotel and costly. Today it was pouring. Up until now we had had some rain but was never too bad since we had our umbrellas. Today the rain was pretty heavy but the tour goes on. Boarded a local tour bus and went to a high plateau with good views (but not so good in the rain, but still nice and too many souvenir shops; and a huge garden park that was very, very nice though again some sunshine would have helped. Fancy lunch (part of the tour) atop a down town hotel (nice salmon but mighty western.). Then to the boat for 5-hour trip to Osaka, the first portion of which goes through the island dotted inland sea...., OK, but really heavy rain/overcast/cold which hurt our sightseeing significantly. Fun to see ships and ports though and Dawna got some napping in. Arrived Osaka 7:30 p.m. and pouring. Checked into the Hotel Royal Osaka,,..very large, modern and fancy and madhouse of people. Our room was quite nice/first class. Decided that our late arrival plus rain made eating a "fancy-hotel" meal advisable though it would cost plenty so clean up and went downstairs. Ugg, the cost was high but meal was not served fancy nor in a high-class spot. Went to bed. 

Saturday..... 22 May. Up and on the town via walking, and subways. Went to Osaka castle and very impressive exterior grounds and castle and fine view from the top. Interior was a nice museum, but nothing new really Then onward to shopping. Fantastic malls and food places. Selected a Tempura Bar and it was a high light with a huge variety cooked in front of us and served still hot a few at a time .... Great. “Toured” some department stores which are amazing. Did our last round of shopping, including some ceramic pieces and a copper fondue pot. Walked and subwayed back to the Hotel, taxi to airport, flight Osaka-Tokyo on All Nippon Airways (sorta PSA of Japan). Spent a couple of hours in a terrible Tokyo airport,...hot crowded and smoke filled. Flew home with a stop in Honolulu (and the nicest customs process I've been in by far). Again fullish 747 but nice rides.

SUMMARY:: Good trip …both parts. Surprised at how much we enjoyed the food. Dawna did not get sick. The people think "western" in many ways and every-where is safe and nearly everywhere is clean, so a great spot to "do it Yourself.” 

THE END