Back from Japan

I'm trying to calculate how long it took for me to travel back from Japan - the logisitics of getting from the base to the airport took a bit of extra time, and then there was a five hour layover in Seattle.  I finally arrived back at home last night at 11:00pm...so accounting for the 14 hour time difference and leaving the hotel on Sunday morning at 9:00am Japan time, I may have been in transit for 30 hours (just thinking about that makes my butt hurt from the airplane seats).

The other riders on the shuttle to Narita told me that the route we took wasn't the usual one:  we drove through Yokohama and to the south of Tokyo.  I remember waking up during the ride from the airport to Zama in time to see the Tokyo Tower and a brightly lit area that may have been the Roppongi District, two sights that were visible from the freeway we were on (we also passed Tokyo Disney, but I slept through that one!).

On that ride I also saw the Yokohama skyline - so I was looking forward to the shuttle ride back to catch a glimpse of these sites I hadn't had time to take in.  Here are two views of the Yokohama harbor, one looking back at the skyline and with Mount Fuji rising over it - pardon the quality, they were taken from the bus window. 

The rest of the drive was interesting enough, mainly through agricultural areas, where most of the tightly organized fields have been prepared for planting, and it looks like summer squash was already sprouting and has been covered with light rows of screening.

I have about four posts left from the trip to get out this week and then I will return to traditionally HC topics.  I'm also looking forward to getting back to the little house very soon, and in fact, we are trying to put together a GWNF hike for this weekend.