Lost in Translation....
(On the Tokyo Streets)

Well I am back from Japan. It was an ok trip. I spent 3 days in Hokkaido and the rest in Tsukuba. It was an ok trip. The best time I had was of coarse in Hokkaido. But from the whole trip I had about 2 hours in Hokkaido which became the most valuable part of my trip. But I did eat some good food!!

My last night in Tsukuba my colleagues from my company wanted to go to Tokyo. Because I had a drivers license to drive in Japan, they wanted me to take them by the company car from Tsukuba to Akihabara. There is a direct train. However, they had a game they wanted to play. They wanted to try and challenge the streets and expressways of Tokyo without using the GPS in the car. Furthermore, they made a rule that I could not read the map. None of them speak Japanese. Also, they had never been to Tokyo before. So it was a real challenge. I knew it was going to be a late night. I told them we would be getting very lost. But they wanted to have fun and try it.

So, after work at about 6:00pm we left for our journey. I turned the GPS off, opened my diet coke and Fran Chocolate and relaxed in the drivers seat. I started driving and turned where they told me to. Well.... its a long story. But we got very lost in Tokyo. They could not read the signs and they got confused at express numbers and exits. It was very very funny. I was very relaxed drinking my coke. When I finished my coke I stopped at a Lawsons and got another one. I knew it was going to be a very long night. We finally got to Akihabara about 3 hours later. After we got there, we quickly parked the car and went into a couple stores. They then wanted to challenge to get to Shibuya. So, without GPS we challenged to get to Shibuya... This was a challenge we could not pass. We got very lost. I didn't care it was funny. At about 2:00am, my work colleagues decided the game was over. We turned on the GPS and came home. It was a very very interesting night and we drove down some interesting streets and saw a lot of Tokyo. We just don't know what part of Tokyo we were in. But it is a night I will never forget.

I got back last night and couldn't sleep. I had jet lag. Plus there were some issues back in Japan that kept me from being able to relax. I got about 2 hours of sleep and woke up and watched 2 movies during the night. This morning, I put Christmas lights on my house. I have been gone almost all month so no time to do it. My neighbors came out and laughed at me because Christmas is only one week away. We usually do this at the end of November. But better late than never. I got an email today from some friends in Hokkaido saying they wanted to come and have Christmas in Utah with me. I was happy to receive that. So I decided to put up the lights. They are a married couple with one baby girl. It should be fun to show them Utah during the holidays. There is some other people I wish could have come too but I hope next year.

Well... I am starting to feel very sleepy now. But I need to hang in there until its time to go to bed...

I will try to post some pics shortly....