This was my second trip to Japan.   I stayed with my friend, Dave, who had moved there
during the first week of May that year.   Here's a word of warning -- The rainy season
begins during the beginning of June.   It gets pretty humid until around the beginning of
October.

This is the second trip that I've taken to an Asian country in the past 7 months.   (I went
to Thailand in November of 2001.)   It's the fifth Asian or South Pacific country that I've
visited during the past 26 months.   You can visit the pages for those other trips by going
back to the Pictures page.

Some highlights of the trip were (in no particular order) --
1) Trying to use the trains and subways.   Oh, did I get lost!
2) Trying to determine how much to pay for a train or subway ride is difficult, also.
3) I went on 5 job interviews wearing a black suit, white shirt, brown socks, and a
brown belt.
4) I got 5 job offers out of 8 interviews.   Who would've thunk it, especially the way that
I was dressed for some of them?
5) I got a last-minute hotel in Tokyo.   That's not easy to do.   Unfortunately, I had to pay
dearly for it.
6) I went through one subway turnstile without paying enough.   It buzzed at me, but I'd
had enough of them that day and I went through anyway.
7) I missed my plane back to the United States and had to buy another one.   Now I have
to return to Japan so that I can use the remaining leg.

Some lessons that I learned were (also, in no particular order) were --
1) The sun rises at about 5 o'clock during this time of year.   And some of the bars seem
to never close.
2) There are usually no paper towels nor toilet paper in the bathrooms.
3) Be careful when going into "local bars".   Two of us did and it cost us 8,800 yen
(about $70 at 125 yen per U.S. dollar).   We were there for about 30 minutes, had 2
beers each, and sang 3 songs.   Sugoi!
4) Men aged 25 to 40 years old and dressed in black stand along sidewalks at night.  
They are trying to coerce women to be hostesses in bars and men to be customers in the
same bars.
5) The Japanese bars don't appear to have maximum capacity limits.
6) Every weeknight (and sometimes weekend nights), Japanese businessmen go out
drinking either with other Japanese businessmen or with very well dressed Japanese
women (their secretaries?).   You'll frequently see them stumbling along the sidewalks,
obviously feeling no pain.
7) All school girls (less than about 10 years old) wear white leg warmers from their
shoes to their knees -- a throw-back to the 1970's.
8) Check the weather forecast closely before leaving home for a relatively long period.  
It's no fun getting caught without an umbrella, especially when riding the trains.
9) Don't fall asleep on trains or subways (or you might miss your stop).   The Japanese
people do it, but I don't know how (yet).

National/International Crisis
Strangely, whenever I travel to a country in either Asia or the South Pacific, a national
or international crisis occurs.   During this trip, the North Koreans were stating that
The United States was planning on attacking them.   As such, the North Koreans were
creating an uncomfortable situation in the region, especially for the Japanese since the
Japanese were the biggest enemies of the North Koreans.