Kyou wa, Peter-san wa Doko?

23rd Oct 2004: Homeward Bound

Unbelievably, the last day was upon us. Where had all that time gone? It wasn't enough. We began hatching plans to come back again some day. One idea was to come back in Winter and go on a ski trip to Hokkaido in the Northeast. Of course, the easiest thing would be to come back to Tokyo on one of those city break package deals.

One thing was clear… Japan was an incredible place and not only had we not just scratched the surface of it, but we'd barely left a finger print on it. There was so much to see and do, and we'd only seen a snapshot of the West and South so far.

On the way back to Narita airport we suddenly noticed that the "limited express" train that goes there isn't actually that fast. It was only about as fast as the express trains that run from London to the airports there. I concluded that there was probably no need for a high speed Shinkansen link to Narita. Japan being as beautiful and amazing as it is, why would you ever want to leave it in a hurry?

Our motto of "God favours the stupid" held out to the very last. Our plane took off and 3 hours later the prefecture of Niigata, some 250 km to the North, was racked by a massive earthquake that was felt all the way in Tokyo, cancelling the flights for the rest of the day.

Someone really was looking out for us.