Japan

I was at Japan this week for work at Hyogo-ken and meetings at Tokyo. In my life I naturally follow the maxim of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” but I did not realize the the three wise monkeys, or sanzaru, from which this saying was drawn are from this 17th century carving at the Toshogu shrine at Nikko.

I’m at Narita, connecting to an HNL flight and will speak at a seminar in Hawaii and then go on to the Masters next week. I had a nice seat on the upper deck of the 747 coming from Bangkok to Narita this afternoon, and saw this 777 out the left side of the aircraft as we flew past Nagoya.

This is the view of the Japanese alps from my hotel room window last Saturday. I was at Japan for 春分の日 (vernal equinox day) and skiing at Sugadaira in Nagano.

For the past twelve months I have written a monthly column in ゴルフ場セミナー (Golf Course Seminar, a monthly publication by Japan’s Golf Digest group) about the six key points of greenkeeping.

I have just spent a few days at Hokkaido and I am reminded of why I like it so much. In no specific order, I especially appreciate the: Skiing – I was just at Niseko for three days of skiing.

I left from Sapporo this morning on the Niseko Ski Express, a special limited express train that takes a scenic route along the coast between Sapporo and Otaru before turning into the mountains as the train goes west.

I’m at Haneda airport at the Signet Lounge looking out at gate 66 and the Pokemon 747 that I will be flying on to Fukuoka in 30 minutes. It is always fun to fly on this plane.

 I was at Okinawa earlier this month and had some interesting food, including fresh goat meat (yagi). I also had fresh horse meat (uma), and we finished our meal with uma soup.

One great thing about the convenience stores (konbini) in Japan is the regular introduction of new items (and the consequent removal of items that do not sell). Tonight I got an early start on

I missed my flight to Japan Monday morning, so I bought a new ticket and flew to Osaka from Bangkok, departing just before midnight. I often travel for my work, and in so doing I develop an extensive and peculiar knowledge of airports and airlines.