Japan

[Greg]

Empty row is good.

[thatguy]

An escort was waiting for 5 of us SF bound. Another mad dash through the airport, literally running. Now seated and have a row to myself for the 10 hour flight.
Bungalow bound.

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Home
16 hours in transit
Time to sleep now

[Greg]

That can't be good.

[Drunk Monk]

Our last day we logged 13.3 miles but when I got home, my pedometer reset to this time zone which chopped up the days differently. Glad I recorded it here.

Tara is having issues in Okinawa. It’s really hard to get around (no public transit like in the metropolises we were in before) and the resort hotel is designed to be all inclusive unless you’re vegetarian. She’s got a taxi app now but time and distance are weird there. She wanted to visit an aquarium that’s just 10 miles away but a 3 hour trip. She made a run to Lawson (a Japanese 7/11 like chain) and stocked up on snacks.

[Drunk Monk]

Turns out I made my YMAA sales goal - over by $3k - while I was away. Best result I’ve had all year. I told my boss that this means I should go on vacation more often.

[Drunk Monk]

I tried to make soy milk ramen which was so good in Japan. I was totally unaware of this. Tara knew of it. She got into making it during the pandemic. Mine came out ok tonight. I use a spoonful of chili crisp in my ramen which didn’t mix well with the soy milk. I used about half soy milk and half water. I need to add more soy milk next time.

[Drunk Monk]

Look out for Brad Pitt and Bad Bunny.

Nanda?

Fingers crossed.

I just got Greg’s obscure movie reference, which is funny that I missed it because I wrote an article on that film that I’m rather proud of - https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/is-bull...tewashing/

[Greg]

How obscure can it be if you wrote a movie review about it?

[Drunk Monk]

How obscure can it be if you wrote a movie review about it?

Have you read my stuff? Obscure is my specialty. I just don’t remember all the obscure stuff I write about. That’s why I write it down, or at least on the web somewhere. When KFM went down, it was like a stroke. I’m still in rehab over that. Same thing will happen if this D00M4M goes dark. Or fb or IG. I should really store my notes somewhere more secure. 

When Tara gets home, our Japan trip will be officially done. I’ve been using her texts like Japanese methadone, savoring her continued adventures vicariously (she’s not big on social media but she did post some pix on her IG). I’ll be posting my pix for months on my socials. I haven’t even finished posting my first day of pix yet. Hopefully it’ll amuse my followers but ultimately I don’t care. IG says my stats are way up. Yay? It’s more about me being a shameless social media slut. Enjoy the show, D00Mbroz! 

I did love Japan, every moment of it. Not only was it magical, having that adventure with Tara was sheer joy. I wonder if we’ll ever do anything like that again.

[Drunk Monk]

Tara is home and our trip is at an end.

Funny father daughter moment: when she got in Darth at SFO, she handed me a pocari sweat ‘fresh from Japan.’ In the back seat of Darth I had some chilled pocari sweat ready for her, knowing how dehydrating long flights can be. Pocari sweat FTW!

[Drunk Monk]

My ass has never been as clean as it was in Japan. 

Everything they say about Japanese toilets is true. They have multi-angle bidet features where you can adjust angle and pressure, plus there’s a warm air dryer for afterwards. Some toilets play music or make water sounds to cover up any loud farts. Some open automatically to greet you. Some even light up in case you can’t find them (?) They can have so many buttons that one time I couldn’t find the main flush one. 

The public toilets are sparklingly clean. I kept thinking that when Japanese visit anywhere else in the world, they must be appalled. Our ‘clean’ bathrooms must be like a portapotty on day three of a festival. 

On top of that, the showers are all amazing. Strong water pressure, hot almost instantly, usually with a shower head that detaches, also with a tiny stool and a bucket. With the heat, a shower everyday was needed to cut through the daily layers of sweat film. Every shower was luxurious.

And then there’s the onsens. Mass public bathing in waist level showers (those stools and buckets come into play) then soaking in curative waters. 

The Japanese understand cleanliness.