Quite an uneventful day today.  You couldn’t see Hong Kong Harbour at all this morning as the mist was so dense and it was raining. I didn’t care though, I was moving on.

Very few things to report on the way to the airport other than it all looked grim without sunshine. I haven’t opened my camera case today and if I had posted a photo today I think I would have stole someone else’s picture. I was in general people watching mood today. There is a fine line between interest and leering. I guess there is a legal issue somewhere in there too, but son Jon will have to give me guidance on that.

The Cathay Pacific flight to Tokyo was nice and smooth, so I sat back and leered, or took an observational interest in one of the Stewardesses who was a bit like Lucy Liu, maybe a couple of years on top, but stunning nonetheless. I must of leered a bit to much as she came over and asked if there was anything else she could get for me. I sat back with some Country Music in my ears and let the time literally fly by. I was surprised when they said we were coming into land.

Immigration at Tokyo Narita was extremely pleasant. Japanese people have a reputation for manners and even the officials at the airport didn’t let me down. As I went through immigration to Customs I was pulled up for a search of my bags. The guy talked to me politely throughout his examination and then bowed to me with a send off of “thanks for being courteous”.

I went on to the small arrivals hall and headed for the Information Desk. I had two questions, where can I catch the curtesy bus for my Hotel and where can I change some travellers cheques?  She was so specific in her answers, I wanted to go back and ask her a couple more things.

And it’s raining in Tokyo too.

The Hotel Bus arrived on time, the Hotel Check-in was great. And this is just an Airport Hotel that I need a stopover before heading to Kyoto in the morning. The only small issue I had was when I went for the elevators, a group of 150 airline girls finished a seminar at that moment. Life’s a bitch sometimes isn’t it.

The Hotels 3 restaurants all stop serving food at 10pm, which I found out as I asked the question at 9.55pm. I was pointed to a top floor bar, which has a large lounge area and a huge low bar. You can tell you are in Japan, as the seat height is a bit bigger than the Little Tikes set that Jon and Tom had as kids. That’s brought back a memory of Sunday’s when Jon was about 2 years old and he would eat himself to sleep while at the little red table and chair.

Back to the lounge bar, its very smokey up here. It is very unusual in today’s healthy climate to see this still in existence. Ironic that I am moving onto Kyoto tomorrow. I guess Japan and maybe China will be like this. Sapporo beer is cold and crisp and the limited food menu is passable. A seafood pilaff and a flambé of mixed berries with ice cream.

The lounge music is a bit 50s crooning which is fine for a candlelit entente, but tapping away on my iPad it is causing me to mis-type.

Time to get 40 winks. Night all, Kyoto tomorrow sometime.