Skip to main content

WE ARE IN TOKYO

Our flight to Tokyo on Hawaiian Airlines featured the ususal take-off view of Waikiki and Diamond Head.

The food and service were great.  Started with prosecco, then went on to Johnny Walker Black, sake and Kirin Beer with a Japanese meal.  Followed by cheesecake, Bailey's and cognac.

Saw three films.  Guy Richie's The Covenant, which got 83/98 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, really good move, and Someone You Loved, a Korean romance film with a different kind of twist at the end.  Unexpected.
The last one was Contact, but the iPad had to be turned off when the plane approached Haneda Airport, so I missed the last few minutes.
However, I turned to Google, and found this article, which tries to explain what happened., 
  • Left more questions about the reality, except that Jody Foster playing the role of a Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence (SETI) scientist, possibly went through a wormhole and returned back again, for this was recorded in 1's and 0's, but was classifed.
  • Could have been the premise for a second film.  
  • In any case, the 1997 film and 1985 book (by Carl Sagan) endings were different, and Sagan was an
    advisor to the production.  The concept of wormholes was suggested after the book was published, so was incorporated into the story for the movie
  • My Sunday posting is usually somewhat spiritual in nature, and this film attempts, like I do, to reconcile faith and science.
  • I have a special interest in the subject of SETI, for I once worked for the NASA Ames Research Center on the Orion Project, when Nobel laureate Charles Townes and I proposed a better way to detect extrasolar planets, and later when I was a Senate staff member, helped Sagan get the initial funding for this field.
In any case, on the approach to Haneda Airport, I think that was Mount Fuji in the background.
Turns out that the more official name is Tokyo International Airport at Haneda, or Tokyo-Haneda International Airport.
We caught a cab to the Tokyo Westin for around $70.  The new executive club was still open, so we had a few drinks, salad, soup, nuts, cheese and other stuff.  Our view was of Tokyo Tower.

Went to sleep at around 10PM, or 3AM Hawaii time.  Got up and saw Mount Fuji at dawn.
Big day today, for we're off to view the cherry blossoms.  The dinner tonight is at Robuchon's, located across the street just below our hotel room.  You can see both Mt. Fuji and that mansion where the restaurant is located.

Read about various meals I've had there in the past.  If you keep scrolling, you will come to a Las Vegas Robuchon's.

Yikes, we just had an earthquake.  The whole building shook.  I'll tomorrow report on how serious this was.  Tokyo has been on the brink of The Big One for a century now.

 - 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota.  Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north.  Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge.  If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic.  Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing.  The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University.  Caught a bus. Was called the  Century 21 Exposition .  Also the Seattle World's Fair.  10 million joined me on a six-month run.  My first. These a...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that   Oktoberfest   in Germany is mostly in September?  The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3.  Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September?  The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich?  These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11.  Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town.  It was drizzling a bit.  We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served.  We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall.  So no one came to serve us beer.  After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine.  Thus, we might have been the ...

THE FIRST 84 YEARS OF MY LIFE

The first half of my life was spent preparing myself for my final 42 years.  This was a mostly trying and stressful period involving a less than ideal youth, then struggles to get through school, my first few jobs and accompanying life, ending two months later on a Sunday with  Part 15E , so it was a spiritual conclusion to my final transition.  I never did count the number of actual postings, but I suspect it was around 25 parts.  The ending had to do with golf, the disappearance and re-appearance of an  8-iron cover.  That was the final clue to whether the beyond after death would be eternal gloom or Heaven. Today, I provide only one transition, but hint about a final one, for this, after all, is Sunday.  I'm 84 years old, so let me summarize what happened during the first phase, from 0-42, and follow with the years 42-84.  As this is 2024, that key transition year was 1982. I can't seem to find this photo, but as a one-year old baby, I was fat....