One of the highlights of our recent Japan experience was a visit by Debbie’s parents David and Barbara. They came for a week in early October (from the 9th to the 16th). Collecting them from the airport turned out to be a slightly longer and more arduous task than we had anticipated. The train ride from our local station to Narita airport took about an hour and a half, with two transfers. From Narita station to Narita airport terminal is only a 10 minute train ride, but the trains only go by once an hour, which is highly inconvenient if you don’t know the timetable in advance. We made it to the airport, excited but kinda tired, with about an hour to spare.

Narita airport is not one of Tokyo’s greatest tourist spots, but it did have a camera shop selling very well priced cameras. Debbie bought me a camera, featuring autowind and zoom and all that good stuff, which made me a very happy Matt. That camera was to see a lot of use in the week that followed, churning through about six rolls of film in our sightseeing orgy. Not only was it nice to see our parents (who arrived safe and sound) but we also got to do all that tourist stuff that we hadn’t got round to in 4 months – Tokyo Disneyland, Meiji-Jingu shrine, Asakusa, O-Daiba…

Disneyland was lots of fun – very clean, and full of Japanese children. We went on most of the rides, unfortunately including Space Mountain, otherwise known as a big time make-you-puke rollercoaster in the dark. Never again, my friends, never again. After exposing the Japanese patrons of Disneyland to a somewhat staggering range of expletives and profanity we vowed never again to set foot or backside in a rollercoaster. Enjoyable highlights were the Haunted House (complete with spooky Japanese story – unintelligible to us but in a very cool evil voice), the Peter Pan ride (although after Space Mountain Matt’s nerves were barely up to the terrors of flying ships and the dastardly Captain Hook), and the cool Jungle Cruise, with a massively enthusiastic Japanese guide.

Meiji-jingu is a beautiful place - by far the most breathtaking temple we have seen in Japan. It is in the miiddle of Tokyo - in crazy old Harajuku in fact, so you get to contrast modern young hooligan Japan with a stunning example of traditional Japan, all in less than a five minute walk from the train station. The temple is in the middle of a big green foresty park thing, with wide gravel footpaths (about 20 feet across), which take a goodly and relaxing 20 minutes to crunch down. The largest Torii in the country is at Meiji-jingu, and it's an impressive sight! (Torii are the huge gate things that you walk through on the way into Shinto shrines). Beautiful. We took about forty digital photos, so maybe one day if we ever get around to it we'll make a Meiji-jingu page. Maybe.