Author: Peg

Depends on what you call “expensive”. 32 nights in hotel is costing about $5,700. Tax included. And maybe 5 of the nights come with a “free” breakfast.

General McChrystal, is this going to be like the MacArthur mess in the 50’s. Or General McClellan in the 60’s – 1860’s that is. What’s it with the Mac-Generals?

Can anyone spell quagmire. Rhymes with Afghanistan.

Rule Three – I forgot – in addition to no Sherpas – no taxis.

In my world – There are no Sherpas. No bearers. No porters. And darn few bellmen.

Rule Three: Everywoman, young and old, schleps her own stuff. And gets it into the overhead compartment. But, a little help with the lifting by a nice young man can be appreciated.

Today, I finished making hotel reservations. Along the way I found out some things about Japanese hotels.

First, no matter how much you pay, if they have a swimming pool (1) you must wear a swimsuit and a CAP and (2) you will be charged 10 to 20 dollars. Now, if they have a huge community “bath”, that is usually free and you must be buck naked. Go figure. The swim togs have been deleted from my packing list.

Second, check in time. In Japan if check in time is 1500 hours – you are expected to be there to check in at 1500 hours. Not 1400 hours and by 1630 hours your room might be gone.

Speaking of schlepping – Carlton just asked “Why are you taking your computer?” Why indeed? The Airness travel weight is about 3.5 pounds.

Looking around Japan for where we are going to spend our last unreserved 5 nights in Japan. One is a Saturday. Saturday is a hard day to find a hotel in Japan. Every Japanese must leave home on Saturday morning.

And, I finally made my Japan2do list – and even started 2-doing some of the the items.

Mr C dented his beloved car – he took it to the shop today and is having a “car free” few days. At least until Monday.

Even as I am doing this – up in our apartment building party room – there is a going away party under way – with refreshments – for a dog. What can I say???

Finally starting to get satisfactory results from the travel camera.

According to the calendar widget – three weeks from today – I’ll be hating life on a very long hopefully very boring plane ride to Japan.

I think I should make a 2do list. I am sure there are things 2do.

Most un-Peg like, I think I am going to end up with hotel reservations for everywhere we are going to be in Japan before we leave. It seems to be the preferred Japanese way to do things. Organized, planned, orderly, polite. Not like Peg at all.

Summer note. They have Popsicles every Saturday at our pool. Spiderman Popsicles aren’t bad. Better than grape Popsicles.

Revised List:

Revised from last Saturday’s first cut.

• Five four   short sleeved shirts
• One  brown dress – a black pencil skirt might be better. Pencil skirt still in the running
• One brown linen skirt
• One jeans skirt – maybe too short for an old woman.
• One black cotton cardigan Replaced by long sleeve silk tee.
• One black linen shirt, with long sleeves. Sort of jacket.
• 2 1   camis
• 2  bras
• handful of pantie
• swim suit
• pareu
• sandals
• belt
• one pair of sox.

And the shirts were subjected to my drying test….

The one on the right almost flunked. The one on the left was good to go in 3 hours. Maybe I should just take one shirt? Extreme packing???

Next move is to pack it all up along with my travel electronic toys and pack it to work. That would be one bus trip and one 1.5 mile walk … should be a good test of it’s schlep-ablity.

See Rule One….

Rule Two – No Whining. When you travel things go wrong. Things don’t work out like you want or planned. Things are late. Things get lost. Reservations get eaten by the forces of evil. Squatty-Potties appear. Buses don’t appear. It rains. You get lost. You get tired. Your feet hurt. You get hungry. You get hot. Your suitcase becomes simultaneously too small and too heavy. NO WHINING.

Whatever happens is what you planned.

Been spending way too much time trying to find a place to stay in Tokyo. Not an easy job. I set a budget max of $2000 for 9 nights. And, I didn’t want to be too far out, I wanted to be close to the subway and train stations. And I wanted twin beds. And non-smoking.

To make things worse – one of the days we are going to be in Tokyo is Summer Fireworks Night. So, some places  had rooms for 8 nights but not all 9.

SO, when I found a room for $150 per night in a good location. I kept shopping around looking for other options. Eventually, I sprung for the room and paid for it. I had to pay in advance. Well, now I have buyer’s remorse. Why is the room so cheap? What is wrong with the hotel?

Are they going to charge me for sheets, towels, toilet paper? I am pretty sure they will charge me for internet. And, they tried to get me prepay for breakfast – at $46 per day – I passed. The hotel is on top of a subway station. And there is a McD’s in the subway station.