I can’t believe our time in Japan has already come to an end!  We had a blast and will definitely miss travelling with Jason and Kelly.  If you guys want to meet us anywhere else on our trip in the next three months, we’d love to have you join!

Here is a list of some observations and unrelated comments about Japan, with input from Ryan, Kelly, and Jason.

• All the taxi cabs have white lace seat covers.  Odd, and sort of uncomfortable when the taxi picked up our dirty selves after hiking Mount Fuji.  The taxis are also all square looking Toyota models we have never heard of; Super Deluxe, Royal Extra, and Crown.
• Everyone is extremely kind and helpful.  We (when I say ‘we’, I mean mostly Kelly) stopped random people in trains and on the streets to ask for directions.  All of them helped, many going out of their way to show us the path.  We also had people coming up to us in stations asking if we needed help.
• Japanese people are all rather slim.
• Japan appears to be rather polite and orderly.  Everyone stands in line to board the subway, waiting for passengers to disembark before getting on.  This is a big contrast to Beijing (where we are now), but I’ll write more on that later.
• As enthusiastic as Japan is about baseball, no one boos at baseball games.
• Japanese pears are delicious!  Much better than pears we get in the U.S.
• The ‘salary men’ all wear the ‘uniform’, dark slacks and a white shirt.  Reminds us of old Big Blue attire.
• When leaving a store or restaurant, everyone working there yells ‘Thank you very much’, similar to a sushi restaurant in the U.S.  It’s nice.
• I don’t remember what day it was, but Ryan was buying subway tickets and the machine said ‘Error’.  A man opened a little window above the machine and stuck out his head and hand, said something to Ryan, and pushed a button on the machine.  It was a hysterical!  Jason and Ryan compared it to 1) the wizard of Oz and 2) the orange juice commercials where the man sticks his hand out of the orange groves to give the customer O.J.