Sayonara Japan

It is with sadness that I leave Japan.  I expected to like the country but not quite as much as I actually did.  I found it friendly, lively and the countryside is physically beautiful.  It’s so fertile on the land between the mountains and the sea and every patch of arable land seems to be under cultivation either for rice, other crops or lush gardens.  I found the people extremely friendly and helpful.  A number of old women on the bus would try to engage me in conversation but since they did not speak English and my Japanese is limited to a few phrases like good day and I’m sorry we could not talk much.  Nevertheless we communicated with smiles and sign language.  Whenever people saw us peering inquisitively at a map or a ticket machine they would come up and try to help.  It was awesome.  I'm sorry I didn't learn more Japanese.  It seems a lovely language, very musical. Kyoto was wonderful, but I also liked Tokyo more than I thought I would.  I’m sorry we didn’t spend a little more time there. 


I did have a bit of angst when I saw men of about my Dad's age and wondering what they did during World War II, but it was mostly a fleeting thought.

We left this morning after taking a train to the airport in Osaka and I’m sitting in a lounge back in Seoul waiting for our flight to Saigon later tonight.