Time Traveling to Japan

After spending an amazing 3 days with my brother in San Fran, we were off to Japan from the SFO airport on Monday morning.  Surprisingly, our flight was right on time even amid the Asiana Airlines crash only a few days before.  It was strange to see the plane gutted and the contents of the tail and stowage strewn across the tarmac as we took off in our plane from the adjacent run-way.  Fun Fact: The mortality rate is higher in escalator accidents than airplane accidents!

We left San Fran on Monday at 1:25PM  and arrived at Narita Airport on Tuesday at 4:30PM  after 11+ hours in the plane.  By the time we completed customs, received our Japanese Rail Passes,  took an hour long train ride to our neighborhood, and walked 20 minutes to our hotel (Ryokan Sawanoya), it was amazing to see our buddy Zach waiting for us at a Japanese restaurant between our two Ryokans.  Before we left the restaurant, we were able to mingle with a huge group of young Japanese monks that are part of a sect that can drink alcohol, eat meat, and smoke cigarettes! Who knew!? I think if the language barrier wasn't so great, we would have lost Michael and Zach to this crew! 

The cat in the photo below was the body guard of the joint and made sure the party monks didn't get out of hand.