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Getting Lucky

from Mia Marlowe...

I'm a lucky girl and I know it. My DH has been a travel industry IT professional for most of his working life. Because of that, we've been able to take lots of trips that wouldn't have been possible for us otherwise. I've tagged along on his business trips to England, Ireland, Brussels, Germany and the Netherlands. He works, bless the man, and I get to overdose on museums and cultural treasures. Yeah, it's not fair, but he doesn't complain.  


Yesterday I had a 48 hour day. We were returning from a week in Tokyo ( The pic above was taken from the window of the office building where my DH was working. That bit of white in the distance is Mt. Fuji--150 miles away!) It was a little like time travel because we left Narita airport at 3 PM on March 3rd and arrived at JFK in New York at 1 PM also on March 3rd!


Tokyo, a city of 12 million souls, is a fascinating place. It's a study in contrasts, dense high rises, covered "gerbil trail" style walkways and underground tunnels, spattered with occasional pagodas and ubiquitous wayside shrines and temples.  Once I figured out how to make use of their Metro and JR train and subway lines, I was able to travel all over the city, visiting Asakusa, the oldest section of the city, the National Museums, and the Imperial Gardens.

Even though I speak no Japanese beyond "arigatou", the people were wonderful to me. Honest to a fault, a vendor could be trusted to take the right amount of change from my hand and no more if I had trouble figuring out the money. I didn't see a single panhandler. There was no evidence of anyone sleeping on the street. The city was cleaner than any I've ever visited, including, I'm sorry to say, US cities. The people were uniformly friendly, helpful and so unfailingly polite. They even "out-niced" Midwesterners. ;-)

I'm still a little punchy after the long travel day yesterday, but I have blogged a bit about my adventures in Japan on my website. In the days to come I'll also be uploading some pics to my Facebook Page. If you'd like to do a little armchair traveling, I invite you to visit me in both places.

Now it' s your turn. Have you taken a trip that made you feel lucky to have had the experience?

Comments

  1. Wow! You ARE lucky! I think almost every trip I've ever taken made me feel lucky to have had the experience. usually not until after the experience was over, though. I'm not a great traveler.

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  2. Yes, ma'am. Haven't been nearly as far as you have but I've been lucky to find the most interesting little places that have given me wonderful writing settings and ideas!

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  3. I have actually been impressed with the friendliness of the people I have encountered on the various Hawaiian islands. They all seem to treat you like family or a really good friend, even if they've just met you!

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  4. In a fit of economic optimism, I took myself to England and Scotland last spring for three weeks. EVERYTHING went right, from the train connections, to the sights being deserted (the Royal Wedding was my friend) to the food to the weather to the smooth flights. That trip and the fun I had still warms my heart.

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  5. Tokyo looks fabulous! Lucky you!

    I would say that I'm lucky to be traveling to Ireland in May, but I'm afraid I'll jinx the trip if I do. Let's just say that we're fortunate to have the opportunity. ;)

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  6. Wonderful post, Mia! Very lucky to have so much travel to inspire your stories!

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