Narita Roadtrip!

So on Wednesday morning at 3:30am Keith, Marikit, and I headed off to Narita for an early morning roadtrip. Marikit is from the Philippines and received a scholarship to come to Japan for 4 years to attend Utsunomiya University. She purchased a plane ticket back to the Philippines that left at 9:45am. One problem with such an early flight is that the trains don't get you to the airport in time in the morning and the bus had no more tickets available.
















Thus, we embarked on what we thought would be a 5 and half hour roadtrip down to Narita and back. So our instructions provided to us went something like this: Head out of town on 123 until you see a giant whale. At the giant whale fish tale to the right. Now make sure you stay on this road until you meet the giant shell. (Bring your translator with you so you can understand him). After receiving instructions, say thank you, and make sure you don't touch his pearl. Head down until you see a Sunkus where the Pirates hang out. You will eventually find a river. Cross it. Then look for the rescue airplanes and you will soon be there.
















Well, we also got some road numbers but that was the gist of it. [For those of you who are familiar with the love eye of Hoag, eat your heart out. My love eye has flames shooting out of it. Don't ask how that happened. I don't know.] But Marikit gave us some Philippine snacks. The one in my hand interpreted into something like "My Dead Ancestors." I don't know. I didn't ask questions but it wasn't too bad.



















We then stopped near Mt. Tsukuba for a picture. As you can tell it was cloudy and not very helpful for seeing the mountain but the rice fields looked great. They are a wonderful cushioning for when you get karate chopped.















After a few hours and two unintentional detours we made it to the airport after a quick restroom break at the nearby hotel. Who needs a gas station when there are hotels everywhere.















Our way back took a bit longer. Maybe because of our three accidental detours and one intentional detour and of course traffic was a lot worse during rush hour. Below is the tallest Buddha in the world at 120m (396ft). That's taller than a football field! It weighs 2220 tons and was completed in 1992. From head to toe it stands 100m and 20m for the pedestal. The Statue of Liberty from head to toe is only 40m.

For some reason I am reminded of a song. (Big Buddha, Big Buddha, Big Buddha, Oh yeah, Big Buddha. Big Buddha number 1...)



















We eventually made it home without much help to the Japanese road system. For some reason most Japanese roads are not straight. It is rare to find roads that go North and South or East and West. Most curve all around and often take turns. An example would be our main road of travel we took called 408. There were about 7 places where you had to take turns to stay on it and usually you got one warning sign that you had to turn right or left to stay on it. Well, needless to say, we missed a few of those signs but we had a great time anyways.