Back from vacation

Touched down sometime past midnight yesterday morning, slept a couple of hours, then headed straight back to the grindstone.

I don't think I can remember taking a vacation that didn't leave me exhausted after its conclusion. Maybe I only remember the tiring ones?

I guess getting my seat kicked and my hair pulled by the screaming kid seated behind me on the flight back didn't help, any more than the sudden bouts of extreme turbulence that the fighter-jockey pilot happily pushed us through in the middle of dinner did.

As with most family trips I ended up in the pathfinder role, mapping out routes and transportation options, and part-timed as a really inept restaurant-menu-translator and general-direction-asker with my wonky Japanese from Osaka to Kyoto to Tokyo. We made it through somehow though!

A couple of things I learned from this trip about traveling in Japan:

To open those tightly closed lacquered soup bowls, hold the bowl firmly along the lip on opposing sides, then squeeze gently inwards as if forcing the circular lip into an oval.

Anything bigger than a trolley bag is too big for the shinkansen - unless you're willing to sacrifice leg space!

Avoid buying guide books published more than 15 years ago (doh).

Took a whole crapload of crap photos, and as usual I need to find some time (and maybe some good Mac software) to go through them all. Coming up soon!