Of course.

Greetings from the Land of the Rising Sun.  My travel fortune has yet to improve greatly from my last great adventure to Machu Picchu and the Peruvian jungle.

On the plane from LAX to Tokyo, we were seated behind deaf people.  At initial thought, what good luck, they will be quiet!  The boys promptly reclined their seats and when the flight attendent announced for people to lift up their seats so that people could eat more easily, we looked at each other and said, “Of course.  We’re behind the only people on this plane who can’t hear that announcement.”

And then, the next day, I learned the hard way the the Japanese feel that Americans overcook chicken.  So when we got to Shinjuku, I glanced across the street and saw him there, taunting me.  Yes, less than 24 hours after touchdown, and I already was lusting after the Colonel.  And after three days in Tokyo, we’ve already eaten at a Wendy’s and two McDonalds.  Of course. 

Then we spent two hours trying to find a restaurant named Nobu.  It wasn’t near ANYTHING and we arrived with empty stomachs and a feeling of elation in actually FINDING something.  We get there and find out it closed down.  We look at each other, “Of course.”

Tonight, we dined at a bar that featured a Japanese Beatle-mania group.  We shared the table with a Japanese family who didn’t speak English, but knew all the Beatle’s songs by heart.  Whenever they caught my eye, they encouraged me to dance.  So on “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” I gave them a little sugar and busted out a couple seated dance moves I pirated from the routine my jazz class performed when I was seven.  They were elated.  After the normal sounding bar food arrived hosting quail eggs and questionable fried chicken, I left the meal hungry, and handing over 4,200 Yen.  So I spent $40 on a dinner I didn’t eat and couldn’t even find a McDonald’s to wash it down.  Of course.

And then we learn Typhoon Man-yi hits Japan AFTER the rainy season ended, thwarting our efforts to climb Mt. Fuji.  We looked at each other and said, “Of course.”

One week left in this wonderland and I can’t wait to see what will happen next…