Tokyo After more than 12 hours of flying, we landed in Tokyo, where we had several hours to wait for our flight to Hong Kong. One futile effort we made was the one where we tried to get outside the enclosed airport terminal and breathe some fresh air, not an easy task. You cannot just walk outside or even out on an observation deck and breathe real Japanese air. To go outside, you have to go through customs and immigration, apply for a temporary visa and have your passports stamped accordingly. We decided to do this. After a long time of form filling and line standing, we got to go outside to the terminal entrance. And there we stood, while an endless line of huge Toyota buses roared past smoking us with their exhaust. But we were brave and probably lasted some 30 minutes before we could admit to ourselves that this really sucked and went back in and again through the long process of passports, immigration, etc. And we were tired. Although it was light out, in reality it was two or three in the morning by our internal clocks. There was just nowhere to rest and our flight had been delayed. Finally we found a small floor area behind a sign, where we piled our carry-on bags and tried to take a few minutes nap, only to awaken to a Japanese guard (worried perhaps that we were street people) asking if we had airline tickets. We showed him our tickets and explained that the airlines had delayed our departure and that we were tired and had nowhere to rest. He understood and left us alone. Although the Tokyo airport is about as much of Japan as we saw, I liked the feel of the slice of Japan that we did see. Although definitely curious about an American family on the road, they were polite and accorded us a sense of space and privacy. Everything about that airport was squeaky clean. Hong Kong is a different story. ...back to the opening page go on to the next story...