Those long plane flights seem shorter all the time. On this most recent flight from L.A. to Narita, I stayed up and worked most the flight, and in no time, I was there. Heading down to Numazu to visit my good friend and old college roomate began to feel like "planes, trains and automobiles" though. It's always that second step after the flight - finding the right track to get the train from Tokyo main station after taking the Narita express. This time I opted to store the big bag at the station..that made it a bit easier. It seemed like I just made it to the right track with no time to spare! I never get over how friendly and helpful people are in Japan. I asked a train station attendent to help me out finding the right track. Feeling like the idiot american, as usual, with no japanese language skills, he tried to help, but could point and gesture. I just went in the direction he gestured and reached another maze of twisty little passages when, all of the sudden, he re-appeared to continue to direct me..he had been watching me the whole time and was worried! Anyhow, made to Mishima in time for Rob to take me out to eat at what could only be described as "supra sushi". Numazu is on the water near the Izu peninsula, and talk about fresh fish! this sushi is to die for! just melts in your mouth. I was taken aback only slightly at the appetizer of raw translucent whole "mini" fish. That's not something served at ichi bahn. Later we went to a bar owned and operated by a couple he knows and watched some world cup action and had some sake and beer. Gave me time to try out his new i-mode phone. I was able to send a quick email back to the US , and browse the typical selection of i-mode screen savers and other items. not too much has changed in the i-mode fare since I was hear 2 years ago. The biggest new service is the advent of the picture phones that j-phone rolled out, then KDDI and finally i-mode. It was not supposed to be this way. There was supposed to be, by this time, the FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Access) 3G phones here in Japan. But alas, I guess that's just not working yet. Well, it was great just to try out i-mode again and then get some sleep. As brief as my visit was, it was great to see the kids and Rob and Takako again. Funny thing, no matter where you go in the world, if there is a video game machine or PC, there will be one kid playing and another watching him play. Everyhwere. No difference here either. We did take a long walk through the neighborhood and visit the local buddhist temple. I'd been there before. Amazing how, in the middle of lots of activity how incredibly peaceful it is inside the temple grounds. Three of us (including his 6 year old daughter) relaxed and had a real tea party there. The day went by quickly indeed and before we knew it we were going back to the train station where I was getting dropped off... ready to head off to the next stop - Hong Kong and the CDG World Congress. No trip would be complete however without visiting his private collection of pottery. Rob is one of the leading American experts on pottery in Japan, and he has an incredible collection of Bizen pottery, primarily Sake cups and serving jars. If you are interested in learning about japanese pottery, I suggest you visit his site. It has lots of good links and information..and...you can purchase some of these fine pieces of art there as well. Well, on to HK and CDMA...