Japan, September 2008

In September, while Mark was on a 2 day business trip to the US, a customer had a problem in Japan and someone from Centera needed to visit - so Mark was asked to extend his trip.  Additionally, as Mark had gone only prepared for internal engineering meetings, he needed to make a sudden trip to Macy's for a suit, shirts, ties, shoes, suitcase - the whole getup!  Below is Mark in his hotel room in Japan, getting ready for the day (since I had no warning, I also didn't have a chance to bring our camera, so all the photos on this page were taken with the cell phone, thus they are a little grainy)

Due to the schedule of meetings with the customer, I had to stay the weekend, so I at least got to a bit of sightseeing.  Below are scenes from a bus trip to Mt Fuji

A Japanese KFC!	At a Japanese rest stop, a Starbucks in the background
My view of Mt Fuji!  It was a bit of a disappointment.
Another stop on the tour, to see a scenic valley. It looked a lot like Mt Fuji to me!	At a little shrine nearby, washing my hands in the traditional way
Final leg of the voyage - a short boat cruise on the lake	And the scenic views!!

It was quite an experience in Japan, even though it was short - Tokyo was probably the busiest city in the world that I've ever seen, even busier than New York City, and it was certainly a far different feel from any city that I've visited in either the United States or Europe.
This was also my first time flying around the world, as I Brussels -> Boston -> Tokyo -> Brussels - and with the routes we did, this was a complete circumnavigation of the Northern hemisphere!