UMTravels

Wednesday was a quiet day for me. Julian works, and I made a random Scruff date in the city. We ended up at the appropriately named Seattle Sandwich Café:

I was low on cash and the café didn’t take plastic, so it was a meal of snacks and a highball or two, but not a full meal:

Interesting guy, from Lebanon, working on his Masters in International Affairs at one of the universities in the city. Not boyfriend material, but I might get a place to crash in Beirut!

The next morning was an early morning…out of the house at 8AM, on a school holiday for Julian (who is a little slow at this time of the day).

Destination is the Toyota Museum and Assembly Plant Tour, in Toyota City. The downside is that Toyota City is 2.5 hours away from Julian’s flat. And many trains (four). I had to make phone shots of the route to get us there.

I congratulate Toyota on great instruction, including shots of the building that we’d be passing from the train station to get here:

Our tour time was 10:30, but that included half an hour of wandering around their museum:

Sadly, no phones are allowed I the plant, so we have to leave them on the bus. On the way to the buses, Julian made a little friend – now we can call him Poppa Julian, guess that makes the kid my great-grandson.

And off we go!

We were a little over an hour in the plant itself – and even Julian said he’d have like more time just staring at the line and playing their interactive “can you work the line” games.

Soon, it was back on the bus with our complimentary umbrellas as it was raining by the time the tour let out. By the time we got back to the museum, even the rain had stopped, but now we have umbrellas in case it starts again.

Needing lunch, we found this place by the train station that closed at 2, luckily it was 1:30, but we had to rush through our meal:

Ours was on the second floor (Yamauchinoujou), with the homemade banner offering 800yen lunch specials:

Another 2.5 hours and we are back to Julian’s flat, in time to make a farewell meal for ME. Julian and I did the shopping, and then when his girlfriend arrived, she looked at what we’d bought and went out and bought twice as much to supplement it – but it was a stunning farewell meal:

By 8PM, I was out the door and headed to the airport where I’d booked a room for my early flight in the morning:

Again, it was time to do some screen captures of where I was headed:

Toyoko Inn Chubu Kokusai-kuko Honkan (Orange Side). Apparently, the Orange Side is Western, and the Green Side is Asian – as reflected by the morning included breakfast, though you are free to go to either side for your breakfast. I, myself, was planning on going to the Japan Air Lines Lounge for my breakfast. Nice clean hotel, half the price of the ones that are directly attached to the hotel. This one required a five-minute walk (in the rain) from the enclosed overhead walkway. Definitely worth the walk. Mine would be the building with the reflected arrow on it.

And once again, it’s the hotel ice quest. And yet, another oddity – a machine in the lobby that dispenses cups of ice:

All, for this:

It’s going to be another early morning for me…so a couple of drinks, a little internet, and off to bed.

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