Pardon my incoherence, but it’s 11:30PM here in Japan, and I just got back from dinner. That means it’s 7:30AM at home and I’ve been up since 7:30AM yesterday with a few naps during the day. I didn’t sleep that well last night, either. I’m pretty beat. After the flight we got on a bus for 3+ hour bus ride to Maebashi and didn’t have dinner until 9:30PM.

We had monjiyayaki for dinner tonight tonight which is similar but not identical to okonomiyaki. I’m used to okonomiyaki because it’s a Kansai thing, but this monjiyayaki is completely new to me. I also had a couple of large-looking beers, but I always think they’re not that strong here though they are very tasty.

And thought you might not be able to tell the difference, here’s an okonomiyaki.

The new NWA (Northwest Airlines, not the rap group) is not an improvement over the old. The planes are smaller and there aren’t any screens in the seatbacks, only the big screens up in the ceiling above the aisles. The headphone jack in the seat arm is one of those funky airline jacks that has two plugs for stereo and plugging in a normal set of headphones just gets sound in one ear. I also think they don’t feed you as often, even though they did have Cup-a-Noodle on demand.

Fortunately, I’m a big geek and brought lots of toys. I did watch the three movies overhead with the help of an airplane headphone jack converter that I’ve been carrying around for years but never used until today. I had my Kindle for reading books and my iPhone for music. The three movies were one I never wanted to see: The Soloist, one I sort of wanted to see: Monsters vs. Aliens, and one I actually wanted to see but shouldn’t admit that: 17 Again. The flight wasn’t that bad. It took 11 hours but it was fairly empty. Got on at 12:30PM, got to Narita around 11:30PM, and then took a bus to Maebashi. Our dinner was in Maebashi, where we’re spending the night.

OK, I’m about done. The funniest Engrish I saw was for a “love hotel” named “First Wood” that was right next to the freeway. More later.