two broads abroad (one broad, one broader)

So, we've been doing a lot of sleeping since we got back, but I feel pressure to get some photos up here--soon I'll start having other things to say and what if I'm not caught up with Japan yet? Then what will I do? (Laughing at self here!) But still....

I thought about trying to do a mini-travelogue ("then we went to Nara and saw these temples, then we went to Kyoto and saw these temples...") but decided a thematic approach might be better. So Loopy & I compiled some short lists.... We'll start with "Worst experience, best experience."

Worst experiences in Japan

for me

• Discovering that most of my expenses for my "tour guide" duties were NOT going to be reimbursed, i.e., we were actually going to be spending a lot of our own money to spend a lot of time with people we disliked (two of my non-favorites pictured below)--not only that but we were taking them to places they didn't seem to enjoy, when left to ourselves we'd really rather be visiting other places entirely. Ugh. Aak.
  

  Señora "Do they have chicken teriyaki?" (NO!!!)	Mademoiselle "Is there fish in this?" (YES!!!)

  
  
• The day after that, a particularly long & awful day trip (the one that was organized by someone else, I must add--but we still had to go, and still had to pay for it) was topped off by missing the last train home, having to take a sleeper train, and throwing up from bad sushi. Loopy describes it all in great detailhere.

for Loopy

• Standing in line for the train for 45 minutes at the Nagoya Expo, in high heat & humidity, amid a massive crowd (crowds give her serious claustrophobia)--after she'd already waited around for me to see "just one more thing" repeatedly for about four hours. The heat gave her a terrible heat rash on her ankles, which caused her pain for the rest of the trip (her description here--she doesn't mention how bad I was, which is very sweet of her, but it was all my fault & I feel terrible about it).
  
  
• Festival at Kasuga Taisha
  
  You will see this show up on my "best" list. I have no excuse for this evidence of utter heartlessness.
  
  Loopy describes what she liked about the event here, with pictures. What she didn't like was the horrendous crowd, heat, and walking.
  
  Another massive crowd--and this time, in addition to the panicky claustrophobic misery, she had to contend with people poking their umbrella points in her face (it was a crowd of short people in the rain) and flashbulbs going off in her eyes continually.
  
  Then, after we managed to escape that, we realized that the vast crowd had stopped all traffic and there was no hope of a taxi or bus, so we had to walk almost a mile to where traffic was moving--still in the heat, exacerbating Loopy's rash from Nagoya, so by the end of all this poor dear Loopy was in terrible pain. The next day her ankles looked like they'd been ironed (as in burnt, not as in flat). It was awful.
  
  In the photo you can see her being a very, very, very good sport. If you are wondering (1) why she ever goes anywhere with me at all and (2) why I'm still alive, you are not the only one.

Gotta go sleep some more, but tune in tomorrow for "Best Experiences"!