Typhoon Vicente had passed by Hong Kong by the time I arrived late Tue night, but left a lot of turmoil in its wake. We left Tokyo an hour late, circled before landing at Hong Kong for an hour, then waited on the tarmac for almost an hour. So by the time I cleared customs and had my luggage it was 1.30 am. The van scheduled for my pick-up several hours earlier had left. The airport hotels were all full .. I got a hotel room downtown, but the line at the taxi stand had 200 people, and the airport train was no longer running. One option remained : the airport’s night buses running every 30 mins. That got me to the hotel at 4 am. Quite an adventure.
Hermès scarf on display at one of Narita airports luxury stores. (Hermes was an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, son of Zeus and the Pleiade Maia).This head of this ‘solar’ samurai in a toy store bobs back and forth. There is a little solar panel in the base.An ATM in Narita airport. Looks like 7-11 is in the banking business in Japan as well.That’s Mt Fuji on the wall of this Narita airport restaurant.Look for the wolf in this elaborate Red Riding Hood origami display, from a store that sells all kinds of origami kits.Oh no! McDonalds has infiltrated Japan as well. (That’s a Big Mac). ¥670 for the Big Mac meal is about US$9 : expensive compared to elsewhere in the world.We’re on the way to Hong Kong.The wasabi-flavored rice snacks are very very tasty.This is midnight on Tue night and I spotted this Hong Kong Airlines plane as I stepped off from ours. We are about to board a bus that will take us to the arrivals lounge.Waiting to check out of the hotel Wed morning, and checking out the offerings in the little souvenir shop. These Chinese zodiac characters are the Tiger (for 2010), the Rabbit (for 2011) and the Dragon (for 2012).SpongeBob Squarepants and I are on the way to Dameisha. (SpongeBob is not mine! belongs to the van driver).And here’s the obligatory border crossing picture as we entered the mainland, leaving the Hong Kong area.
