The End of G-TOUR

Above, Kiyomizu Shrine in Kyoto.

G-TOUR had an early morning wake-up as we had to check out of the Gimmond Hotel and head to the airport to catch an All Nippon Airways 747 to Narita International Airport.

It was a hot, humid morning. The hotel lobby, where we had to drop off our luggage, was hotter than outside.

Above, the last room at the Hotel Gimmond in Kyoto.

We headed over to the airport for the flight to Narita. I got particularly annoyed at the check-in people as they almost damaged my new suitcase. Grrr!

We boarded an All Nippon Airways 747 for the short (about one hour) flight to Narita. I thought it odd to use a 747 for such a short flight, but the plane was full.

We got to Narita International Airport at about nine and had all day to do as we pleased as our plane to Los Angeles (LAX) departs that evening.

A group of us went into Tokyo by train and wandered about the city. We had lunch in the bar at T.G.I. Friday's in Roppongi (where we held the dinner earlier in the trip).

After more wandering around, we headed back to Narita Airport so we could go through customs and currency exchange before catching our flight home.

We made good use of the duty-free stores at the airport. Our plane left Narita at around 7 PM. Following dinner on the plane, I decided to take a nap. This lasted until just before breakfast was served, about six hours later. What a nap! I still had some jet lag the next day. (Funny thing about jet lag. I never get it going to Japan, but I do when I get home.)

We arrived at LAX and we said our goodbyes and members headed to other flights for the return trip to their various hometowns. All I needed to do was to catch the Flyaway bus to the San Fernando Valley to pick up my car there and drive home. I got home at about 3 PM, four hours before we departed Japan (we gained back a day when we crossed the International Dateline in the mid-Pacific).

It was a memorable trip for all and it went flawlessly. We can thank Sita Travel and Pete Sohi for that.

Since then, we lost two members of the tour, an elderly couple who were not even Godzilla fans. They passed away a few years after the tour. They kept in touch with some tour members before their passings.

One tour member met his wife there and he is now a dad.

Will there be another G-TOUR? J. D. says his kids are nagging him to organize another one. It is a serious undertaking to organize a tour, but since we now have experience from doing the first one, the second should be easier. Should we go to the same places? Should we do something different? (J. D. liked my "Rodan" tour of Kyushu of 2007 and mused that would be an interesting tour to undertake.) We'll see.