Ten Years Gone In A Flash (Almost)

Right, Armand at the 2001 Tokyo International Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Clawmark Toys.

Besides being Halloween, today marks ten years since I first stepped aboard a jet and headed off for Japan with an arrival on November 1 (Japan is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles time and the International Dateline is crossed in the mid-Pacific). Until then, all my flying had been on domestic flights.

Before heading off for Japan again (most likely next spring), there is one thing I have to do: renew my passport. Passports are valid for ten years and mine expired back on September 16. It will be interesting to receive the new passport once I renew it and see what changes have been made to them by the government. In a way, I'm going to miss using the old passport with all its stamps, including ones from different tourist attractions in Japan that had rubber stamps for tourists to stamp their passports with.

It is interesting to see pictures of one's self of ten years ago. My hair was thicker and darker (i.e., less grey) and my mustache was darker. I was also about 50-60 pounds heavier than I am now (which is a good thing).

Above, the Nijubashi Bridge at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Some of the stamped places and attractions of Japan in my passport include: Harajuku Station, Mt. Fuji Visitor Center, JR Miyajima Island Ferry, Inaricho Station (Tokyo), Hiroshima Cenotaph (for A-bomb victims), Lucky Dragon No. 5, Mt. Aso Volcano National Park, Fukuoka Tower and others (some are in Japanese with no picture, and I don't remember what they were from).


Right, Armand with the Godzilla statue in Hibiya. Photo by Richard Pusateri.

It has been an interesting ten years. Some good things happened, and some not-so-good things happened. But that's life. All in all, it has been a pretty good ten years.

I am looking forward to getting the new passport and getting it filled up with new stamps.