We logged 340 Japanese airliners during the week, possibly slightly less than I had hoped for. It's obvious that if you want to get more, you must travel around more, visiting Sapporo, Nagasaki and the like. It might have also been worthwile visiting Haneda at the beginning of the week, to possibly get a little variation in the based aeroplanes there.

Things really dried up at the end of the week ... I copped twice as much (12) at Gatwick on Tuesday morning than I did at the two Tokyo airports on Sunday !!.

I ended up getting 291 new (of which 247 were JA's) including 54 747's, 61 767's, 15 777's, 38 A.300's, 20 A.320's and another 3 A.330's and 5 A.340's.

Overall, Japan, the country itself, was less different and not as much hard work as I was expecting. It's easy to get around by public transport with no grasp of the language, at least in the cities. It was also not as expensive as we had been lead to believe. Sure it's pricey, although the current financial crash helps visitors somewhat, but I'm sure there's numerous European countries that's more expensive.

Highlights of the week ? ...... just being there !, 'The Boeing Inspection Team' at work again ..... the excitement on the taxi-in at Nagoya, with Japanese Hercs out one side of the aeroplane, and our first domestic JA's out the other ...... the wonderful JAS MD.90's, each one in a different colour-scheme ....... Kansai Airport, an amazing place, and very pretty too, also a magnificent observation facility ...... the lovely Nikko-Kansai Airport Hotel, and conversely, the smallest hotel room we'd ever stayed in at Tokyo (I'm sure there's smaller though) ..... the sight of wide-bodies flying the visual approach to runway 16L at Haneda, just like 747's doing run-and-breaks !! ....... flying on a very full 777 ....... hopefully some lovely sunny-side-up shots at just about everywhere ........ doing everything as per the plan ..... my first 'Pig' sandwiches for a couple of months ...... the Japanese people, who are so polite and friendly ...... the pink and green uniformed girls in the Kansai Observation Tower ! ....... the weather, and only needing to wear my specially-purchased-for-cold-weather-Japan thermal vest on one day ! ..... the looks of wonder on the faces of two young (Japanese) spotters at Nagoya when I gave them an Air NORTH Special Issue !! ..... the quite mesmerising Japanese girls ! .... every bus/train/aeroplane we were to travel on, leaving bang on time ..... not doing my back in this time !.

Acknowledgements/Thanks .... It was the most pre-planned trip we had ever been on, and I would like to thank the following who helped us with the planning ...... CMR (for a whole load of gen), Bill Blanchard, Conor Downes, Shingo Kawase, Rob Morris (all for schedule info), TAS, the JNTO, Paul & Ray (WoTT), Chris Taylor, Eddie Swift, Andy Thomson, Jun Shidara ... and anybody else I've forgotten .... thanks guys. Must also say thanks to Mr Psion for designing the Psion 3a, without which the above wouldn't have been written, and to Dave Gregg's WWW Airline Fleets (http://www.intercpt.demon.co.uk/) for all the types and c/n's.

Where to next ? ...... China ?, Brazil ?, Australia ? ..... look out for future REQ: INFO: 's !