søndag den 22. juli 2007

Friday, Nov. 24 - The Awful Museum







Today is The Day Of Packing The Suitcase, lest I want to seriously panic when coming home tonight or getting up tomorrow early. The problem is a) the many books and magazines I didn’t dare send with the motorcycle, and b) the 23 kilograms weight limit for my check-in luggage, and c) that the Nimbus leather side bag is not part of my carry-on, like it was last time. And d) that I always carry too much stuff. Not that I would have wanted to without just about all of it – aside from the tent and the very few motorcycle spare parts, I really did use everything. The tank bags get packed until they weigh at least as much as the check-in stuff, and their zippers howl in protest. The laptop is another four kilograms.

Now the big decision: Stay in town and take in the final impressions of Tokyo, or got to the airplane museum near Narita Airport, a few hours train ride from here. The aforementioned Tourist Information airheads told me, five weeks ago, that this was Japan’s major airplane collection, so hoping to see some WW2 bombers and prototype aircraft, I go out there. In any case I’m to eat dinner in Chiba with Crazy Pete and his wife tonight, halfway to Narita.

A bad decision, it turns out, because this is the most pitiful museum of it’s kind, that I have seen in my whole life: A dozen of uninteresting civilian planes, in various stages of forlornness, a copy of a Farman biplane from before WW1, 3-4 large piston engines and a lot of scale models. Going back to Tokyo makes no sense this time of the day, but at least there’s a decent library and internet access, which I use until closing time some hours later.

Back near Chiba I walk around a while, before meeting the others, who then take me to a good restaurant with mainly meat dishes. Poor Pete can barely keep up with the conversation, as his wife and I clearly need to exercise our English. But he’s hanging on the best he can, and swears that one day he’ll visit both me in Copenhagen and some Dutch coffee-shops in Amsterdam, when one day before too long they’ll fly to Europe.

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