Japan

Visited Japan from April 1 to April 12.

April 2 Kamata

Arrived after almost 24 hours of travelling with unexpected stop in northern Borneo (not entirely sure why - we'd only just taken off). Landed at Tokyo Narita and bought (very expensive) tickets for the Narex (Narita Express) to Shinagawa. Very fast looking train that wasn't. Managed to successfully find my way to the JR line to Kamata and then somehow ended up on an express that shot right past. Finally managed to bounce my way back to Kamata by which time it was getting dark. First Inn Kamata was so close to the railway line that the morning train was a good alarm clock. Didn't help me find it though. Even with Tokyo street directory was impossible to find hotel. Stumbled into a car rental place and female customer there had a smart enough GPS'd mobile to walk me over (it was only about 200 metres).

sewage works biohazards

Visited Black Rock WWTW on Tuesday Feb 2. Actually quite pleasant as sewage works go. No particular smell, site is kept quite clean.

All three of us visiting from KBR got sick though. I had to take a day off work. - first time as a result of visiting a WWTW. It seems we got infected from aerosols generated by the high pressure sprays of final effluent cleaning the belt press thickeners used for dewatering the sludge.

Particularly irritating as we weren't there to see the belt filter presses. Our tour passed them simply because it was short cut. Perhaps the site operator was simply showing off the (well-tested) integrity of his immune system while we all crumpled.