Hello folks, sorry to have discontinued my travelogue, but things got very busy and I also spent a long time on buses and marshrutkas and trains, and it was not optimal for writing a daily diary. I gave up. Anyway, I did what I had planned, I spent 35 days in Russia, then 15 days in four Central Asian countries, then 2 weeks in China (Xinjiang, Dunhuang in Gansu, and a few provincial capitals like Xining, Lanzhou, Yinchuan and Hohhot, and some of the surrounding areas of the same), then 4 days in Mongolia and 2 days at Lake Baikal, before a flight to Beijing where I spent 3 inconsequential days, then finally on to Tokyo, where I am now self-ensconcing, or ensconcing myself, if you prefer. So I did it, I saw a big swath of Russia, about 20 cities and a lot of the countryside include the vast Eurasian steppe and the Ural Mountains and Lake Baikal, and also a good piece of the Old Silk Road. Ups and downs there were a few, yes, but it was spectacular.
OK, more about that later, I hope. For now I have a question. I need to call a credit card company in the US, said company claims it has not received my early October payment even though my bank unquestionably sent it.... And I have to use one of those Japanese pay phones since I still have no phone or Internet service (have to get my residence card for that, still working on that). and I see two indications about how to call the US with a public phone from Japan, these being:
001-010-country code-number
0033-011-country code-number
So I am not sure which of these is correct, and why there would even be two sets of instructions.... Remember, I am calling from a pay phone, not a personal phone (I think in the latter case you dial 010, the country code etc.). If anyone can tell me which of the two above is correct I would eb eternally grateful.
More later, for now back to a clinical trial translation, bills to pay.
John M.
Now living near Waseda, and glad to be back in Tokyo, especially considering the descent of the US into complete madness
