Bryan is still sleeping. I’ve been asleep for about 13hrs, so, i’m quite awake. The sun is rising; its almost 6 am.

The flight went well. It was definitely long, but what should one expect when taking a non-stop flight from Dallas to Japan. Each chair was equipped with a personal entertainment device on which one could watch movies, tv shows, the flight path, or listen to music. I watched Juno, No Country for Old Men, and August Rush to fill in the 13 hrs. Due to 50 mph winds at the Narita Airport in Tokyo, we had an, ahem, interesting landing. The plane went up and down in big swooping motions lifting us out of our seats. Everyone made the frightened “whoa” sound and i gave myself a leg cramp trying to hang on to the plane (although i was buckled in).

Arriving at the airport and going through customs was super easy and quick. as i came down the stairs to the baggage claim, i saw my bag swirling about on the conveyor and quickly grabbed it; no wait there. Bryan and i easily found each other at the exit and he guided me quickly through to exchange some money and grab train tickets to Shinjuku, where our hotel is located (and where i am writing this in the dark).

As we waited for the train, which we were only able to catch because it was late, Bryan became confused and thought that, maybe, we were on the wrong side of the tracks and that we would miss it after all. The next train was an hour later, so we would be stuck at the airport for that time.  As he walked a circle around me to reading the signs, i glanced into the train that was stopped in front of us in time to see a couple looking at us and laughing. It wasn’t in a mean way, it was in a way that let me know that they understood how confused we were as though it had happened to them just a moment ago; as though they were laughing at themselves.  I smiled back and waved, which they returned, and pointed them out to Bryan. We laughed as it hit us as to how funny we must look standing there being so lost and confused. I wanted to sit with them and make them our new best friends. We laughed at ourselves some more, and i was left feeling really welcome in a country where i don’t understand the language and the writing but can still share a moment with strangers.

without comments

“get to the airport early” they say, “make sure your not late”. i’m at DFW airport at 7:20 waiting for my 10:15 flight to Tokyo. 2.5 hours to hang out in the airport so i can spend 13 hours hanging out on an airplane. traveling is fun. i got the choice seat by the wall plug, though, so i can putz about on the internet this entire time.

i’m in terminal d, which is the newer of the four terminals at this airport. it feel more like a mall than all the others and i can see the sun rising in the large windows behind me. i’m going to be arriving in Tokyo around 1 pm tomorrow which will be 11 pm Central time. at some point during my flight, the sun will set and then rise. i’m still confused by this date line situation, but from what i understand, i will be speeding toward the morning side of the shadowed earth and fly through the darkness and then back out again into tomorrow afternoon Tokyo time. right now, it is 9 pm in Tokyo… so, hmm… wait, now i’m confused.

the sunlight that we are getting here, at dfw, now that its sunrise, is the same sunrise that they will be getting in about 8 hours except that it will be the 21st instead of the 20th. will i be trailing the sun the entire way? will it get dark as i suspected in the above paragraph? it might just be daylight the entire flight. i might experience daylight from now until what will be 11 pm central time.

anyway, so, yeah, i’m in the airport, and its boring.

without comments

Everyone seems to be asking the same questions: How long am i going to be in Japan? What am i bringing? How many bags am i taking? How much money am i taking? When i tell them, it seems shocking to the point where i wonder if i am really not thinking this out very well.

when i say that i am taking 4 changes of clothes, it feels a bit like i’m over-packing. “4 changes for 2 and a half weeks?” seems to be the common reaction. I was just planning on bringing two bags, just carry-ons, but i thought maybe they wouldn’t allow gummy worms on the plane with me so, i thought maybe i would bring my rolling carry-on bag in addition to the other bags and check it (“gummy worms?” you might be wondering, well, i hope to get to that in a later post). on my past trips, i’m usually stuck in my car for hours upon hours when i’m not sleeping in a tent or hiking. i’ll live in the same set of clothing for several days before changing, so, having only one other change of clothes make sense, camping is “roughing it” after all.

In Japan, i’m going to be in cities with people, not just any people, but very clean Japanese people. being that Japan is so densely populated, i will probably be very close to all of the people in these cities in which i will be visiting. so, really, i thought it would make sense to bring 2 more changes of clothing being that i can do laundry while i’m there. I also included my swim suit, running shoes, rain shell, jacket, hoodie, and a long sleeve t-shirt, so, really, i should be fine, especially since i packed 6 pairs of sock (2 pair of which i bought specifically for this trip, since my old ones had holes).

so, in all, i will have 3 bags: a 35 liter backpack, a domke camera bag, and a small rolling suitcase. i like to have a separate bag from my main luggage to fill with what i need for a day of wandering, so, packed inside my rolling bag is my timbuk2 messenger bag. I chose this bag because its medium size can fit my cameras and jacket and still keep all of my other whatnot decently organized in its handy little pockets, and, its a shoulder bag. since schoolchildren are the only ones that carry backpacks about in Japan, it was suggested that a shoulder bag would be best.

i should eat some breakfast and load up the car.  i’ll post photos as soon as i can.

without comments

Things to do today:

1. do laundry
2. pack

Alternative things to do today:

1. meet Ben after work for lunch
2. ride bike in search of free shows
3. do laundry
4. pack

Things done today:

1. met Ben after work
2. Got call to hang out
3. saw bands (including old friend Tiffany Shea)
4. got dinner
5. got ready for bed
6. wrote blog entry

i’ve actually been enjoying SXSW this year. Sure i hit a drunk guy on my bike who then hit on me (“Hey, baby, i’m a little drunk”), yelled at other people who didn’t seem to realize that i was screaming at them when i said “to your left” “excuse me” and “can you move” while trailing behind them at 2 mph, and almost rammed a girl getting out of the passenger side of a car that was stopped at a red light, but i’ve been having a good time trying to see a couple free shows, “people watching”, and riding my bike through austin in such pretty weather.

i saw a fort worth band called the flaming hotels play at doc’s yesterday on South Congress and was very impressed, although i was disappointed that the fort worth band i came to see, Black Tie Dynasty, had played two hours earlier.  Tiffany Shea’s music is as good as always.  I am really impressed with her new music and look forward to hearing what else is to come.  Susanna Choffel’s voice drove me and my friends crazy and is tempting me into purchasing a CD.

The other day, at the beginning of SXSW, some foreign tourists asked me to take a picture with them because i am “so stylish”. I was in my uniform for work. Overall, the SXSW-ers have been super nice compared to last year’s crowd.

Overall, what i need to do is:

1. do laundry
2. pack
3. work
4. drive to fort worth
5. go to japan

but i keep thinking i’m missing something. why haven’t i been keeping track of all the little things i think of bringing throughout the day? am i really remembering everything? will something prevent me from leaving the country of which i am currently unaware? am i under-packing? am i over-packing?

will i ever remember when to capitalize my words without the help of MS Word or some other word processor?

tomorrow is my last day off before leaving for japan… and i hope i get to everything that i have been putting off to watch live music.

with one comment

The above photo was taken with my cellphone while driving from Austin to Fort Worth on US 281.

zA

(the above was written by my dog, London, as i ran to my room to get my notebook to type this entry. i wonder if he drank my coffee.)

I will be leaving for Japan in one week and six days and we be there for two weeks and three days. I booked my flight on February 19th, almost exactly a month before my departure and have since been wondering “what do i need to do now?”

I’ve only traveled out of the US twice: once to Mexico for a few hours looking for a restaurant and the other time to England with my dad on a business trip. I didn’t need a passport for my first steps out of my country and didn’t do any amount of research into the venture (which i had plenty of time to contemplate as the border patrol thoroughly searched my vehicle for drugs) we just drove over the Rio Grande and, since my Spanish was only asi asi, turned the wrong way down a one way street. England, though, was a different experience. I had two months to learn about the Underground railway system (Tube) and found that if i call my bank before i leave they wouldn’t cut off my debit card when found spending on the other side of the Atlantic.

I began to seriously consider a trip to Japan when my friend Bryan suggested that i visit him during his school break. He has been teaching English in Japan for the past two years, and it seemed about time i took another trip out of the country. I casually searched for cheap flights in the next couple of months, feeling the door close on my Japanese vacation due to high prices, when, out of the blue, as i thought i was running out of time, the fares started to drop.

Now that i had my ticket, it was suggested that i get a Japan Rail Pass, which would allow me to travel across Japan for for two weeks at one set rate. Then, my girlfriend asked me if i was going to learn a little bit of Japanese, which, embarrassingly, had never occurred to me.

what would be the most useful words and phrases to know? what do i say to people now? what could i be saying to people in Japan? the lonelyplanet phrasebook i picked up has 2000 words; how many of these words could i possibly need to know?

given, i have a personal tour guide who already speaks Japanese, i will obviously be fine not knowing much japanese at all, but i’m always so impressed with all of the foreign tourists that come into the coffee shop that know just enough English to understand what i am saying to them during our transaction.  I want to be that impressive person, but, i realistically don’t have the time… but, i’m going to try to learn a bit anyway.

I was going to go to Emo’s tonight and watch What Made Milwaukee Famous, but i got too tired and decided to write the rest of this entry instead.

with 3 comments