EThomas

It's 9:31 am in the morning on Sunday, May 6th in Japan-time and 5:30 PM on Saturday Pacific Standard Time (happy early birthday, Mom). I'm all packed except for the laptop. Anna is taking a quick shower and then I'm off to Kitakami station to get on the shinkansen. We didn't move fast enough this week to get reserved tickets, so I will be jumping on one of the three cars that are for unreserved passengers. After that trip, I will arrive in Ueno Station and head for the Narita Airport. It's been a great trip, although I know I didn't update as much as I should have. I will have to add photographs upon my return. See many of you soon.... read more

I was up early this morning (Monday Japan-time, still Sunday I believe old time) and wrote the longest entry about my arrival and the first morning I stayed here only to accidentally bump my laptop and closed the browser window. This laptop is extremely sensitive to small movements. I thought I might have saved a draft of the entry, but I hadn't. I was a bit encouraged when I found three comments on my blog, as the site never notified me anyone attempted to comment so that I could moderate them. Although I'm not doing an adequate job, at least some people might be enjoying the updates and photos. There is so much to share that I feel I'm not doing an adequate job, but instead I'll include a few more photographs of the time I ... read more

I have now officially been awake for 24 hours, but despite a general fatigue I seem to be feeling a second wind. Maybe it was the two dinners Singapore Airlines served me (one at what was 1 AM Pacific Standard Time) or all the juice and green tea I drank. Or perhaps it is a false rush of adrenaline I received after the frenzied race through Customs, buying my ticket to the Skyliner, and getting to the Skyliner. Now I'm kicking back a window seat in Car 8 of the Skyliner waiting for it to take off from the station. I look forward to seeing what the night view of Tokyo is from the Skyliner. All I have to do now is get to Ueno Station and find the McDonald's where I am meeting my sister. ... read more

I wrote some blog posts when I didn't have access to the Internet and took some photographs, but I've been up for 25+ hours as of now without sleeping, so the short story is I'm safely lodged at my hotel room in Ueno with my sister.... read more

Vacations that involve going somewhere are not just physical journeys about how we get from Point A to Point B and back again. It might be the English literature major in me, but I do believe that all physical journeys are also mental journeys. Do I feel prepared for this particular journey to Japan?--not yet, but I'm not sure if one ever is completely mentally and emotionally prepared to take a trip. I suppose in an ideal trip situation, the rest of our lives (work, chores) would all fall away and we could focus our sole attention on preparing our minds for our trip. I've never really found the rest of the world to fall away in this convenient manner. I'm just now trying to forget all the stress of trying to complete as much as ... read more