10:50 AM Saturday May 5, 2007 - Tokyo Green Hotel

I'm having so much fun! OK, recap of all that's happened so far:

1. Check-in. This hotel is too cute. The rooms are tiny, but since I'm tiny, too, it's perfect. LOL! Surprisingly, they had yukatas ready on my bed! I'm wearing one now. ^_^ Not only, but also, the bathroom has a bidet! So fresh and so clean (clean)!









2. Went to Tachikawa to meet with Tiffany. We walked around 'til we found a cool little shabu-shabu restaurant. OMG soooooooooo gooooooooooood! I was so glad Tiffany was with me cuz I had NO idea what the hostess was saying. Tiff basically did all the ordering. Man, the shabu-shabu was delish. We had pork and beef to dip in our pot. We also got a whole bunch of veggies. I tried a bunch and they were all good, too. Too bad I don't know what they were called. Before Tiff and I parted ways at Tachikawa station, we got these two girls to take our pictures. LOL. Too bad there wasn't a purikura machine around.

3. SUBWAY. I love it! It's pretty easy. You would only mess up if you weren't paying attention to your surroundings, which happened this morning. Whoops. It's all good, tho.

4. Akihabara. I got off there when I came from the airport. As soon as I stepped out into Electric Town, I was greeted by the bright lights and cosplaying maids of Akihabara. LOLOL! There were other misc characters about, too.


5. This morning I went to Tsukiji, but... I guess since today is a holiday, it was DEAD. I did get my sushi breakfast, tho. SO GOOD, SO FRESH.

6. Kappabashi. OK, that sucked cuz again, I gues since it was holiday, everyone stayed closed. Oh, but I was there at like, 7:45 AM and most stores didn't open 'til 9. D'oh! I walked around the area like three times. I found an am-pm and noticed they had the BLT mag with Morning Musume in it! I bought it, of course. Finally some stores opened. The one I was looking for, Maizuru, that sold food samples was open. I WAS gonna buy stuff from there but GODDAMN they're expensive!!! Magnets were like 1000￥... I was like "Screw this, I'll just take a picture." Maybe I can find stuff at Nakamise when I meet with Hide-chan.
7. OMG Yay! I finally get to meet TWIN!

8. Why am I numbering everything? Anyway, it's fecking hot. Well, I've experienced hotter, but it's hotter here than how it's been at home. Kinda nice. Oh, but it was SO nice last night. Warm enough to just wear shorts and a t-shirt, and there was the occasional breeze. SO damn nice.

OK, time to get ready to INVADE with TWIN! Ja ne...

11:28 PST Thursday May 3, 2007 - Sea-Tac Airport

Ahhh... so close yet, so far. An hour before I can board my flight to Tokyo. Finally! There's a bunch of Japanese people here at the gate, naturally, and hearing them speak is making me even more excited about the trip. Hehehe... cute Japanese girls are around.

Huh, I just realized I'm still flying United. I was hoping to at least fly JAL on this last leg of the trip. Why? Two words: Japanese stewardresses. LOL.

I wonder who will be my seatmate. I hope it's a girl and I hope she's cute... and Japanese. If not, I may have lucked out again; my seat letter is A and I'm correct, that's an aisle seat.

40 minutes to go... I hope there are good movies on, or that I fall asleep again. How long is this flight again? TEN HOURS. Yay. I can't wait. Sucks that it's still another hour train ride from Narita to Tokyo, but it doesn't matter, I'll be in JAPAN!

Ahhh kawaiii! A gaggle of girls walked by. They caught my attention when one of them exclaimed, "Uso!" then the rest of them made really cute, girly noises. Haha...

Guh, I'm feeling sleepy again. Maybe that's a good thing.

Heh, or I can just listen to other people's conversations and see how much/little I can understand. (Got two girls sitting next to me... so yeah.)

8:40 CST Thursday May 3, 2007 - Somewhere Over the Midwest

On the flight from Chicago to Seattle now... I lucked out; the flight isn't full and there are plenty of empty seats. The woman who was assigned to sit next to me moved elsewhere. Yay! Oooh, Edward Norton is on the screen. I think they said the in-flight movie was "The Painted Veil."

Looks like I'm skipping breakfast. Didn't eat anything before I left the house, and I haven't eaten anything since. Earlier, the flight attendants came around with "snack boxes" for sale. Perhaps it's because I'm used to flying Northwest, but I still am a bit taken aback by them charging for the airplane food. Never had to pay for food on Northwest. Oh well. At least I think I'll have time to grab a quick bite to eat in Seattle before the flight to Tokyo leaves. Hopefully I can find something healthier than fast-food. I've not had fast-food in such a long time it seems. Go me. ^_^

This movie is starting to look interesting. Maybe I'll watch a bit.

1st Travel Journal Entry

3:10 AM Thursday May 3, 2007 - BWI Airport

I'm hella early. There's no one at the check-in counters. Still, all the benches in this area are taken up by other waiting travelers. Most of them are sprawled out, napping. I'm actually sitting on a long bench, in between two sleeping people. LOL The guy on my left snores...and for some reason, the elevator on my left keeps opening randomly and no one ever comes out.

Holy shit!!! The cops in the airport ride around on SEGWAYS!!! Those things are SO fun to ride! *sigh* I think that will be the highlight of this morning, unfortunately. I didn't bring my iPod since I wanted to devote all my senses to Japan once I got there. The only major piece of electronics I'm bringing is my camera. I already took a pre-flight pic at home. Unless something extraordinary happens between now and my arrival in Japan, I'm not taking any more pictures.

Oh... shoot me. It's only 3:24 AM.

Um... OK. There's one counter for e-tickets with bags to check and another for international destinations. My first guess is the latter, but... I'm not sure any more.

You know, I think this is the cleanest US airport I've ever seen. Then again, it's 3:30 AM and the cleaning staff is still going over the place. Narita, however, is ALWAYS nice and clean. Mom still talks about the cleanliness of that airport.

For some reason, there's a small crowd lined up at the US Airways counters. I mean seriously? There is NOBODY at ANY of the ticket counters! I wonder where they're going.