One week in

So I'm in Osaka tonight, chilling out after an exhausting journey from Ueno in Tokyo to Moriguchi. It was exhausting both because it was an all-night bus ride, and because I had to carry my bike on my back through various train stations at both ends of said bus ride. I need to stop carrying my bike and start using it, or at least figure out how to arrange it in the special carrying bag so that it doesn't poke me in the spine.

Anyways, this week was pretty awesome. We had a variety of awesome food from around the world (the Japanese do wonderful pasta and pastries, not to mention yakitori and tonkatsu), saw some wonderful sights (Minato Mirai in Yokohama and Odaiba are both great futuristic date spots with Ferris wheels), gawked at bizarre outfits in Shibuya, and shopped in famous places. There were a few other great miscellaneous things, too, like some quite successful purikura pictures and acquiring a cell phone.




Oh, and we went to Tokyo Disneyland. Siena will probably do more on that since she's a big Disneyland fan. It was my first time at a Disney resort since I was like 5, and it was pretty fun. Everything is designed to be fun to look at, and of course it's exciting to see my favorite Disney characters parade by. I read an essay on Tokyo Disneyland back when I took Japanese history, but I just have to say, the quintessential symbol of Tokyo Disneyland is the Mickey Mouse shaped manju (steamed pork buns).

I'm always coming up with regrets and anxieties but generally overcoming them. Every once in a while I wonder if I forgot some crucial item while packing, or remember how I failed to contact any previous host families. Or I wonder if I should have just started biking through Kyushu instead of working on a tomato farm in Shikoku for a week. But every once in a while I get really excited about hitting the road, like when I met up with Oliver and heard some of his stories.

First day in Japan

So today was one of those incredibly long days, because that's what happens when you fly west. I got up at 5:30am, came up with several last minute things to worry about which were of no consequence, and got on a plane to Newark. It was pretty cool to land and see Manhattan and Liberty Island looming out of the fog.

Anyways, Continental has a pretty good selection of classic movies. I watched Edward Scissorhands, the third Matrix movie, and Chinatown. I was pretty disappointed with all three. Oh, and I finished Obama's Challenge which was pretty good reading.

But yeah, then I landed in Japan, and moved through immigration and customs pretty quickly, and found myself in Siena's arms. We rode the slow train to Ueno, checked into our really cute and tiny foreigner's hotel, and set off for Mosburger and Conbini snacks. I'm not going to dwell very long tonight on the glories of Mosburger (Siena discusses her current favorite sandwich here) or Japanese snack foods (Green tea teramisu kit-kat, anyone?), but suffice it to say that I am very happy to be here.

I haven't opened up my bike suitcase yet, but I'm going to assume everything is okay. And now I'm going to sleep.