Traveling

Sunday, August 21, 2005
At the airport:
I reached the check in counter and presented the man behind the desk with my driver's licence and passport. "I'm sorry," said the man, "but your passport is not valid."

WHAT?!! My heart began pumping so fast I'm sure he heard my panic. The man calmly pointed to a small portion on the passport below a blue line which read : Passport not valid unless signed.

Oh, duh. I dug out my pen and signed it. Phew, that was close. I was also a little nervous about the weight of my luggage, but that also seemed to be okay. Double phew! So now I sit on the first and easiest stint of the trip, Baltimore to Atlanta, after that it gets a little more complicated.

Not even halfway there yet. but on my way to Tokyo! Food has been okay in flight, and there have been several movie selections.

Monday, August 22
Now in here in Tokyo, at the Haneda airport. I arrived at Narita airport and made it through immigration and customs just fine. "Do you have anything to decware?" the customs officer asked me. I stifled my impulse to giggle, "No," I replied. Then I was on my way to buy my bus ticket for 300yen at "Friendly Limosine" to ride another for an hour to the Haneda airport. I'm waiting now for the last stint of this trip, Haneda to Misawa a one hour flight! Going on 25 hours without sleep. I felt dizzy like I was going to fall over waiting in line at customs. I found it entirely difficult to sleep on the plane, perhaps only got about an hour or hour and a half, but not consecutive.

As I landed at the Misawa airport, I was greeted by all 7 of my brother's family waving. I waved back. Later that night they told me they saw me waving too.

Went to bed early and had really surreal dreams where I was I was back home and very disappointed my traveling was all for naught. I was running around yelling, "What is real?!" I was relieved to awake and realize it was just a dream.

The rest of the trip I will tell in pictures, enjoy!

(please pardon the shifting of verb tenses, I was copying most of this from my travel journal)