Just Another Day in Nihon

I'm just going to have to upload my photos en masse at the end of the week or something. I'm just getting back too tired every evening to try and mess with them.

We woke up early again today. Sayumi's mom made us breakfast: small portions of egg, sausage, salmon, miso soup, rice, and she even gaves us some umeboshi and something else that was delicious which I'm not quite sure what to call.

A Light Day

Despite getting in relatively late last night, I still woke up, without any prompting from an alarm or anything, at a little after 6 AM. We got ready and all packed up, then went to grab some breakfast. Will and Andrew went to Mister Donut, a chain kind of like Dunkin' Donuts here, for breakfast; I stopped by an AM PM convenience store on our way back to get some onigiri since I wasn't quite hungry yet. We checked out of the hostel and went to grab the trains to Tokyo Station to catch the bullet train to Kyoto.

Quickie

We've gotten back late and have to get up early tomorrow to catch the shinkansen to Kyoto, so I'm going to keep this update brief, and edit it when I have time tomorrow to add in pictures.

Woke up early again, showered, got ready and out the door by 8:30. We hopped on the train to Akihabara and went to a cute little bakery by the station there called Vie de France to get breakfast. I got a coffee anpan (a bread pastry filled with coffee paste and cream), and a tuna and tomato sandwich. After we finished eating we went and reserved our seats for the JR Shinkansen for the rest of our trip, since the bullet trains tend to get filled up fast, and then wandered some around Akiba (short for Akihabara in case you couldn't tell) again, ducking into a few shops since the day before we hadn't had much time because of the rain and us being there so late in the afternoon/evening.

Retail Therapy

Day two was much, much better, which is among the top ten understatements of the year at least. I can't underscore exactly  how relieved I am that this trip is finally going the way I expected it to, or at least want it to--in the direction of epic win.
We woke up around seven and showered and got ready and were out by eight. I expected it to be warm today like it was yesterday, but when we got outside it was overcast and fairly cool.
We walked down a main road by our hostel and ended up stopping at a Denny's for breakfast, which was actually amazingly delicious. I got a light soup over rice, and it was freaking amazing and very, very filling.

Afterwards we had to run back to the hostel really quick, because I'd forgotten to grab some extra cash for the day of shopping ahead, and I wanted to get a jacket because the wind was making me uncomfortably cool. Then we went to the post office and Will and Andrew exchanged their money for some yen; we headed to the train station directly after to go to Shibuya.

Turbulence

I don't even know where to begin. There's a million things all zooming around in my brain and I can't concentrate on one thing for more than a couple of seconds before moving  on to the other.

As boring as it is to tell a story in chronological order I think that's just what I'm going to have to do in order to be able to accurately capture and convey the last... however long it's been. A little over a day? That sounds about right.

So, after a half hour walk whilst watching Futurama on the fancy treadmills in the Marriot's weight room at DIA, Sam and I returned to the room; then she, Mom and I went down to the lobby and got snacks. Ate snacks, watched TV, I snuggled up against Mom and fell asleep.

Woke up at 2 AM to my alarm, kind of confused, but got up and showered and got ready anyway. Then the three of us caught the shuttle to the airport.

Sleepless in Denver

So here I am, chilling in the lobby of the Marriot where we're staying tonight by DIA. I can't sleep for the life of me even though I know I should, but hey, what can you do?
There's a mere eight hours and twenty minutes separating me from Japan (or at least, the flight to LA which leads to the flight to Tokyo). It's surreal to be so close to accomplishing a life-long dream. I keep flip-flopping between being freaking pumped to get going and wanting time to speed up till when we land at Narita Airport, and then wanting everything to slow the frick down for a second so I can catch my breath and enjoy my last night for over nine weeks in the States.
There's a fist-sized ball of something thick and heavy that's settled nicely right behind my sternum and beats back every time my heart thumps; I'm assuming it's a nest of caterpillars cocooned away in their chrysalises (chrysali?) ready to burst into life as yet more anxious butterflies in the next few hours.
I wanted to wait and shower until an hour or so before we leave for the airport, as a WAKE-UP type thing, but now I'm wondering if it's not a better idea to hop in now as a CHILL THE EFF DOWN WOMAN measure.
Deep yoga breaths.

The Calm Before

Well, here's my arbitrary first post. Hurrah!
It's hard to believe that I'll be in Japan in little less than two days from now. I hope I don't make a fool of myself when we (finally) land by squealing like the hyperactive otaku fangirl I am. Chances are I will, but I can always try to brace myself to make it a quieter, less eardrum-piercing shriek, at least. I owe that much to the poor unsuspecting civilians of Nihon.
Some other butterflies ramming against the inside of my ribcage:

• My luggage will get lost. Er, "mishandled."
• Airport officials will decide I'm a homeland security threat and will pull me out of the normal line to get the "special" search treatment.
• I'll miss my flight due to the above.
• I'll lose all my money/passport/boarding pass/other important documents.
• Some sort of national/international crisis will indefinitely suspend all travel to Japan starting Monday morning.
• I'll get sick and/or die.
• There will be a child sitting in the seat directly behind mine who has an irresistible, uncontrollable impulse (see: irresponsible, turn-the-other-cheek parents) to kick, kick, kick.
• Drunk assholes.
• Outlets in Japan won't work with any of my electronic devices' chargers, thus causing my camera with it's handy-dandy rechargeable battery to die early on and I will have no pictures past the first few days.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg that is my paranoia.

Regardless, I'm freaking excited!