The Start of a Journey

It wasn’t until the plane was already in the air that I started to become excited; my nerves slowly melting away into a vague sense of—first acceptance—and soon contentment—and now joy.  I was going, finally, to Japan.  The trip was no longer a "someday" or a “when I have the time”, or even a “maybe next year”, it was today.  At 1500 feet, the sensation figuratively made my ears pop—and also literally. 

Japan has always, even when I was very young, made the short list of places that I have wanted to visit.  I have to admit (and with no small amount of embarrassment, I assure you) that the origins of my single-minded fixation on the archipelago began when I was four due to the influences of a certain 50-meter tall radioactive lizard.  I have to give my dad the thanks (or the blame) for this: when he called me into the living room and had me sit down to watch “King Kong vs. Godzilla”, he couldn’t have known that this would be the start of a “something”.

And it was VERY “something”—I would go on to collect and watch and re-watch "daikaiju eiga" (giant monster movies) of all sorts.  I would go on to learn far more about Pokemon than any sane human would recommend.  I’m not sure when my interests evolved to include Japanese history and culture, but…well, there you go…

I wouldn’t say that I am in any way uniquely qualified to comment on such a journey.  Quite the contrary: I may be the least qualified person (hey, you don’t know that I’m not, so don’t even try).  

But hey, I am on a plane traveling to an alien land, so there’s that.

___________________

I have seven hours left to kill before I finally get to go to sleep.  In order to prevent excessive jet lag, Kara and Andrew have discerned the exact time when we are allowed to fall asleep.  Eight AM EST.

That would be bedtime (a generous bedtime) in Japan.  Every cell of my body is crying out for sleep and I must steel myself against the crystalline siren call of shuteye.  Every moment of awareness is pain.  Oh, to drift away into sweet nothingness…

Sorry, lost my train of thought there.  

At any rate, I have wasted a sufficient amount of time on this diversion for now; my thoughts are becoming increasingly more scattered and the small spaces between the atoms—at least in my brain—have become engorged.

I have no clue what that means.

Six and a half hours left.  Time to speedrun Pokemon Blue Version.