Japan or Bust...

The flights were all for the most part uneventful. Kansas City to Chicago. Chicago to Seattle. And Seattle to Tokyo. Highlights include; meeting a military man named Bryan who just happened to be a crossword genius, sitting within five feet of a dog that did not bark once and getting a Japan or bust chant going with our back half of the Boeing.

Narita International (located in Tokyo) is one crazy melting pot for styles, cultures and hair-dos. After getting off the plane, we followed the well mark chicken/anime signs to customs where I was taken into a back room for what seemed like hours and told that I had to leave the day I was planning on leaving. They also encouraged me to get my passport a haircut and a sponsor.

The next part seemed to us more difficult than retrieving our kid brother back from the creepy grasps of the one and only David Bowie. Instructions were as follows…

1. Get through customs. (Check)

2. Reacquire our luggage that should probably have a blog of their own. (Check)

3. Evade the photo police (too numerous to underestimate) as you try to find the eight foot happy hotdog. (Check)

4. Walk 12 paces north and then 6 east of west to a pay phone. And pay the phone. (Check)

*it should be noted that steps 4 and 5 should be swapped.

5. Exchange cash for yen (Check)

6. It is advised that shiny vending machines and aggressive asian haircuts will hinder your success if you do not keep your eyes on the prize. (Check…kinda)

7. After calling base camp, please wonder aimlessly until you happen across a glass automatic door with "S2" on it in grey letters. (Check)

8. Go through the portal, over two walks for crossing, and await your chariot.

*Chariot is Japanese for taxi van driven by an overly friendly Japanese man hosting a red flag and a lack of understanding and knowledge of the English language. (Check)

And that brings me to the present. I am sitting in the back of this van peering through the uncommonly clean windows at a city that yesterday was on the other side of the world. Its green. Deep green. The kind of green that those zany people tell us all to "GO" to. And its big and shiny. My eyes are tired because the focal point of this moving painting changes as the wheels on the van go round and round.

One final note. Tomorrow has become today. The wrong side of the road has become the right. And that side of the world has become this side of the world. So greetings from the future…it is bright!