Made it to Japan!

I still can't believe it, but Liz and I made it to Japan last night! After the plane landed, I asked if Liz and I could see the cockpit, and guess what?! We did get to see it! Better yet, we got to sit in the pilot seats! Awesome! After that long plane flight, I had to go to the bathroom, and guess what?! The toilet was a japanese style one, which means it resembles a urinal lying on the ground, and so I used it! You have to squat over the toilet to pee in it. It was bizarre! And then we got on the bus to our hotel, both Liz and so pumped up the entire time, and we got to our hotel and it was tiny! I mean, smaller than my room kinda tiny. But they managed to fit a desk, double sized bed, TV, mini fridge, and a mirror in the room. Also, our bathroom, also tiny, the toilet has a bidet.
Man, I was worried that Japan would be just like America, but with Asians instead. There is nothing to worry about here. There are so many damn lights in our area at night, it's like Vegas! And in one hour of walking around we saw so many Japanese salarymen, all of them looking Exactly the same! Not because they are Asian (though that helps) but because they all wore the same Black pants and the same white shirt! Loads of them were just walking down the streets, like hundreds!
Anyway, I should wrap this up. Liz and I ate at McDonalds, went back to the hotel, and went to sleep. And I just woke up an hour ago. It's Saturday, Aug. 1st!

Kamakura Buddha

This is a copy of a photo my grandfather has, from when he went to the Kamakura Great Buddha in 1949.

It's still standing!

The Itinerary!

So we have got the Itinerary all planned now. Me and Liz just took all day planning and looking stuff up. Never thought I could get so exhausted just by thinking. But we now know how to get to Kyoto and Obama by train, and we now know when we are going to each section of Tokyo! I don't want to tell you everything, want to keep it a suprise, but just to give you a taste:
July 31 - Land in Narita
Aug. 2 - Chill in Harajuku
Aug. 6 - Hunt down Geishas in Kyoto
Aug. 8 - Do Laundry and eat Whale
Aug. 11 - See a Shrine
Aug. 12 - Go to a Maid Cafe
Aug. 16 - Time Travel Home

We also discussed what we need to pack and what else needs to be done, not to mention what to do if we get seperated in Tokyo! It's now 7pm which means we have been researching for a ridiculous 8 hours! Liz and I did stop for a half hour lunch though! haha!
I will leave my beloved fans with this to interesting link to think about:
Gun O Clock

The day we bought the tickets!

Closer than I thought

Oh God! Last night I got back from a trip to Huntington Beach, where my aunt, uncle, and new cousin live. And Now I've realized that I only have 16 more days until Liz and I leave for Japan. I feel like I am about to have a heart attack. So nervous. What if I forget something? What if we get lost, or kidnapped, or run out of money!? Anything and everything could go wrong. They could lose our reservations, we could be late for our plane, what if I can't figure out how to phone home? The plane could crash, and instead of dying instantly I could be the only survivor... drifting in the sea for hours until I starve or a shark eats me. What happens if Liz and I get seperated and can't find eachother again? What if one of us has to go to the hospital and our insurance doesn't work overseas, so we have to pay a huge bill? Do you see how much risk there is in traveling?!
And I am not even ready yet. I still have to pack... and finish my history final.

Cute countdown!

counting down widget

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Change of Plans!

So originally our friends, Mallory and Jerusha, were going to go with us to Obama and Kyoto, but not anymore! Unfortunately, because of financial reasons, neither can afford to go! But we will all still hang out in Kyoto. More bad news, we won't be making it to the top of Mt. Fuji. We waited to long to reserve a mountain hut, and all the ones we called were full. So Liz and I are going to just climb as high as we can get in one day! But I think that's ok, because we went hiking last week, and we are both so out of shape! I don't think either of us would've made it to the top anyhow! That's alright, there is much more fun to be had!

Update

It's been a while, a lot has happened.I'm not going to get into some of the details, I'll leave something for Jenna to write about.

We got hotels in Obama and Kyoto, but unfortunately we had bad timing with the hut on Mt Fuji but we're going to go on it anyways!

So the countdown starts now.We leave the 30th of this month, so 24 days to go!

I got a new video camera for the trip but I'm considering taking my mom's camera too, just as a precaution.

But then again, I overthink things.

I got in touch with a friend from when I lived in Hawaii and she got me in touch with her friend who lives in Japan and the friend gave me alot of advice and tips about Mt. Fuji as well as encouragement and kindness, and I look forward to meeting her and seeing her face to face.But I'm also nervous. I'm thinking, what if I offend her? What if I can't understand her? What if things are awkward and we have nothing to talk about? But then I think..'I'm visiting Japan for the first(hopefully not the last) time, I can ask her questions about her city and about Japan and about herself.So..hopefully we can be friends.

I'm looking forward to this and I'm overwhelmed at this point by everything. Jenna and I got together last friday to plan things, our schedule for the trip and got so overwhelmed and sidelined by the sheer volume of things to know:the maps,the directions, the names,the places,where things are and which is better to access on a certain day and it was alot!

But I'm sure it'll all work out and we'll have fun and we'll have tons to post about and share when we get back.

I seem to be doing more of the blogging than Jenna, don't I?

Edit: I've been mapping our various destinations on this neat site, diddlefingers, but for some reason I can't print out the whole map of all the places, only town by town, which makes sense now that I think about it. But anyways, in case people want to see what/where we're going to go, go here: MAP