Superpowers: invisibility, telepathy, super speed, bubble tea shop sense. I have none of these. Instead, I have an uncanny knack for being able to identify which screaming, hysterical child in airport security will be on the plane with me.
Today, this power did not fail me. As we walked through surprisingly busy airport security at 4:30 AM, I picked out a little boy who loudly expressing his indignation that it was 4:30 AM and we were all unfortunately awake. As an adult, I envied Tiny Angry Child in a way – I too wanted to scream about waking up at 3:30, torn from my soft, warm bed and made to stand in the harsh florescent lights of the airport. Alas, I had developed filters and can generally hold back my urge to scream both in public and at security checkpoints with screaming children.
Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, he appeared at our gate to Chicago. Excellent. Luckily, there was almost no way he was going to sit near us since we had upgraded to first class for fiddy dolla. Best idea.
Despite our comfy seats, all attempts to sleep on the short flight had me bent at impossible angles, but about an hour later, we had landed in Chicago to catch our twelve-hour flight to Tokyo.
Our itinerary:
- Nov 14: Land in Tokyo. Walk around like zombies and fight the sleep.
- Nov 15-18: Kyoto and Nara and temples, oh my! Death by papercut with temple admission fees.
- Nov 18-20: Hiroshima and Miyajima. Maybe some monkeys. Probably get awkwardly interviewed by schoolchildren in Peace Park about how we feel as Americans about the atomic bomb. At least my country has set a low bar as of late so I can’t really mess this up.
- Nov 20-23: Osaka and Himeji. Himeji will not be closed this time, unlike in 2008, where it was closed for yearly cleaning.
- Nov 23-27: Okinawa, specifically Iriomote Island in the Yaeyama islands chain. I will get my Azumanga on and see the Iriomote cat! I will also drive on the left.
- Nov 27-Dec 4: Tokyo!
Soon: boarding. No screaming children to report yet, but the day is still young.
Next: adventure!