Ohayo!!!

Whats happenin y'all?!!!

So. I left P-town at 5:45 AM on the 28th of April and arrived in Tokyo on the 29th at about 7:00 PM. The worst part of the whole journey would have to be the 5 hours I had to kill (and subsequently watch die) in LA's horrible airport. Its not as gross as Vegas, but its not nearly as nice as many of the airports I have seen in the past. A couple bloody marys, breakfast and 25 something bucks later... time to catch Singapore Air flight SQ11 to Narita airport.

What a treat it was to fly Singapore Air. It was an 11.5 hour flight, but considering, it could have been way worse. The flight was completely smooth, not even a hiccup mid flight. The flight attendants were stellar... interstellar even. Moist towels before meals and everything! I was surrounded by screaming and crying children, which had it not been for the efforts of the lovely Singapore Air staff, might have been flushed one by one from the airplane lavatory by any number of cranky travelers, only to have a very cold freefall 33,000 ft into the northern reaches of the Pacific Ocean. The flight path took us north and west, up near the Alaskan panhandle and back down into Tokyo. Small children would likely be a nice snack for a killer whale or a sea lion or something, and needless to say the abominable snow monsters that live in the farthest reaches of the western Alaskan islands would love a tasty, fat little morsel.

Perhaps the best part of that flight was the fact that I had all three seats to myself. I was able to sprawl out beneath the thinly woven airline blanket and catch a few z's. Each seat had it's own little screen so's I could watch muh pic-shus three attuh tayme ifun I done wanna. And every so often I was greeted by a series of angels offering me little snacks and drinks. I do believe I was flying in heaven. Free Tiger beers and little packages of peanuts and pretzels flowed like wine from those crazy aisle-sized carts that were being pushed by women so beautiful it could make God's eyes do a double take.

Now that's what I call the friendly skies!!!!


So after a two hour train ride from the airport and a hike up the hill, we arrived at a huge house on the side of a mountain. Around the corner and up three flights of stairs... Em's appt. It's very cozy here. Three small rooms and a very tiny bathroom. It's very practical here, no frivolously used space. The fridge is slightly larger than the one I use specifically for beer at home, like every college dorm has, and the stove is gas heated with two burners and a little fish broiler. It's perfect for small, perfect for practical. It definitely puts the big houses and big cars that we all have in the states into perspective.

All is well here. Although I hurt myself doing yoga the other day, as soon as the weekend is over and it stops raining, we'll be checking some shrines and other sights out. This week was "golden week", it's like spring break for the Japanese. Apparently its the only time all year that people actually stop working. Hopefully the sun will shine and my body will stop hating me for trying to help it with yoga and we'll be able to go out and do some stuff. I'll try to keep you all posted.

Much Love!