Hello all! I`ve made it. I am in the hotel lobby in Osaka. It`s 6 in the morning right now. Charles is still asleep upstairs. I didn`t sleep well at all. It`s a pain in the butt to type on this computer. The Japanese keyboard layout is different from what I am used to so I am reduced to hunt and peck. Aggrivating this situation, many of the keys have had their letters worn off so I keep hitting s instead of d. And the space bar doesn`t always work.

I am keeping a hand written diary so when I get back I will see if I have the energy to transcribe it. Yesterday`s exploits took up 4 pages. I am not going to keep up that pace for the whole trip I think.

My back hurts from sitting on this stool so I will log off now.

Ciao!

ftp>put japan_trip_places.kmz

For those of you who use Google Earth, here is a kmz file with markers for the various places that we are thinking of visiting. Obviously we wont get to all of them but we'll try. There are also a few places that are not on the map. For example, I want to go to Kabuki-cho in Tokyo. Supposedly it was one of the visual inspirations for the movie Bladerunner.

My markers are blue and Charles' are green. Hotels are marked with a little man in a bed.

meet(Places::Osaka);

Last night, Charles drove me home from Taiko class. As he pulled up in front of my apartment we looked at each other and said, "See you in Osaka". It felt awesome to say that. It really made things feel a bit firmer. I will be there soon.

$time = one_year();

Another post with nothing to do with Japan.

My boss called everyone into the board room today for an impromptu meeting. We all thought were were going to get yelled at. But it turns out that today was my 1 year anniversary with the company. They had a cake (with a Batman theme) and everything.

One whole year. Wow.