Iwakuni Kintai Bridge and Hiroshima

After a night of sushi and drinking in downtown Iwakuni, Wes and I got a slow start to the day on Friday. We took it easy and kept it local, heading to the Kintai Bridge in the middle of the afternoon. Its very distinctive and is a local treasure, although the current bridge is only about 55 years old. The original bridge, which was built in 1673, was washed away by a typhoon. The design of the original bridge was so good that the engineers in charge of the researched noted that the techniques used were in perfect accordance with modern dynamic principles. Modern engineering could not improve it. Its pretty cool looking too!

After crossing the bridge, we entered into a little tourist district before Iwakuni park, which is home to several temples and shrines. I insisted we do the tourist thing briefly and we had a killer photo taken as Geisha girls! Wes looks so cute and helpful pointing the way in his little red kimono!

We wandered around the grounds for a few hours and came across the Shirayama Hime Shrine, which Wes had never seen in any of his previous visits. I went inside ahead of Wes, who was taking photos outside and removing his shoes, and jumped a mile in the air when a monk slid open a wall panel and came up behind me while I was studying the architectural detail. When Wes joined us, he gave us some history about the building, which had been burned by arsonists several times throughout the last several centuries. He gave us an Oracle in English (instead of Kanji, like they're written EVERYWHERE) and explained that if our fortune was excellent then we should tie it to a tree outside. If the fortune was less than excellent, we should keep it and come back one year from now and draw another fortune and hope for better luck.

Wes had an excellent fortune so he tied his to a tree, but mine was only good so I kept it. It said, "Your time is coming and you're becoming happier and happier (how true!). You will be able to realize what you have in your mind. But a sudden misfortune will happen to you in case you should be careful." It goes on to detail your fortune in a categories like "expected visitor" - He will come! (David is meeting me in Beijing! Yay!), "missing thing" - It will be found near around you (I lost my base pass and it was inside my Japanese phrasebook...right where I left it!), and "travel" - No problem (GREAT!). There were several others but I figured business, speculation, game & match and childbirth really had nothing to do with me right now.

We wandered through the Graveyard of the Kikkawa Family, who were the ruling lords in the area for hundreds of years. Wes kept walking into spider webs and couldn't figure out why. We were in a section of the park that was off the beaten path and he's the tallest guy around for miles. The rest of the population is my height or significantly shorter. There were no other tall guys around to knock down those spider webs at eye level for him so he was in charge of clearing his own path. And there are some BIG spiders here! To Wes' credit, he only screamed like a girl once! Go Marines, Oorah!

One of the big reasons we went to the park (other than to see the bridge) was to visit the Iwakuni Castle at the top of the hill. Its this beautiful white donjon castle built in the Momoyama-Nanbun style of the late 16th century, and many a "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" joke was made that afternoon. Unfortunately, the cable car running to the ridge line was undergoing some maintenance and we didn't get to see it. We had talked about hiking up instead but by the time we saw everything in the park that we wanted to see, we were losing daylight quickly. It gets dark here so fast! At 4:30 the sun is already setting, which is really depressing as its only October! Wes said the winters here are pretty brutal and I can see why!

We packed it in and headed back to base to meet up with some of his friends for a dinner at Ganesh, this local Indian place, which was really good! We bar-hopped around town again and ran into some pretty funny Halloween costumes in the process. Despite all the scary movies that had been on TV earlier and the people walking around base in costume, Wes and I kept forgetting that it was Halloween!

*****

On Saturday we headed to Hiroshima for the day. The weather was beautiful and we had gotten an earlier start than the previous day and were able to enjoy the sunshine! For me, Hiroshima was on the "Must See" list because of my hometown's participation in the Manhattan Project during WWII and the devastating results it had after the Atomic bomb was dropped. Not that my family and I had any personal connections to the development, manufacturing or assembly of bomb parts, but its very much a part of our hometown history because Oak Ridge would never have been built had it not been for these purposes. Its always odd to visit a place overseas that has experienced tragedy as a direct result of American action, but this place was especially sobering because I was particularly familiar with some of the more gruesome details through Oak Ridge's involvement.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but Hiroshima is an exceedingly modern town, with all of the glitz and glam of Tokyo without the dense population. Wes and I likened Tokyo to Manhattan, while Hiroshima would be more like Atlanta. Iwakuni is kind of like Oak Ridge, except with a nightlife and a military base. We came in through the train station, which is directly connected to a shopping mall. After getting lost inside and having some degree of difficulty finding our way out, we managed to catch a cab to the Hiroshima Peace Park. We walked past the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, deciding that we'd start outside to enjoy the weather. The first stop was the Memorial Monument for Hiroshima, City of Peace. The stone chamber in the center contains a register of deceased A-bomb victims (140,000 by the end of 1945). The arch shape represents a shelter for the souls of the victims.

In the background of this photo you can see the Peace Flame, which has burned continuously since it was lit in 1964. It will remain lit until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed and the planet is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation. Beyond these two memorials is the Children's Peace Monument, which is dedicated to the memory of the children who died due to the bombing. The statue is of a girl with outstretched arms with a folded paper crane rising above her. The statue is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who died from radiation from the bomb. She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured. There are glass containers behind the memorial that contain thousands and thousands of folded paper cranes from all over the world. The paper cranes are left by other memorials as well and throughout Hiroshima as a symbol of peace.

Next we stopped at the Peace Bell. There are inscriptions on the bell in 3 languages and are translated as "Know yourself." People are encourage to ring the bell, so I did!

We made our way to the Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound, which is a large, grass-covered knoll that contains the ashes of 70,000 unidentified victims of the bomb. When remains are occasionally identified, they are returned to the victim's family.

There are several smaller memorials around the peninsula, but the biggest and perhaps most recognizable attraction is the A-Bomb Dome. Formerly the Industrial Promotion Hall, it was the building closest to the hypocenter (point on the ground beneath an air explosion) of the nuclear bomb that remained at least partially standing. After much debate, Hiroshima decided to preserve its skeletal ruins in memory of the casualties. The A-Bomb Dome, to which a sense of sacredness and transcendence has been attributed, is situated in a distant ceremonial view that is visible from the Peace Memorial Park’s central cenotaph. You can see it in the background of my first Hiroshima photo above. Its hard to know how to pose in a picture like this with such serious subject matter....

After walking around the A-Bomb Dome for awhile and taking shots from all angles (they have real cranes living in the ruins, which seems so symbolic given all the folded paper cranes throughout the park), we headed back to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. They don't let you take pictures inside, but there are some amazing and some pretty gruesome sights to behold. There are scale models of what the town looked like before and after the bombing, as well as lots of belongings of victims of the bombing, including their tattered clothing, skin, fingernails and hair (ew!).

I thought there was a lot of really good information included in the displays but thought things jumped around a little bit (the historical information on the first floor skipped around a lot as to why Hiroshima was designated as a target, making it hard to follow) and the displays for the effects of radiation on people of Hiroshima were the last thing to walk through before the exit, instead of the whole "Why We Shouldn't Use Nuclear Weapons" section, which fell in the middle. I thought they could have set up the order of the displays to better tell the story.

Also, I was bummed that they barely touched on the after-effects of the bomb. And there was virtually nothing to be found on the medical treatment used on the victims or the clean-up efforts made by the city and by other aid groups to make Hiroshima livable again for the victims. I thought both would be important points but they were dismissed with a factoid along the lines of "Within 1 week of the bombing, radiation levels were at 1,000,000th of their initial levels," but they never say what the initial radiation levels were. Or what the half-life of the uranium used in the bomb was (although they did give a figure of how much of the 64kg inside the bomb actually underwent fission--only 0.7kg.) Still, to kill 140,000 people within 5 months, that's not a number to feel good about. But it could have been worse. Much worse.

They also say that radiation does not effect residents of Hiroshima today, but in another display they admit that they don't know what the long-term effects of radiation exposure are. I asked Wes how he feels being stationed so close to a nuclear bombing site for two years. Not so good. Hard to imagine why....

We left the Museum at closing time and headed to a local outdoor shopping center to walk around and catch some grub. We decided on a place that let us grill our on meat at the table. We sat on mats on the floor and concentrated on not burning our dinner and it was awesome! Should've taken photos but I was more concerned with not eating charcoal. After dinner, we found a little bar around the corner to have some sake. We let the bartender and waitress pick for us, which was a wise decision. That was easily the best sake I've had, though I have no idea what kind it was. I've haven't been steered wrong yet by letting the locals pick for me. That's something I'll continue to do all along the way!

Welcome to Iwakuni!

Wes and I had been trying to work out a plan to coordinate schedules and figure out a time and place to meet up upon my arrival in Iwakuni. Despite my best attempts, I wasn't able to find anything online that hinted at the train schedule for the high speed bullet trains (Shinkasen trains). I had no idea what the process would entail, only that it would take several hours to get from Point A to Point B.

I made the mistake on Wednesday to not pace myself while exploring Tokyo and ended up completely wiped by 5:00 pm. I had a beer, wrote in my journal and decided to lay down for a nap and get up a few hours later for dinner before actually packing it in for the night. I set an alarm for 7:00 but never heard it go off. I woke up at 10:00 and decided that was too late to eat and go back to bed, so I stayed put and fell back asleep. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Until 3:00 am, when my body told me it was time to get up. I royally screwed up my body's schedule by falling asleep so early and forced myself to stay in bed until at least 5:00. It was no easy task because I had the good fortune of having a horrible old troll of a woman who decided to chain smoke her way through 2 packs of cigarettes inside her capsule and the smoke circulated its way throughout the hall and into the ventilation system inside my capsule, where I couldn't escape. I had decided that if I smelled one more cigarette that I was going to jump through her capsule curtain and stomp on her. But she checked out at just after 4:00 am, and I was able to get a few more hours of sleep.

I got up before 6:00 and started my day. The lockers provided by the hotel were way to small to fit my luggage without unpacking my backpack so I was charged with the task of repacking everything. I had done this the night before I left Stephen's house to catch my flight and, according to David who was waiting for me to call him back before I went to bed, the process took almost an hour! I knew that I had to allow myself plenty of time to get ready to hit the road so I spread everything out in the locker room and started repacking. I took my time, wrote in my journal, recharged my iPod and camera battery and was ready to go search for some food by about 8:30.

The traditional Japanese breakfast is not something I think I can stomach that early, consisting of a salmon fillet, hot soybeans, a raw egg and some rice. So instead I ordered a pork bowl with onions and rice. Much more American-friendly. I returned to the hotel to retrieve my bags and start making my way to the Tokyo subway station (which involved several line changes) with the ultimate goal of activating my Japan Rail Pass at the Tokyo station. I was in the elevator coming downstairs to check out when I met a guy who could actually speak English! He told me he'd slept terribly because the man in the next capsule was drunk and snoring loudly all night. I exchanged the story about the chain-smoking troll on my hall as we headed downstairs. We parted ways but met up again in the train station several minutes later as I was studying my subway map trying to figure out the best way to do things. He'd been looking for a vending machine before heading to the Tokyo subway station and I told him I'd walk with him to the local convenience store if he'd help me navigate through the subway system. Turns out we were both trying to catch a Shinkasen headed south (he was going to Nada).

Julian von Harras, my new Dutch friend, rode the long way around to the Tokyo station and helped me find the JR Exchange office in the enormous labyrinth that is the central train station. We managed to score seats across the aisle from each other on a non-reserved car and chatted the whole way until he got to Kyoto and had to change trains. It was so nice to be able to speak to someone in English. I told him I had spent most of the last two days in silence or bowing and saying the one phrase that has come to be so important to my existence in Japan--"arrigatoo gozaimasu," which means "thank you." I was sad to see him go, but excited to see Wes.

I had to change trains at Osaka and catch a train bound for Hiroshima, where I had to transfer to a local train bound for Iwakuni. I left my hotel just after 9:00 am and had boarded the subway half an hour later. My high speed shinkasen left Tokyo at 11:04 am and I didn't arrive in Iwakuni until 4:50. Wes had said something about the bullet trains taking about 4 hours from Tokyo and then an additional 45 minutes from Hiroshima, which turned out to be pretty accurate with the short layovers I had in between trains, but it was such a long day of travel! Nearly 7.5 hours when it was all said and done. Whew! I have to do it all again on the way back too, which eats into any time I would have liked to have spent exploring the city. Oh well.

I thought Wes might be waiting at the train station for me at 5:00 as we had discussed, but when he didn't show I grabbed a cab to base (as was our back-up plan). I made it on base and back to his place with only a minor snafu at the front gate (Wes forgot to bring my base papers with him when he came to the gate to get me and had to go back to his apartment for them). We met up with a few of his friends for dinner and headed out for their favorite sushi place downtown. We sat at the bar and there was this little old guy behind the sushi counter put me through a sampling of his choice (all you have to do is say the magic word - Omakase!"). According to the guys, he's been there forever so I trusted him entirely.


I started with fatty tuna, eaten with wasabi and soy sauce. It was phenomenal! Then he gave me what I think was mackerel. He told me to eat it without soy sauce, although it had some wasabi under the fish.

Next was squid, eaten without wasabi or soy sauce. I had never had squid like this before and it was slightly chewy and had a peppery flavor. I absolutely loved it!

Wes's friend, Jason, shared a piece of his tuna with me which melted in my mouth. I had a few other courses, which included salmon, egg and a cucumber hand roll, all of which were fantastic! Wes insisted that we try some scallops, as they hadn't yet found their way onto my plate. We got baked scallops in butter sauce on the half shell.

I loved the presentation! This place really knew how to do things right! And the best part is that I had the best sushi of my life, several rounds of drinks and the tab was less than $40!! What a great introduction to Iwakuni! Definitely the perfect end to a long day on the road!

Eastern Bathrooms

As promised, I need to relate my first experience with Eastern bathrooms. I said in a previous post that my hotel had Western-style bathrooms (in addition to those weird lady urinal things that I still don't understand and have yet to see again). The airport had Western bathrooms too, so my first experience with anything out of the ordinary came when I wanted to take a shower at the hotel the morning after my arrival. I decided to scope things out the night before so I'd know what I was dealing with and went to the 9th floor where the showers and tub were said to be. This is what greeted me:

The faucets are set to about knee height and the sprayer heads are not in a position that you could back against them as you would in a Western shower. Also, there's a distinct lack of privacy between you and your neighbor. I decided I wasn't entirely comfortable with this set-up. I had no idea what I was doing and the chances were pretty good, based on the number of women on my hall, that I'd end up in there with at least one of them while trying to take a shower.

I hadn't yet decided if I'd rather walk around dirty for a few days or if I'd just suck it up and, in the end, I decided that I'd give it a go because if nothing else it would make for a good story. I woke up early on my first morning in Tokyo, expecting that I may end up alone after all. No such luck. There was another woman in there already but I couldn't see her very well since there are sliding glass doors that are heavily opaqued from about knee height to the top of the door that block the bathing area from the rest of the bathroom (keeps the sauna effect going in there). I did my best to discreetly bend over and try to watch to determine what I should take into the bathroom with me (towel? clothes? those slippers they make you wear around the hotel?) and decided to leave EVERYTHING behind and walk in there with only my toiletries.

Protocol seemed to be to grab one of these little white stools pictured above as a seat and to take one of the shallow buckets to help you rinse. Sitting on the stool, those mirrors are the perfect height for use. So I grabbed one and sat down. I had a recent experience trying to take a shower in Stephen's tub with a hand sprayer in DC before I left the country. It resulted in excess water working its way through the walls and floor and flooding the downstairs via a light fixture. I was sure I was in for a similar outcome in this situation. I sprayed as carefully as I could with someone else sitting two seats away, but when she left I tried to turn the sprayer into a more Western shower and ended up spraying EVERYTHING--walls, ceiling, the sliding glass door, the hot tub behind me. A bit embarrassed about the mess I was making and certain that there would be other women coming in to shower while I was there, I decided to skip sitting in the traditional Japanese tub (which was actually part of the reason I booked this hotel). I got out of there just as another woman was walking in so I felt pretty good about my decision.


I decided that was the last time I needed to attempt the use of that shower while I was in the hotel and I would be better off just waiting until the following evening when I got to Wes's place in Iwakuni. He lives on a Marine base there and I was confident that the military wouldn't subject its poor soldiers to something as unfamiliar as Eastern bathrooms.

As I was sight-seeing around Tokyo I also had the good fortune of finding Western-style toilets along the way. I knew that those fabled "holes" were out there but I had yet to use one. That is, until I arrived at the train station in Iwakuni. For those of you who haven't seen these toilets before, here's what we're dealing with:

You squat over the hole, aimed forward at the plumbing (and if you're lucky, the toilet paper) and do your business. Most of these toilets have hand rails to grab onto to stabilize yourself while you squat. The one pictured above was missing this key feature. The very first toilet I used like this did not have toilet paper so I was exceedingly glad I was advised to bring some with me. These bathrooms are always an adventure. There's something odd about squatting to pee and not being in the woods. I'm always worried that I'm going to stand up and discover that I've peed all over the back of my jeans. Wouldn't that be fun?? To walk around all day covered in pee?!?

Most bathrooms here do not have soap and none of them have paper towels. Only the bathrooms in major train stations or in airports seem to have hand dryers and most locals keep a handkerchief in their pockets to dry their hands after rinsing them off. I keep hand sanitizer with me at all times to deal with this problem. I find this situation odd, especially since the Japanese are some of the most germaphobic people on this planet. There are sick people walking around with surgical masks covering their faces so that they don't cough or breathe on someone and spread their germs. But there's no soap in the bathrooms!! I just don't get it.

Asakusa

I decided to spend my day in Tokyo seeing the local sights around my hotel. I hadn't researched Tokyo thoroughly enough before arrival (and spent most of my time on the plane ride on the way over goofing off instead of reading up) so I really had no idea what I was going to do once I got there. No worries, I like an adventure. So rather than board the subway completely blind and without a plan, I stuck close by and followed the advice of the local tourist office.


I spent several hours touring the Sensouji Temple and grounds. Its Japan's oldest Buddhist temple for ordinary people. It's focus is on the goddess of Kannon, or "Asakusa non Kannon-Sama." There's an open-air market inside and several smaller shrines scattered throughout the grounds, including a 5 story Pagoda. To get to the temple, you have to walk through a row of shops selling kitchy little souvenirs but you're rewarded with this amazingly large lantern with the Kanji symbol for "Thunder" written on it, which is the symbol for Tokyo.



Before heading to the main temple, I found a few Buddhas tucked around the grounds in various places. The photo one is my favorite. The figure on the left is said to bring mercy to worshipers, while the one on the right brings wisdom. I don't know the symbolism of the second photo, as practically everything on the grounds is written in Kanji with no English translations.



Before heading inside the main temple, I sat outside watching worshipers for awhile. The rituals I observed were interesting and I was doing my best to figure out what was going on, as I had no one to explain things to me (I've filled in some of the blanks by talking to Wes). There were walls of tiny little drawers on both sides of the temple entrance where people would shake this little metal box to try to get a little stick with some Kanji written on the tip. Then they'd replace the stick in the box and find the corresponding drawer with the same Kanji symbol they'd drawn. They'd read their fortune and if it was excellent, they'd either tie it to a tree or to a rack with rows of long pegs. If your fortune was less than excellent, then you're supposed to return to the Temple the following year and try your luck again with a new fortune. Before entering the temple, people who would burn incense and cleanse themselves in the smoke or would wash their hands and mouths at a fountain with several small cups on long wooden poles.

The worshipers had several techniques when it came to washing up. None would ever touch the cup to their lips. The ones who drank would hold the cup above their mouths and dribble water from above. They'd swish it around and spit it out on the ground. Others would only wash their hands. They'd pour water over their hands (always over the ground and never back into the fountain) and scrub. Others got fancy with this technique and would hold the cup perpendicular and let the water run out of the cup, down the stick and onto their hands. Some would wash their hands and their mouths.


Once inside the temple, worshipers would say a prayer, throw in some money as an offering and move back to allow others to do the same. The main hall was rebuilt several times over the years as it was destroyed by fire and war. The most recent hall was built in 1958.


After leaving the temple, I headed West to find the Kappabashi Kitchenware Town, where there are several blocks of wholesalers hocking equipment, utensils, dishes, chairs, etc. that are used in both restaurant and home kitchens all over town. My favorite thing to see was the wax replicas they have of food. Most restaurants across town use these wax food replicas in their window displays instead of having a menu outside. There were lots of really comical options, and those things are freaking expensive!

They take their knives seriously:

Examples of grilled items. Notice all the pots and grills wrapped in plastic.

I love this sushi display:

There were lots of things that I wanted to take home with me. I would have happily walked away with a tea set and a bowl set if Japan had been my last stop on the trip instead of my first. But I restrained myself and only walked away with a bamboo roller to add to my sushi set. It fits in my purse, so I feel like that is something that I could haul around for the next 5 months. Wes has offered to ship anything home for me that I find here in Japan. He could be setting himself up for a world of hurt by making that offer. We'll see how the next few days go!

Language Barrier

I had a good flight into Japan yesterday and was lucky that the flight wasn't overbooked. I ended up with an entire row to myself, which was perfect for a 13 hour flight. I had a personal TV and a video game console to keep me entertained and, as a result, didn't get much sleep. I'm not really sure that sleep could have ever really been an option though. As we moved west, we chased the sun and it never got dark during the whole flight. It was an odd experience and a first for me. My body was telling me it was 1am, yet out the window it was mid afternoon. I landed and moved like a zombie through immigration and customs, which went quickly and smoothly.

I had help from folks at the airport figuring out where the ATM was and how to use the public transportation system into Tokyo. I ended up taking the slowest and cheapest train available, which took 85 minutes to get from the airport to the final stop at Uneo. It only cost me about $10, which was great! I had to change trains and transfer to the subway system once I got to Uneo and had help from the subway manager to do so. The process of buying the correct tickets to clear the turnstile was always convoluted, as it was always in Japanese. Nothing here is in English, which makes things quite an adventure!

Anyway, I managed to get to my hotel with the help of the next subway manager and two Japanese businessmen (one of which walked me to my hotel because I couldn't read the signs). I handed the guy at the front desk my reservation information and he repeated back "Capsule Hotel", which meant exactly nothing to me since my reservation clearly said Hotel New Gyominso. Apparently I was in the right building, just the wrong desk. He lead me to the back of the hotel and down a set of stairs and up another set. At the other front desk (which I would have NEVER found alone) I handed my reservation information over again and received a key and a set of linens and had to put my shoes in a locker and trade them for house slippers. I was then directed to the 8th floor and this is what I found:


That's right, man! You stay out! The sign puzzled me at first. I thought the Japanese were just very proper about restricting men to their own floor and women to theirs, like in a hostel. But I had booked a single room. Or so I thought. Then I walked in and found this:

Apparently "Capsule Hotel" is exactly what it's described as! Little rooms stacked on top of each other. There are 24 capsules in my hall. Here's my room:

Its got a little TV mounted in the ceiling and a clock/radio combo, light fixture and vent mounted on one side of the wall and a small mirror mounted on the opposite side of the wall. The space measures about 4 x 4 x 7 and embodies everything I thought Japan would be. I sat there inside my capsule last night just laughing at myself for thinking that I booked a private room! What private room in Tokyo is only going to cost $30 a night? Ha! There were only about 8 of us on the hall last night and we all share 4 sinks, 1 wash bin, 3 toilets and 3 what I'm assuming are Japanese urinals for women? I'm still puzzled on this one:

The showers are located on the 9th floor and are decidedly not Western. I should have taken a picture when I scoped them out last night but I was too tired and not thinking clearly. They're only open from 3pm - 9am so I'll get a picture tonight and post it soon. I had my first experience with public bathing this morning, which was interesting. I'll write more about that when I have photos to accompany my story. In the meantime, I leave you with a night view from the top floor of my hotel.

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

Well, not yet.  Not exactly.  I'm wrapping up my final night in DC by finishing up a few things on the computer that I (surprise!) procrastinated on.  I attempted to see The Physics of Meaning play in Shirlington tonight but it fell through when they changed venues and times without a heads up.  Bummer.  But the upside is that I got to catch up with a friend from my old advertising job over an early dinner beforehand and I caught a ride to my old neighborhood and walked around the Clarendon/Courthouse area of Arlington for a little while this evening.  It seemed fitting to conclude my trip to DC by ending it in my old stomping grounds.

I leave first thing in the morning from Stephen's place in Capitol Hill and am using public transportation to make the long haul out to Dulles.  Stephen was nice enough to come pick me up from BWI when I flew in and I'd be putting him out more than a little (he'd be fighting rush hour commuters back into the city) if he were to take me to the airport this time around.  Its all good though.  Done it tons of times before.  Not looking forward to the early start but I'm sure it'll make falling asleep on the 13 hour plane ride to Tokyo MUCH easier.  That and all the free booze they dish out on international flights....

So I conclude with a farewell to all!  I'll do my very best to update posts and photos as frequently as possible.  There will no doubt be lots to share!  Cheers!

I'm On The Move!

I've officially begun my trip!  I'm currently in DC spending a long weekend with friends and I plan to catch what was supposed to be the last show on the Physics of Meaning tour in Arlington this Sunday (although it seems that they'll be playing in Greensboro shortly).

Getting to this point was every bit as stressful as I thought it would be.  I quit my job last Wednesday to allow myself enough time to get things done before I left a week later.  I had my 10 year high school reunion all weekend, which went much better than I could have imagined (much to my relief).  After the  festivities wrapped, I visited my sister in Memphis for three nights (a must, as she is leaving for a 10 month study abroad to Uruguay before I return from my trip and unless I fly down to visit, I won't see her until next Christmas).  The timing of everything only left me with a 3 days to wrap up everything on my To-Do list, which was quite an undertaking.

I'm an incredible procrastinator and, though I've known for more than a month what I'm supposed to be achieving in order to leave for half the year with a clear conscious, I've managed to put off most of the big things til the end.  Which is why I spent the better part of Thursday working on updating my iTunes playlist.  UGH.  I ran out of time to get things squared away the way I wanted (as in, I have more music than is formatted for my 8G iPhone and now the other applications don't work right), but I have tons of new music to listen to while I travel so I won't get bored with my old stuff.  I really have no idea what's on there, I just pulled stuff after sampling a few songs from each artist and figured I'd get acquainted with it later--for better or worse.  Not like I won't have time!

And then there's the packing.  Oh the packing!  My room has been Ground Zero for weeks and I thought I'd be able to give it a proper cleaning (so I'd actually be organized enough to locate things upon my return), but no such luck.  Most of the stuff landed in a heap in my closet.  I'm only taking a medium-sized backpack and a tiny courier bag (as a checked bag which will contain things I won't mind if the airlines lose, i.e. toiletries and books).  Which means that everything else I own is split between my parents house in TN and my storage unit in CO.  My mom has threatened to redo my room (or even sell the house) while I'm away.  I'm skeptical, but if she chooses to follow through on that threat all I can say is GOOD LUCK TO YOU!  I don't even want to touch all that crap when I get back and I'll HAVE to, she'd be doing it because she WANTED to, and that's a concept I just can't understand.

I'm not accustomed to traveling super light (I love to car camp because I can bring luxury items like coolers full of fresh veggies and meats for dinner, beer and I don't have to compress my sleeping bag and all my clothes and even though I sold most of my stuff after leaving DC two years ago, I still have an amazing amount of crap).  I'm really proud that everything I'm taking for a 5.5 month trip fits (mostly) inside a 3000 cubic inch pack.  Most people I've run this list by who have done anything with me in terms of camping or moving are floored by this!  David still thinks I overpacked, but everything he owns will fit into his car, so consider the source.  Here's what's coming with me:

- 1 pair of jeans

- 1 pair softshell pants

- 1 pair insulating fleece pants

- 1 pair hardshell gortex pants

- 2 pairs of shorts

- 1 skirt

- 2 long sleeved shirts

- 1 short sleeved shirt

- 1 tank top

- 1 swimsuit

- 1 sundress

- 2 pairs of shoes (1 pair tennis shoes, 1 pair flip flops)

- 4 pairs each of socks and underwear

- 2 bras

- 1 down coat

- 1 hardshell waterproof jacket

- a lightweight sleeping bag (40 degree rating)

- toiletries

- a handful of books on Asia, Australia and New Zealand

- gadgets (iPod, camera, chargers, etc)

- 6 months worth of vitamins & supplements (David laughs at this, but its my thing!  Yay health!)

Looks like a lot in list form, but I can assure you it fits on my back!  Getting things pared down to what I could fit in a backpack seemed at first to be much more daunting than it actually turned out to be.  David points out that we're going to be in the countries that manufacture most of the consumable goods for the world, so its not like I won't be able to buy things when I need them.  Plus, who wants to carry all that shit around?!?

The biggest downside of the trip is that we're covering 2 extreme seasons (going from late fall in Asia to summer and fall Down Under), which requires more of a range of layers and more to prep for than a shorter trip and therefore more stuff.  So I'll get bored with everything I'm bringing.  So what?  I'll end up shipping stuff home or donating/throwing things away as I go and determined my packing list so that I could do just that.  I'm just hoping I'll actually use everything I pack so I'm not hauling  it around for nothing.  I have my doubts, but this is a learning experience and I'm all about it!