After a nice night of rest and a much needed breakfast, Melissa and I are recharged just enough to get to the onsen in Okayama. As I write this, I take enough time every now and again to enjoy the wonderful scenery, complete with mountains, steep hills, and the Japanese-style rooftops.

The Sleep Inn in Higashihiroshima was much more impressive than I previously thought it was going to be. Not only was it a much larger room than anticipated, but it was as clean as a whistle. Additionally, it had one of those weird toilets with a spigot. It was very technologically advanced (especially compared to the US) and was VERY impressive.

Breakfast was a Japanese-style continental (pastry) breakfast. Melissa and I felt like we were being stared at, though. It’s probably as the Fodor’s book puts it: Curiosity. I haven’t seen any other foreigners in this area, so there could be the possibility that very few travel here.

So far everything is going much better than anticipated. I’m something like 8/10, so I’ve kept with my conversation strategy. I’ll update later tonight.

Still on the same Shinkansen that my previous entry was on. My muscles have started to ache and I really long for Hiroshima to be here. I must try not to sleep so that I can get to sleep tonight and get on Japan time. Melissa has been asleep for the past 2 hours or so, which I don’t mind. The view has been getting a little more exquisite, despite it still being pitch black and rainy. The car has been too warm for comfort and there is no air vent like there is on airplanes. A minor inconvenience, though.

My main concern right now is for us to get to Okayama and get on the next train immediately. We have a total of 5 minutes between trains, so we’ll see if the infamous train system lives up to its name.

One last thought: room service.

I have been awake now for almost 24 hours with only about 3 hours of napping on the plane. We are currently on the Shinkansen bound for Okayama. Depending on the size of Okayama, I might regret going to Hiroshima and coming back the following morning.

The arrival on the AA flight was not too bad. A smooth landing was a nice ending to a rough decent. Customers was by-in-large much easier than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting lines a mile long that moved very slowly. However, customs was broken into 2 parts. The first is the form. The second (which was after you obtain your luggage) was another individual whom checks the passport & asks the question “What is the purpose of your visit?” All said, we were off the plane and through customs in about 20 minutes. Then the fun really began.

Read the rest of this entry »

Why Day 0? Well, I figured that since we will be traveling for approximately 24 hours (or equivalently our first day) it should count as a day for our trip, but not an actual day, if that makes sense. For my fellow geeks, I did not start with 0 because I’m a programmer. Sorry.

So far the plane has been more than boring. The in-flight entertainment sucks, studying always sucks, and the continued exhaustion that Melissa and I feel don’t help the situation. I’ve had to turn off the monitor that shows our flight path and time to arrival because its only making the flight longer than it should be.

Another interesting, yet odd feeling is since it is so late in the evening, it feels like it should be dark outside. But, since we’re traveling in the direction of the sun’s path, we’ve had continual sunlight the entire time. I’m sure by midnight CST I will be flipping out, hehe.

Oh, I would have made a call to my parents a little while ago, but the fees were ridiculous! $5 to connect and $10 / minute! *glares*

*goes back to watching Nissa actually sleep*

Introduction

The next few entries into my blog are all about the Japanese honeymoon that Melissa and I were on from December 25th - January 5th. I originally wrote these entries in a leather book that I carried with me in my backpack, and I tried updating as close to everyday as possible. There’s a lot to read, but I encourage everyone who visits my website to read the entries as you’ll more than likely find them entertaining and/or interesting.

Entry #1

After a long restless night (more than likely due to the excitement of going to Japan), we woke this morning @ 5:30AM. The weather was muggy and when we got to the airport there was a decent crowd of people in the lobby around the American Airlines’ booth. This freaked me (and my father) out as it seemed as though the flight was cancelled - which was not the case. After getting through security fairly quickly and waiting in the lobby for what seemed like a few hours, we boarded and were in Dallas / Fort Worth airport before we knew it. The flight was one of the more turbulent ones, and I wish they would retire the prop planes for regional jets, but they won’t.

Onboard our 777 to Tokyo, we are 4+ hours into our flight. The lunch was manageable, and Nissa and I have been studying Japanese (along with combating sleep deprivation). Overall, I’m fairly impressed with the flight, and might consider AA again, but we’ll see later on.

*goes back to watching Nissa trying to sleep on the plane*

Check out the game my buddy Tommy found at:

http://novelconcepts.co.uk/FlashElementTD/

It’s guaranteed to lock you in and keep you occupied for a while.

Well everyone, I’m finally back from a nice long vacation. If you haven’t noticed, my last post was from quite a while ago. Over the course of the past few weeks I have gotten married to my highschool sweetheart, Melissa and gone to Japan for our honeymoon. Being in Japan with Melissa was truly delightful and a wonderful experience, and over the course of the next few weeks I will be taking the 50-60 pages that I wrote up about Japan and posting it to my blog. Additionally, all the photos that I took will be posted as well. So, stay tuned.