Nine weeks to go

I have informed the parents of my travel plans, and their reaction was not as I feared. My mom knew it would happen anyway, so she just moved on to new worries about me traveling alone. She worries about many, many things.

Dad was surprised. He had been meaning to ask if I was in need of money, and the fact that I had bought a plane ticket seemed to answer the question (no, I must not need it seems logical, but then again, so does the opposite).

So with that part out of the way, I've moved on to the fun part -- actually ironing out the details of my trip.

On Dec. 12, I'll fly out of Portland, arriving in Tokyo on Dec. 13 at about 4 p.m. At the airport I'll probably try to find a place to exchange some cash --- I'll need about 3,000 yen for the train ride ... maybe.

That train will take me to either Yokohama or Shinjuku ... not sure which. There, I'll meet Shiho and Yuseke, my conversation partners from Bunkyo University at OSU last spring term. I'll be on the train heading to one of the busiest areas of Japan right at the head of rush hour. Exciting! Once I meet up with my Tokyo guides, it will probably be time for dinner. Maybe a stop at Shiho's apartment to unload first.

Tokyo for four days, then an overnight train to Nagoya. More on that leg of the trip later.

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Started looking at renting a cell phone for my travels. That would help me coordinate meet-ups at various train stations with different friends in different cities. And, that would let me e-mail blog postings -- with pictures I hope -- to this very blog. The point of its existence.

That's all for now ... only nine more weeks of the term left.