Officially confirmed – making a pitstop in Japan for a week before continuing on to Beijing and mainland PRC for 3 months.

Goals for Tokyo:

• get lost on subway
• take pictures of shiny lights
• eat sushi on one of those carousel things
• get sick of sushi and vow never to eat it again
• view Mt. Fuji from Lake Yamanaka
• sleep on a yatami mat on the floor
• sleep in an 8′ x 2′ x 2′ room
• shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto
• Tsujukiji Fish Market fo’ sho’
• POKÉMON!
• Imperial Palace and Asakusa and Ueno (pagodas and stuff)
• take more pictures of Japanese signs that probably mean something incredibly mundane like “street cleaning”
• karaoke with presumed new friends while making sure they pick up the Ichiban bill
• bow continuously
• pretend to love J-pop but secretly idolize K-pop
• sake in little ceramic vials
• eat more sushi

Also, a side note that I’m sure very few people care about.  I’m flying into Tokyo-Narita, Japan’s main international gateway, via Dallas/Ft. Worth, which is so far from central Tokyo.  However, I was able to get on to Japan Airlines 23 leaving from Tokyo-Haneda, the busiest, mostly-domestic airport in Japan, when I leave the country for the People’s Republic.

Anyway, sorry for all the minutia.  World is on break for about 2 months until East Asia.  See you then.