What I Did On My Summer Vacation

My Trip To Tokyo

Monday august 12th (no pictures on this page)

Afternoon. My sister picks me up, and gives me a ride to the airport. Also provides me with snacks and bottled water she thinks I'll need on the flight. I bring along a ton of CDs and my guitar in addition to reading material and necessities like clothes, underwear, anti-perspirant, digital camera, etc.

We take off at 2:50 pm. Kinda bumpy, with the whole plane shakin'. Kinda like traveling down a road in Queens. Hey, Kennedy Airport IS in Queens, isn't it? Once we're airborne, it's all smooth flying from there. Yes, there was some turbulence, but nothing like a past trip to/from Texas, where I could feel the plane drop several stories. This was my greatest concern about the trip. Nothin' to worry about, though. We were fed three meals, in this order; dinner, lunch, and breakfast. For me it was a little weird, as we were to land at just about dinnertime in Tokyo. However others on this trip were continuing from Tokyo to places like Hong Kong and Singapore so maybe there was some logic to the order. I just can't see it. At the same time edible food is edible food, whether you want to call it breakfast, brunch or whatever, so no complaints about the order. Dinner I recall as being good, though I can't remember what it was I ate. Lunch I skipped, because it appeared to be a ham sandwich, and I don't eat pork (or beef). I relaxed some of my prohibitions on this trip, but we'll get to that later. Breakfast I also kinda skipped because it was some egg deal. I don't eat eggs either (except as an ingredient in other foods or snacks). There was a fruit salad, so I had that and some orange juice. I felt no need to eat the snacks nor drink the water provided by my sister, though they would prove useful in the coming days.

Entertainment? A career retrospective on the life of Cybil Shepard from the E channel, the Dennis Quaid movie, The Rookie, and something on Steely Dan. I didn't watch any of it, aside from brief glimpses at the screen. Ian Dury was interviewed during the Steely Dan show. Was he in that band? No. (Went and asked somebody, once I got back). I slept quite a bit off and on, and read The Road To Perdition, The comic book the film was based on. That comic book was itself inspired by Kozure Okami, a Japanese comic book series about a lone Samurai who travels with his infant son on the "road to hell", dealing bloody vengeance on those that wronged him, and taking on a lot of work as a paid assassin along the way. I found Perdition a little disappointing, but I have some hope that the movie will be better. Kozure Okami was also made into a few films. English speaking fans may remember Lightning Swords Of Death (also released as Lupine Wolf) or Shogun's Assassin, which compiled two films into one. The entire six film series should be headed on to DVD in America anytime now (I hope), under the title, Sword Of Vengeance.

I was supposed to get the window seat, but the women seated next to me were probably a little confused by the diagram above the seats. I didn't make it an issue as I had mixed feelings about looking out the window. I'm not crazy about heights.

Service was pretty good (Northwest Airlines). I was in coach. I've never traveled first or business class, so I can't make a comparison. The flight was about twelve or thirteen hours. It appeared as though we traveled with the sun, as daylight accompanied us for the entirety of our flight.