The Japan Trip Re-Visited

Day 1: March 9/10th, 2006

Wake up at 4:30 am.

Rachel (Sam's roommate, my ex-co-worker, our buddy) drives us to the airport!

We fly first to Chicago and then over the Bering Strait (we think), Siberia, part of China? Korea? and then into Narita Airport outside of Tokyo where we meet up with Yoichi. 17 real time hours in a metal capsule hurtling through space. The airport is eerily quiet. Japan is amazingly quiet, clean, and respectful. And like nothing I've ever experienced before. (A good read is Japanland by Karin Mueller for a memoir of a thirty-something's search for wa. It also gives a good meandering sociological concept of Japan and its components. While I was there I read Dave Barry Does Japan. This is a good laugh and should be re-titled 'a redneck's guide to Japan's idosyncrasies.' But more seriously, it does give the westerner some insight as what to expect during their visit.)

Sam met Yoichi while he was working in the KU photo lab in the 2004-2005 school year. Yoichi was there as an exchange student where he really got into the art and music scene of Lawrence, KS. Now he is back in Chichibu, Japan and working as a teacher and he actually gradutated while we were visiting (but you don't know that yet).

So, we exchange our money into yen and jump on the train to Tokyo. We get our tickets for a two-hour ride west of the city to Yoichi's hometown, Chichibu, but in the mean time we have an hour to kill. We stop at a ramen shop tucked into the sprawling back alleys on a drizzly evening with bright lights begging for my open-mouthed attention. wow.