Man, what an insane time it’s been. Many mundane things taking up too much time, things breaking (garage door, lawnmower, MIDI keyboard), three certification class beginning DURING finals week, finals week itself, email addresses hijacked by spammers and thus disabled, TWICE. Throw in an out of state gig for a few of our friends and some bike pedals that required a $120 wrench to remove an hour before we were scheduled to leave for the airport, and yeah, it’s been pretty crazy.
That said, everything else has been pretty smooth. Our new TSA Pre status made getting through Milwaukee security a breeze, though it was so quiet there, we really didn’t save any time. But not having to take off our shoes, no full body scan, no taking out our liquids or laptops. All in all, a much more pleasant experience. No flight problems to LA, easy shuttle to the motel, shuttle driver on the way to LAX dropped us off at the wrong gate, but we always get there so early, we just walked to the correct gate and all was set.
Flying ANA (a 787, for airplane nerds) means decent food, reasonable legroom and lots of free movies (finally saw Deadpool. Very funny, but hoo boy violence). For the first time in several years, there were no small children nearby, making this easily the most relaxed flight I’ve had in a long time. I did most of my homework for the week, napped, listened to some music, played some video games, napped some more and before we knew it, we were touching down in Narita.
No matter how many times we do this, two things remain the same 1) We always forget how to get OUT of the luggage area in Narita and 2) The scenery from the train as we make our way into Tokyo proper is a great way to start the trip.
We arrived at the Keisei Ueno station and proceeded the long walk to the hotel. And by long, I mean across the street.
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| View of Kangetsusou from the station exit |
It was actually mid afternoon when we got there, but didn't have time or energy to get the camera out when we first arrived. We checked in, hauled everything upstairs, then turned right around and walked around the corner to Ueno Park, where we put our bikes together in a commons area while listening to, of all things, a salsa band playing across the pond. I would have taken some video of this, but it would have had to have been heavily edited and censored to remove all of Sumi's expletives while she was struggling to put her bike and trailer together. It's a good thing all the people walking around didn't speak English...
Sweaty, greasy and exhausted, we ran back to the room, showered and changed and had just enough energy to stumble across the stree to the convenience store and grab some sandwiches, yogurt and juice for dinner.
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| Ueno at night. Not sure about the Christmas lights. |
I finished some more homework like a good student, then passed out. The journey begins on Sunday!
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