"Looks like we're not in Kansas anymore..."

I'm HERE!!
Here is currently Okayama, Japan. I'm walking around, all wide eyed and excited, looking like an obvious tourist, and despite the fact that my Japanese is even worse than I thought it was, and the constant lingering smell of stale smoke (Japan isn't as much of an anti-smoking country as I'd like it to be), and just general shyness- I'm loving it. All neon lights and tiny people bowing and vending machines everywhere.

The weepy me seems like someone else. Just stepping off the plane in Hong Kong, 5989 miles and 11 hours and 17 minutes away from Heathrow, London, for my transfer flight made me feel so much better. I can't lie- I love to travel. I love the unknown- the new sights, sounds, smells of a foreign clime- it's just the leaving people behind that I can't quite handle.

I still can't quite believe I'm here- but as the hours pass it feels more and more real. I will add some of the pictures I've taken so far of my mini hotel room and the people I've met later.

Renraku shimas= I'll keep in touch...