Japan!

Hey All,

It's obviously been a while (which is not to say that travel hasn't been happening, just that travel hasn't been blogged about).  In fact, since getting back from Alaska, I've been to a number of new (to me) and exciting work-related places, including:

• Puerto Rico
• New Orleans
• Albuquerque (I was only there for ~6 hours, but I did leave the airport, so I'm counting it)
• Buffalo (not work-related)
• Toronto (also not work-related)

... And many more.  But now, it's time for another big trip - to Japan! We're taking off in approximately 11 hours and 50 minutes.  Tomorrow morning, Troy and I depart from Charlotte, enjoy (?) a brief stopover in Detroit, and then do a 12:55 mosey on over to Tokyo-Narita.  From there, the plan is to spend the night in Tokyo, and then head to Yokohama, where we'll hitch a ride on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.  The next eight nights will be spent circling Japan (with one day in South Korea), before returning to Tokyo, spending another night in the city, and then flying back home. 

We're pretty excited, but honestly, it's a little surreal to actually be going.  We booked this trip AGES ago, immediately after finding incredibly reasonable airfare, so it's definitely been simmering for a while.  I spent most of this week working north of Dallas, and have barely wrapped my head around packing for someplace that's not going to be 95+ degrees for the entirety of the stay.

As always, I'm planning to post as we go.  In the meantime, I asked Facebook what everyone was reading, so that I could pretend not to be in a tightly enclosed space for 12 hours, and I thought I'd share the list of what I got back, in case anyone else was looking for a recommendation:

• The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
• The Second Amendment: A Biography
• Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
• Mad in America by Robert Whitaker
• Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Hit Man by Lawrence Block
• Mortality Doctrine by James Dashner
• The Butterfly Garden
• The Rogue Lawyer
• The Unfortunate Englishman
• Avenue of Spies
• The Paris Architect
• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
• Dorothy Must Die (Series)
• Hyperion
• Six Frigates
• Without Remorse by Tom Clancy 
• Homegoing
• Book of Memory
• What the Dead Knew
• Relativity 
• Eyrie
• The Light Between the Oceans
• The Heart Goes Last
• The Last Innocents
• Earthsea Books
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane
• The Outlander Series
• All the Light We Cannot See

So... I'm planning to read a ton.  And I'm pretty excited about it. Let's see if my enthusiasm lasts through the first of the lengthy flights :)

Catherine

P.S. In terms of the conversion rate, $1 = 106.08 Yen.  Just thought that you might like to know.