Greetings.

Welcome to Japan Hello!

This blog is not supposed to be an exercise in narcissistic reflection (necessarily). It's intended to be more of a checklist for me as I plan my trip to Japan.

Why do I want to go to Japan?

The reasons are many and varied. Have you ever read James Clavell's epic work, Shogun? If not, I can't recommend it highly enough. When I was about nine years old, I watched the miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain. Even now, I clearly remember the scene when the main character, Blackthorne, calls his lover a "murderous bitch" after some old man gets beheaded because of something she said or did.  I remember the scene afterward when she ceremoniously guts herself. As she makes Thanksgiving turkey of her intestines, the back of her neck then meets the business end of a samurai sword by that Samurai guy who stood right at her side, stoically observing the proceedings. Her lover boy, Blackthorne, watches it all go down, unable (or unwilling?!?!) to save her. I saw that miniseries some time in the 80s.

It had a lasting impression. I started reading the novel at some point in 1999, right before entering the Air Force. Around that point in my life, I hadn't really figured out why God allowed my mother to squeeze me out into the world. I had set off for college a few years before, in the fall of 1995, to study oboe performance at Michigan State University, a stone's throw from my native Los Angeles, but soon after arriving, I discovered that I was out of my league: I blew (excuse the pun) at the oboe. So I did what anyone else would reasonably do when faced with one of those life choices that could potentially build your character: I stared into the eyes of uncertainty with all the resolve a 20-year old could muster...and I got the hell out of Dodge. In my case, "Dodge" was East Lansing, Michigan. I wound up at a small school in Southern California where I majored in Biology, then Math, then Aerospace Engineering followed by Spanish, then English then nothing: I quit school and joined the Air Force. So in a matter of months, I went from feeling adrift to hopelessly trapped.

What am I trying to say?

I'm trying to tell you that I started reading Shogun around this time and not be melodramatic but it carried me to heights never before experienced (except for the miniseries I saw when I was nine, I mean.) It was truly a fantastic book.

I forgot to mention my first trip to Japan.

My first trip to Japan was the trip of a lifetime. I was selected as one of 10 middle school students from my school to go to Japan as an exchange student for 10 days. The only downside of all this was that we traveled in the dead of summer. Are there words to describe the suffocating humidity of this smallish island chain in the pacific? No, there aren't any words. Suffice it to say, it was indescribably hot.

Hot...but so worth it. But I'll save that for another post.

For now, I plan to visit Japan either in late winter/early spring or the beginning of the fall of 2016. So far, I have $50 in my piggy bank.

Tomorrow, I will begin the process of renewing my passport.

To the group from Alessandro Middle School in Moreno Valley, California who traveled to Japan in the summer of 1991: are you out there? I don't remember anyone's name except for some guy called Rocky. Rocky, are you out there? Do you want to go to Japan again in late winter/early spring or the fall of 2016?