09 May 7:18p: Tokyo-Narita Express

Okay, so it's now however many hours later, and I just left Tokyo Narita Airport. I have my rail pass and about 13,000 yen [$130]. I also have a bunch of reserved seats for this trip up to Sapporo.

My plane from O'Hare was delayed2 hours, which wouldn't be a big deal except it threw off my train plans. I'm now getting to Sapporo an hour later than I was supposed to BE at the Fighters stadium. Damn! I e-mailed Ken Iwamoto, and will call him sometime tomorrow (I'm guessing it's too late to call now...). I don't think it'll be a huge problem, and I at least will get there in time to see the game, which is all I really care about.

I was flipping out about 8 hours into the flight here (maybe that's the 'go insane' point. I wouldn't be surprised) because I somehow thought I was going to end up here on the TENTH. I forgot how the International Date Line works. Oops. The flight itself was fine. I wish I'd had a window seat, because we went basically right up over Alaska, across the Bering Strait, and down (which makes perfect sense; I just never thought of the trip that way before). It would have been amazing to see that landscape from the plane. But I had an aisle, right next to the galley and next to two Japanese people who probably thought I was ridiculously dumb (particularly when I was flipping out and constantly opening the overhead compartment to check what Lonely Planet had to say). A lot of Japanese people so far seem to have thought this, but I don't blame them.

I slept a lot (on the HOU-Chitown flight, I slept right through takeoff and woke up in the air, which was a little surreal). I watched parts of Happy Feet (when I go back, I'm going to watch The Prestige- I missed the start of it and didn't want to see only part of a movie...), and read the Ichiro book. I will probably do more of the same when I get on the overnight train. The woman thought I was nuts when I told here I was taking the train to Sapporo, but honestly, it was so expensive to fly one way, and I really want to see as much of the country as I can while I'm here. Train it is.

I decided that the point of no return (not to be confused with the go insane point) on those trans-oceanic flights is 6 hours.Before that I'm good, I'm sleeping, whatever. Afterwards, I get antsy and my leg gets twitchy and oh god there's another SEVEN HOURS on this thing. Naturally, the only thing to do is go to sleep again.

The food was very tasty on the way over. The first time, we had seafood curry and rice, a salad, and some Japanese cake thing. About 2 hours before landing, we got this alfredo/salmon pasta dish, another salad, and vanilla pudding.

It's so funny how much I stand out as foreign.

I think I might conquer jet lag pretty easily. I can't fall asleep till 10, when I get on the train (well, the first one). And 10pm is a reasonable American bedtime. If I sleep 12 hours (oh WOW that would be amazing), I still have 2 hours overlap, so I won't miss my stop. This seems promising.

These first few days are insane. INSANE. Tomorrow I have to look presentable (hahaha) to Important People, and put my journalist game face on (do I have one?). Also not get lost in Sapporo. It is crazy. Then I have to immediately plan the return to Tokyo- maybe I can do this tonight, at Ueno. I HAVE to be there the 12th, by 6 or 7 pm. That is not even up for debate. From Tokyo- Chiba Marines AND the Giants on the 13th. I think once I get to the 14th, I'll be fine. The schmoozing will mostly be done; I'll have seen 3 games, etc, etc, etc. So crazy.

So far I can read (well, remember) the kanji for "entrance." I felt that was a good thing to know. I can also say 'arigato,' even though I am probably butchering it. Mostly, I'm just smiling a lot, and saying OK.

Hey, we just went by the Chiba station! It's 7:47; let's see how long it is to Tokyo from here...

I cannot wait to get on that train. Maybe I can even change clothes, since I've been wearing these for a while.

Where is Tokyo? I want to see it and its awesomeness.