Day 1 in a Nutshell

I'm worn out as hell, so this will actually be brief for once. I can almost never sleep on airplanes, so that did a real number on me when I had to sit in one for eleven hours straight without having slept at home for nearly 24 hours when the flight started. Stupid mistake in retrospect, but ah well. I'm here in one piece and I thought I'd give you all quick impressions of the places I ended up going to today.

Denver International Airport

Same as always. Spiffy place, but the fact that the place actually lacks wi-fi, contrary to its advertisements, irked me, considering I got there early since airports are so bipolar about whether security and check-in will take an eternity. Maybe it was just my specific terminal that lacked it, I dunno. It did give me a chance to go play some Touhou and The Typing of the Dead, though. No good person can get enough of at least the latter.

Minneapolis

DUDE, WHAT IS UP WITH ALL THE TREES!? I come from Denver, a place that has trees a plenty on virtually every block, but in terms of sheer numbers, they don't remotely compare to Minneapolis. You look out the window in the airplane as it's touching down and I guarantee you that at least 75% of that view is just going to be trees for no arbitrary reason other than to have a lot of trees. The airport itself was nice, even if it did have a Fox News-themed store. No joke. Actually, that airport had a lot of weird stores. I didn't take a picture of it, but do you really need a Harley Davidson store at an airport? Sometimes human logic is odd, although I think in this case it was nonexistant.

Tokyo

Really long flight. Like, stupidly long. I didn't realize how long it would take to get to the Pacific from Minneapolis, but I learned my lesson. As much as I may loathe LAX, I'd rather get lost there for 20 minutes rather than sit in an airplane for four extra hours just to save a few extra dollars. On top of that, I can almost never sleep on an airplane thanks to all the engine noise. Does anybody know if the hardcore noise cancelling headphones can block out even that much sound? If so, I may look into buying a pair at Akihabara before I leave Tokyo.

Oh yeah, I should probably talk about Tokyo itself. It's pretty damn great. As a city boy, there are certain traits it has that automatically resonate with me and make it feel like home. At the same time, though, the landscape is very Japanese and I'm grateful I have such a contrast compared to what I'm accustomed to back in the States. Besides some of the obvious things, like Japanese signage, I liked seeing how Japan worked with its landscapes first hand. I saw those very square plots of land you'll often see in rural-themed movies like My Neighbor Totoro and it reminded me of just how deliberate the Japanese can be at taking care of the nature around them. If you understand why bonsai caretaking is a pretty hardcore thing to do, then you probably have a good idea of what I mean by this already; the soul is still there, but the manner in which the land and its nature is cared for is done in such a way that it can send out its own subtle commentary. It's a really great thing to behold, even if the sights themselves are pretty modest.

It's also pretty damn hot and humid at the moment. As someone who grew up in super arid air, it'll take a bit of time to get used to, but in the end, I suppose it'll be manageable. I was planning on exploring the neighborhood around my hotel a tad, but the laptop decided to pretend it didn't have a working ethernet port for the longest time, so that kind of took priority, what with needing to let the family know I didn't get kidnapped or anything. Definitely looking forward to being able to do so, though, since that will let me use my camera in much more optimal conditions than what was possible to muster tonight. Plus, we get our train passes tomorrow, so maybe even a jaunt to Akihabara will be in order soon.

Okay, this didn't turn out that concise. Yay irony.