The Journey

I'm writing this entry from 36000 feet above the Pacific Ocean and will post it to my blog upon landing.

For reasons that I don't entirely understand, we've been traveling north and west, skirting North American landmass for most of the way. It's possible that we are simply following the curvature of the earth in the most direct line to Tokyo, but that seems really unlikely. I'm thinking that we may be following the path of the least head wind to conserve fuel. Just a theory.

Alaska was amazingly desolate. I've never flown over an area that had so little evidence of human activity. No visible roads, towns, or crops of any kind...just mountains and wetlands and snow. Really beautiful. Too bad their governor sucks so very deeply.

We are approaching the International Date Line and the outside air temperature is about 60 below zero Celsius. We're 4.5 hours into the Tokyo flight, and there are about 5.5 to go. I've been trying to sleep, but napping in the upright position is a skill that I've never acquired.

I'm a little concerned about getting through customs. I had a DUI when I was 19, and I listed it on the customs form. I'm not about to start lying about my life in official documentation, but I've heard of travelers getting hassled for such things before. I also don't have a return ticket, which could also potentially pose a problem. I guess we'll see how much they want to press me on it.

Awright, I'm slapping on the headphones and going to try this sleep thing again. We'll see...