I’m pooped. The worst way to start the trip was to wake up repeatedly in the middle of the night having to rush to the bathroom, but I’m not the one who gets to decide these sorts of things. We left home at 10:30AM for a flight that turned out to be later than my mom thought, and we left Portland at 1:55PM. We arrived in Narita around 5PM Japan time, which makes it around 4AM Portland time. We boarded a train to Tokyo which took about an hour, and here’s a picture of my mom’s friend in the train. She came to meet us at the airport and is going north with us.

Here’s a picture of Tokyo’s train station which doesn’t look nearly as chaotic as it really is because you can’t see all the people rushing around. You also can’t see the sheer number of dark suits people are wearing. Probably because they’re all rushing around and hide from my camera.

When we got to Tokyo, we waited for the bullet train for another hour, and then took four hour trip to Niigata. Or at least I think it took that long. It’s like 7AM Portland time right now and I’m beat. I’m recharging all the batteries on all my various crapola, and posting this nonsense when I really should be sleeping. It’s been over 24 hours since I rolled out of bed and brushed my teeth. What’s a geek to do?

Well, it’s off to Sado Island tomorrow. More later.