"Sweet! We all Up Onz!" by Rob
Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 12:21 PM

Ok , here's the last of it, my exciting adventure in Japan. I hope you guys enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Final day/flight home (Best read with 'Diamond Crevasse' from Macross Frontier playing in the background)

9:25 AM Tokyo time- I'm at the airport now. Thinking back to the ride in on the train, it was another early morning getting up with Colt before the sun. Rain is the forecast but it's a short walk to the station so we don't get wet too bad. As we rode the train to Shinjuku for my last time to secure a ticket on the express to Narita airport, I stared at the now familiar sights of the city from the standing position of the train. Colt and I said our goodbyes on the platform and now I'm all alone again, after traveling so much with others. The seats are quite cushy on this train...and there is no subway style standing. I click on my Ipod and listen to a song as we pull through the sights of the city I've grown to love even more over such a short time. I see the 109 buliding (pronounced 'Ichi-maru-kyu' by the natives) and realise I'm going through Shibuya near where we were for dinner thursday. The song on the Ipod is 'Diamond Crevasse'....fitting as this weekend was all about Macross. As we slide through the tall structures, a profound sense of sadness at leaving this place comes over me and I nearly weep. I feel so at home here. Even now, as I type this at the airport now that I'm sitting, I feel the strong emotion of wanting to stay, and my eyes tear up. I've waited so long to be here and now I know that it's time to go home. It brings a heavy heart to my trip back. Though I miss my loved ones......I wish I could stay. The rain streaming across the window makes it seem as though Tokyo is sad at my departure....as if the sky were crying for me.....

10:00am- Changed all but a bout 900 yen back into american money...didn't have much left. I'm dreading balancing my checkbook when I get back

Looks like the flight back is going to be much more crowded as the seat slection was slim. Still managed a window though. All I know is I'm gonna sleep

quite soundly on the plane as I'm now fully exhausted from my trip. Flight's supposed to leave in about an hour so I might not get to type more untill we're in the air. If the Japanese run around like this all the time, I can understand how they can sleep standing up on the train.

2:30 pm- I've been sleeping a lot on the flight back ,so much so that I missed the first meal and now I'm starving. I did however meet a new friend in the terminal. Her name is Yamanaka and shes on her first trip to the US. We talked a bit and switched back and forth from english and japanese. She seems nice. She gave me her email and a 'Puri-cura' sticker. Does this mean anything to a japanese girl? I'll have to drop her a line when I get home. God I'm tired AND hungry now. Sapporro is the beer of choice on the way home now.

5:00 pm- Got my last meal of fish from Japan I'm sure, and I just finished watching 'Street Kings'. A decent movie that would have been made better if Hugh Laurie were in it more. The night sky over Alaskas Anchorage bay is dotted with fewer lights than I'm used to from the sky view. A sign of the sparcer population. It's odd, the sun was up and shining and the next as we crossed over the arctic, it simply went black. Odd how the sun will be up again when I land, even though it never went down on the trip out. I think I'll try to get some sleep. After that, perhaps some Super Robot Taisen D on the DS.

9:20- just a quick note before I finish eating. Watching a documentary on eating 'Bento' from the NHK. Started wondering why the music I heard is familiar...then it hit me like it usualy does....it's from Kikis Delivery Service. Started laughing and the poor guy next to me must have thought I was crazy.

9:35- Finished my meal of sausages and eggs with fried potatos (I'm guessing it's to get you in the spirit of Breakfast since it's that time in DC) and am sipping on my Cabernet Sauvignon (2007 was a pretty good year). Yamanaka has asked me to help her with her luggage when we land, since she has a connecting flight. It's her first time abroad and I'll try and help her as much as I can. I'm sure Tikki will understand. I'll ask around after we land to see if her things are all set or if we need to get her squared away. Shouldn't be too tough, I just hope she has enough time to do it. We're coming up on about the 2 hour mark for the flight, so the film I wanted to watch is too long for the remainder...oh well, there's always rentals. I've seen enough movies on this flight anyway. Back to the Bento special.

Arrived in DC at about 9:30 our time...meaning I got home before I left...what?? No wonder my bodys all screwed up right now. I actually thought that today was tuesday. Good thing Tikki set me straight. We headed back home and I settled in for a nice long nap to get re-adjusted.

I'm finaly home...happy but tired, and longing for that country already.

I had the time of my life and I thank all my friends for helping me out while there. You guys were amazing. Even if you don't read this, you need to be thanked.

Did I enjoy my trip? That would be an understatement.

Did I love it? Of course.

Could I stay there premanently? It's a possibility.

Will I go back?

Fucking bet your ass I will.

Resistance IS Futile.

Neo-Vader III

'So if she doesn't take her medicine, she bursts into spontaneous mushrooms?' 'Yes.' 'Dude.' by Kara
Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 10:35 AM

Okay, I get to rant first because I happen to know Co-Writer is still very much asleep, and my money's on him being so for at least another hour. And to answer a comment from a fair bit ago ... yes, I do appreciate what he got me. Very much. Holy crap. It makes me very happy.

He likes to freak me out with talk of creepy kids in anime (mainly the creepy vampire incest murder twins that will always make me feel ill no matter what), and with that in mind after a recent discussion, I thought I'd tell you all something a bit nifty.

I don't know why I thought of this, but the other night I was remembering how we came up with some aspects of our designs. Lu Fei, for example, is somewhat based on a friend of mine (appearance-wise, not crazy-wise). Gwen's hair-in-the-face is somewhat taken from the way my hair used to be in college, when I worked at a deli and always had to clip it back like she does (besides putting it in a ponytail).

Cy-chan ... and I don't know how I forgot this for so long ... gets her hairstyle from ... can you guess? Are you clever?

I'll bet you're not clever enough.

Oh, here, I'll tell you.

These girls. Look at all familiar? Those'd be the mice from the Hitchhiker's Guide movie (though granted, if you can see under their little hats, theirs are more rolls than buns ... crap, now I'm hungry for bread). But it sort of generally remains design-wise, and it's definitely what we were visualising when Cy-chan was being designed.

Not to say her eyes look anything like this ... or do they? Or don't they? Will you ever even find out?

Muhahahaha.

If you have been, I knew you'd like it.

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