Posts

Ueno Zoo!

Image
I started writing this post as part of the arrival post, realized it was unwieldy as heck, tried to break them up, and turns out Blogger doesn't copy to clipboard 🫠. So that's nice, very cool, more work for me to try and recreate the post, which I'd started days ago, purely from memory. Thanks, Blogger!! Anyway. After dropping our bags off at the Edo Sakura, it was 11am and we still had the rest of the day to fill until we could actually check in. Luckily, Ueno Park and Zoo were very close! Ueno Park is also huge at 538,506.96 m² containing within it not only the zoo but also 7 museums,  2 performing arts halls, 2 or 3 smaller academies or universities, 6 bodies of water, 3 shrines, a Yayoi-period burial mound... yeah. Also, it's the oldest park in Japan. Unfortunately, we didn't see most of it due to time and physical constraints, but we did spend the afternoon at the Zoo! Here are some of the animals we saw: Rock ptarmigan! A variety of fa
Post a Comment
Read more

WE'RE HERE!!!

Image
So the time stamp is a little weird on that last one because I posted it as soon as we had wifi here, soooo here's the next update already!! THREE HELLS CONQUERED! When we deplaned, there were a couple wheelchairs waiting, and a couple employees wheeled us through. It went way easier than I expected! Also, we're already in Terminal 3 somehow?? So we're just sitting, chilling, having a little caffeine before we go collect our JR passes and the portable wifi. The 7-11 ATMs take Visa and Plus cards, so I was able to pull out 10k yen and promptly spent some of it at a vending machine. A nice cold Coke for Ken, and a Royal Milk Tea for me. But I didn't read the sign closely enough... Breakfast of champions? The bottle is HOT! Only after burning my fingers did I realize that the sign above the 150円 said Hot~ (あたたか~い)... Lesson learned! Gotta read those signs much more carefully next time. It's a metal bottle, too, so it'll take a while to cool... by which
Post a Comment
Read more

Greetings from 38,001ft!

Image
So, looking at the date stamp on this, I'm sure you're full of questions! I've been meaning to write this post all day and just haven't had the attention span, but right now in Tokyo it's 10:30pm and that's a bit early for me to be sleeping. I'll take a nap at an internet cafe after we're out of the airport. So why the heck am I in the air now, as opposed to 24 hours ago? Yesterday night, about 25 minutes before boarding started, Ken and I took our meds and got ready to knock out for the night as soon as we were off the ground, basically. We were allowed to board first, found our seats, and got comfy. Sadly, despite my best efforts back in June, our seats were separated by like 5 rows, though we both managed to score aisle seats. I started playing with the in flight entertainment screen, figuring out a seat-to-seat chat function, and my meds suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. Most of my night meds have sedating effects, which is why I take them at nig
Post a Comment
Read more

Let's go to Japan!

 So we decided, for our tenth anniversary, that we wanted to do something special. And a whole bunch of things coincided to make that something special actually feasible, even possible... so we did it. We're going on a two-week once-in-a-lifetime trip to Japan for our 10th anniversary!! I promised to share the itinerary and whatnot with everyone, so here it is! I put all of this together from scratch, without a travel agent.  OUTGOING FLIGHTS: Albuquerque to LAX: Flight 3012 departs Wednesday, February 1st, 2023 at 7:20 pm MST, on a Bombardier CRJ700 (flying as American Eagle). This flight is on time, as of me typing this (4:08pm 1/31/23). We're supposed to land at 8:26pm PST (9:26pm MST), get from the regional terminal to the international departures terminal (the app has directions, thankfully), and then... sit and wait. Until midnight! LAX to Tokyo Haneda: Flight 169 departs Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 12:09am PST (1:09am MST), on a Boeing 787-8, taking a route along the w
Post a Comment
Read more

Eh?? What?? Ten years already???

PHEW! A little over ten years ago, while living in a little casita behind CNM, I cooked a very belated birthday cake for my boyfriend of 3 years. It was one of those Cake Boss boxed deals, and it looked questionable, but it was edible and delicious, and most importantly, I'd conquered my anxiety and procrastination about it. That was cause for celebration enough! I have pretty bad ADHD and a tough time following through on plans and finishing things! And then he got on one knee and put a beautiful silver and garnet ring on my left ring finger and asked me to marry him. Me! of all people! Scary Met, formerly fueled by righteous rage but now disabled and with a broken brain! I'd never even made it past the 3-year mark for relationships without everything falling apart! And him! He'd been through a lot of rough relationships, including one which seemed eerily similar, and lived in 8 other states before asking me if he could crash here to get on his feet, and whoopsie doodle we
2 comments
Read more