Day One: DFW, Dallas, Texas

Today’s the day, folks! But, before you get to hear about bullet trains, vending machine beer (thanks, Brendan!) and zen gardens, you have to put up with my travelogue of getting from Charlotte, North Carolina to Japan. Chill; I think I can spice it up a bit to be at least mildly entertaining. 

Phase 1A: Linda-to-Dallas concluded successfully on Tuesday afternoon. I flew to Dallas yesterday and stayed at the Hyatt hotel connected to the airport. Nice treat. And it’s just an escalator away from the security check in this morning.

My travel companions and I are four women “of a certain age,” as they say. Some of you know what age that is; for the rest of you … none of your business. Deborah and Marte are from Dallas, Texas; Karyn lives in Brisbane, Australia. So two Americans, an Australian, and one Canadian-American hybrid (but Canadian, really … who are we kidding?). Note: I did offer to exclude my companions from my blog, but each of them were all in. Let’s see how long that lasts. 😉

Shortly I will head out to the concourse to meet up with Deborah and Marte to await boarding of our flight to Tokyo. After 13+ hours in the air (sigh, stretch), we’ll land in Tokyo at 2p local time on Thursday. Karyn flew from Australia to Osaka, Japan earlier in the week and she’s already sharing fun photos. The plan is that she will catch up with us in Kyoto on Saturday morning in time to tour Nishiki Market.

For a surprisingly reasonable fee and a chunk of air miles, we’ve upgraded to business class on American Airlines for the flight over. What an special luxury that I’m thrilled about! Lay-flat seats, priority boarding, and a host of other treats! If you ever become blasé about flying first/business class, you don’t deserve it. 😡

❗️Packing Geek Moment

I’ve literally spent months planning for packing for this trip (ask Deborah). I’ve packed for 18 nights in a 23” clamshell roll-aboard and backpack. When I get to Japan, I’ll expand (some might say explode) to include a crossbody day bag that is currently folded down and packed in my backpack. I did manage to pack so that I didn’t need to open my suitcase here in Dallas. Stay tuned on further packing notes! 

So there are the players, the premise, and the Scene One setting. Will write about the Business Class experience on the plane and post when I get settled Thursday night at our Tokyo hotel.