Guam/ Japan 2016- it's almost here!

Well it’s getting close! Tomorrow evening I start the great adventure known as Guam /Japan 2016!  After work tomorrow I will take a train up to Boston to spend the night near Logan airport. I have a super early flight Friday morning and spending the night near the airport made the most sense. The trains from Providence don’t run (or at least very frequently) that early in the morning and parking up at Logan is insane. So it ended up being easier and cheaper to just spend the night, order room service and take the free shuttle to the terminal in the morning!

My flight from Boston to Detroit will take slightly over 2 hours, then when I land I plan to have a lovely breakfast before boarding the flight straight from Detroit to Tokyo. And yes, it is a long, long, long flight!  Once I get to Tokyo (Saturday afternoon), I booked a room for the night at the only hotel in Tokyo Narita airport. You see, I am doing the Guam part of the trip first. Tokyo Narita (NRT) is approximately 45 minutes outside the city proper. It didn’t make sense to go into the city to just spend the night. There are limited flights to Guam so my flight leaves the next morning (Sunday). Now it sounds like a strange way to plan things, but there really is a method to my madness. You see, by spending the night in the Tokyo Narita hotel, I can acclimate to the time change, shower and rest at the hotel, get a good night’s sleep and a decent meal. And..because I have several hours when I get into Narita (land about 4pm local time) I can activate my JR pass, get some Yen out of an ATM, check out where the NEX train into the city boards, and all that logistical stuff that you need to do. This way, when I travel back to Tokyo, I will have some things taken care of and be more familiar with things and can hit the ground running!

Speaking of hitting the ground… To make things a little more interesting I managed to fall last Saturday down a flight of stairs at my newly purchased condo (don’t even ask). I managed to injure my knee and have been babying it all week in anticipation of my upcoming trip. I’ll live but it will make things a bit more slow moving. Good news is that the Guam part of the trip is going to be relaxation and hanging with the family.

So after more than 6 months of planning the trip is nearly here! Can’t wait to see Asia (or at least part of Asia)!  Stay tuned, more to come!!!