Japan – Day Zero – Real worries

Japan – Day Zero – Real worries

eople who read my trip reports know I worry. I worry about little things and big things. Possibly I shouldn’t be a tourist-traveler; I’m too strung for this. You can even see it in our last big trip, when we went to India.

And now here I am, a knot of nerves the day before we are departing (and even earlier this week, when I couldn’t sleep and, when I did, woke up in cold sweats).

First and foremost, at the start of the week I felt a dull pain down in my frontal-midships area. Went to the urologist yesterday (less than 48 hours before our 7am departure time) and found out I had a small hernia. Now, the doc said it shouldn’t be an issue and maybe it won’t be, but it’s certainly on my mind. And no drug store stocks them. Amazon would have to ship and there isn’t enough time. So I was freaking about that – a truss would be a good thing to have if it got any worse. Then, at 3am this morning, I woke up with a new google search in mind – looked for medical supply companies in Orlando and found one. Called them this morning and yes, they have them. So now I’ve got a backup, tucked into my backpack.

About that – that’s the second worry. We’re going to try to do this traveling on the light side – just a backpack apiece. Now JB’s has wheels so she can manage it. Mine is my bike bag; it should work and is only (loaded) 13 lbs. And hopefully I won’t have to carry it any distance (only possibly four blocks when we switch Tokyo hotels next week). But in thinking of this and my condition, I decided to ditch the tinytop computer. Usually I keep it so I can compose my blogs but the hassle of getting it out of the bag for security and lugging it all over Japan, hmmm. So yesterday evening I picked up a small notebook – we’re blogging this oldschool now. I’ll compose the points of my travels for the day, possibly even forming the paragraphs, and do the heavy composing when we get home. So that shaved 1.5 lbs off my carry weight.

I’m still not happy about flying Shitbag Airline (i.e. UNITED AIRLINES). I refer to our horrible experience HERE. Since we arranged this through a travel agency, I didn’t realize we were flying them until it was way too late to change. Lesson learned. Be Specific, Ship Union Pacific or whatever. Anyway, our seats are assigned and we’ve checked in (except for the passport bit). So I hope we don’t get bumped or blown out of the plane or deposited in Uruguay or something.

Trust me – I’m trying to adapt the philosophy of work-friends Kate and Manjula (who travel with kids and pack last-minute). If something goes wrong, that’s just part of travelling. I mean, we’ve had lost luggage, broken bones, missed flights. You’d think I’d be jaded now. But I’m still keyed up. It’s something I really don’t like about myself.

Okay, anyway, the clock keeps inching forward. Tomorrow at 7am, we’re out of here. My next entry – Transpacific!

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