starting again from the beginning....

day 1:
how appropriate that we approach the land of the rising sun surfing the sunrise. from the humid seats of UA flight 831 it's been morning all day. the airplane is like an airlock into all things japanese - japenese newspapers offered by japanese stewardesses, japanese safety announcements, japanese mums bouncing screaming japanese babies, english movies and japanese subtitles - i can feel my mind starting to accept that this medium will soon be normal, not some curiosity encountered in class; not some distant committee accepting my half-witted assignments over cyberspace. it's real now. i'm 10 kilometres above the pacific, moving 800km an hour, i've eaten the ginger-chicken-on-rice brunch, i've felt the tears of my lovely kat against my cheek.... this more than any day feels like, as mom said to me so many hours of morning ago, the first day of the rest of my life.