We have arrived in Tokyo.

The flight over was mostly painless. The AUS-IAH segment was routine. We made or way to D terminal in IAH and sat in the President's club. Immediately behind us were a number of other people also apparently going to Japan, and around boarding time, we all made our way to the gate. They checked our passports as we boarded. The plane is huge. I'm sure the interior is bigger than many homes. The seats in Business First are very comfortable, and the food was excellent. I ate enough to induce a food coma, and so I slept for a bit. When I awoke, we were over Alaska. Time continued to pass, and eventually we were served breakfast... At roughly 1:00 pm Tokyo time. *shrug* Whatever. We landed soon thereafter and went through customs. It was a breeze. nugget purchased bus tickets to "TCAT" which is across the street from the Royal Park Hotel. We found our way to our room with the help of a very polite bellhop. We then wandered around Tokyo for a bit, and soaked in the city. Nugget had a headache, so we went into a 7-11 in an attempt to find some Tylenol. No such luck, but I got a Coke. In our continued wanderings, we eventually found a drug store and some ibuprofen. I was quite impressed to hear Nugget speak that much Japanese and to hear the pharmacist speak that much English! ("two pills, three times a day," and "Do you have any allergies to penicillin?") We're back in the hotel room now, trying to decide if we're sleepy or hungry.

Tags: travel

I love my job. It's absolutely wonderful to work for real money, to work around people who tell me they appreciate my skills, and to work with other computer geeks. Work has a really casual atmosphere, with a lot of bantering between employees. Level in the company is insignificant when it comes to the bantering - everyone from the CEO/Founder to the gofers participate. There's a little under 50 people in the company. Weeee!

I love my car. It is an absolutely wonderful car, even if it doesn't have as much power as I could wish. It drives beautifully, and the ACT clutch and Flyin' Miata flywheel were great additions (not recommended for those who want a passive Miata, but great for the aggressive Miata driver). I'm looking at other things I should do to/for the engine. I'm also planning on putting Falken Azenis RS on it the next time it needs tires. I wonder how they'll do in the wet compared to the Toyo Proxies T1-S...

nugget and I are going to Japan soon. I have never been out of the US, so this will be quite an experience for me. I'm really excited about it, but I don't tend to act very excited... Nugget oozes enough excitement for the both of us. ;)

Ummm... what else? I dunno. I miss driving around the country with a trailer camping at state parks. Staying in hotels when I travel is always... Different? A little off? Almost a treat, but somehow not. *shrug* I dunno. I'm just weird.

My jaw is doing fairly well (post wisdom teeth removal). I was in for a check up today. It turns out I have a "medium" dry socket on my lower right, and a "minor" one on my lower left. The one on the left is so small, the dentist almost couldn't see it, and it hasn't hurt me at all. The one on the right has caused two brief instances of some pretty bad pain, but not the worst I've ever had. My baseline pain level is to almost-unnoticeable at this point. Eating pulls it up to noticeable, but not bad. Oh, and my stitches are starting to come out (EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!!)

Tags: miata, random, travel