this time next week

Most of you already know this already, but for those who haven't heard yet, by this time a week from today, I will be in Japan on vacation!

Me, Minh, Cassie, Kenneth, and Onyee are taking a trip to Asia for three weeks, and we leave Saturday morning. Here is the basic rundown of the trip:

1/21 - 9:15am - Depart from ABIA for a 3:43 hour flight to San Jose International Airport. Land at 10:58am.

1/21 - 12:10pm - Depart from San Jose for an 11:05 hour flight to Tokyo, Japan.

1/22 - 4:15pm - Arrive at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan, our first destination. Commence 4 days of awesome.

1/26 - 9:50am - Depart from Narita Airport for a 5:05 hour flight to Hong Kong.

1/26 - 1:55pm - Arrive at Hong Kong International Airport, marking our second destination of the trip. Minh and Cassie will be skipping Hong Kong and heading to Vietnam for the remainder of the trip, leaving Kenneth, Onyee, and myself in Hong Kong for 5 days. Chinese New Year, woohoo!

1/30 - 2:55pm - Depart from Hong Kong International Airport for a 2 hour flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.

1/30 - 3:55pm - Arrive at Noibai Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam where we'll rejoin Minh & Cassie for about a 2 week stay.

2/12 - 11:55pm - Depart from Noibai Airport for a 4:50 hour flight back to Narita Airport in Tokyo.

2/12 - 6:45am - Arrive at Narita Airport in Tokyo where we'll be for a whopping 12 hours. Can't accomplish much during that time, but who knows.

2/13 - 5:50pm - Depart from Narita Airport for a 9 hour flight to San Jose.

2/13 - 9:50am - Arrive back at San Jose International Airport where we'll be for a couple hours. yay fun.

2/13 - 11:40am - Depart from SJIA on a 3:23 hour flight for Austin.

2/13 - 5:03pm - Arrive at ABIA, ending our 3 week trip. I'm sure we'll have had a great time and I'm sure I'll be glad to be home.

That's our flight itenerary. I don't really know what all we'll be doing once we're in Japan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam but I know it's going to be a blast. While in Japan I definitely want to eat fugu (puffer fish). Hopefully I won't die, but they say you shouldn't eat fugu anywhere but in Japan. As they say, when in Rome do as the Romans do. When in Japan, eat poisonous fish. Ok, so maybe I made up that last part. Whatever. I'm kinda bummed that we'll be in Japan the shortest amount of time, as obviously that's the place I'm most interested in, but it kinda works out because Japan will be the most expensive place and Vietnam will be the cheapest. I'd also like to visit other nearby countries like China and South Korea, but I'd have to quit work and win the lottery for that to happen. There just isn't enough time for all that, but perhaps that can be a future trip.

I don't really have any expectations for this trip, but I know I'll have a blast. I'm sure I'll also get horribly sick, since I've never been overseas before. Cassie is worried that I won't be able to eat anything while in Vietnam because I'm a pretty picky eater, but if worst comes to worst I can live off rice. Once I get back from the trip you can expect a load of pics (assuming I survived eating fugu). The weird thing is I'm not excited yet about the trip, probably because I don't know what to expect. I won't be excited until the night before, as what usually happens. So check back here once I return for a full writeup. I'm probably going to take my laptop on the trip so I'll have a place to dump all my pics and use internet. I might even do quick updates along the way if I can get internet and have time. We'll see.