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Japan 2003 Page

This page was last updated on 01/31/06

Hey I'm Big In Japan

For those of you not following every detail of my life, I am off once again to the Land of the Rising Sun. My friends Matt and Yuko are getting married and I get to attend their traditional Japanese ceremony.

Before I get too far, I just want to say "thank you" to the both of them. Also, I wanted to give you what you all really came here for, a photo of them in their kimonos.

You may recall that we had a ceremony for them in the U.S. for those that could not travel to Japan. At that ceremony, I was the M.C. and had the responsibility of organizing the speakers as well as delivering my own speech. In Japan, I have no responsibilities and get to enjoy the whole thing as a confused observer.

My first trip to visit Matt and Yuko in Okinawa was almost one year ago, in October 2003. After seeing Tokyo for just three days, I knew I had to come back. But I never thought it would be in just 12 months!

Many things conspired to make this trip possible. The three primary elements were the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a Japanese wedding, the fact that Jim and Allison were going, and the generosity of my new employers.

These two trips to Japan bookend a year that was busier that possibly any other year in my life. Here's what I did in the last twelve months:

  1. Went to Okinawa and Tokyo for ten days.
  2. Went to Cleveland for two holidays.
  3. Took two, week-long trips to Seattle for my last assignment at PPI.
  4. Complete three months of Grand Jury duty.
  5. Got a brand new job in downtown Chicago.
  6. Took a trip to Columbus, Ohio for the Origins gaming convention.
  7. Took a trip to Columbus a week later for a family reunion.
  8. Took a trip to Indianapolis for the Gencon gaming convention.
  9. Took a trip to Erie, Pennsylvania where I was the M.C. and a speaker for Matt and Yuko's U.S. wedding.
  10. Went to Tokyo for nine days.

This year has been fun but really, really exhausting. I am looking forward to almost three months without any travel after this final trip.

For now, though, I'm going to concentrate on having a blast in one of the coolest cities on Earth. Come along for the ride by checking out this journal and what will hopefully be many cool photos I took with the aid a new digital camera.

Use the links at the bottom of each page to navigate through my journal. (All of the photos are links to larger versions of themselves.)

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