Over the past week the one repeated comment is, “You must be so excited!!”

Well, not exactly. No, no, don’t read us wrong. We are excited to finally be fulfilling our dream trip. It’s just not flowing in the way that many people would expect. It’s dammed up behind a river of unending tasks, like taxes and packing and opening & closing bank accounts and signing lots of official paperwork and, and, and…….. Concerned that the dam may burst wide open and a torrent of excitement washes all over the place, we have made some small steps to carve a hole in the dam and let some excitement flow.

It helps that we finally booked some things in Japan. We are eagerly awaiting our Japan rail passes, which will help us ride the trains for 14 days. The first hotel is booked and there is no need to think about sleeping on a Tokyo park bench anymore. After the first hotel is done, we are excited to get some rest in a capsule hotel. http://www.capsuleinn.com/

Friends have been so kind and generous by sharing contact information of their friends abroad. We are beginning to make those connections and getting excited about meeting these people.

So slowly the excitement builds. I (Karen) tend to get punchy on long flights. I am sure the 12-hour ride to Tokyo will be no exception. If you hear radio reports of a Tokyo bound, Delta flight, having serious water leakage problems, you’ll know that the excitement dam has broken.