Preparation

Getting ready for this trip is more complicated than I might have thought. I hope I didn’t mess up my itinerary; I don’t relish spending the night in a capsule or on a park bench. I have a pile of yen and a couple bags of peanuts. With the layover in Hong Kong, its about 24 hours to Osaka, but I have a bunk in business class, so I’ll probably sleep at least part of the way. I have taken the precaution of pre-loading messages in Japanese on my tablet: “Please give me rice; I am very hungry” and “I am lost; please lead me to the American consulate,” just in case.