Travel - day 1

Day 1:

Up at 4:30, said goodbye to my sweetie P Sarah and took a 2 hour bus to O’Hare.  Now, I backpack. Do not check luggage, especially going abroad.  Why?  The hassle - too many trains, buses, taxis, walking, exploration, and unplanned changes make the backpack, the ideal way to go.  One backpack - plenty.  Only problem with this little plan of action is that airlines will weigh your bag to make sure it's under the weight limit for carry-ons.  In this case it was 10kg.  There is of course a way around this - you are also allowed a personal item, so empty all heavy items in a second bag for the weigh in.  I passed at 9.4 kg, and then proceeded to put everything back in the original backpack.

The flight itself, not bad.  Ate two meals, drank a bunch of water, read all about Singapore, and watched three films: the King's Speech, Cinderella Man, and Young Victoria.  All were excellent.  I also happened to have the window seat so looking at Japan out the window as we arrived was really quite cool.  All the fields were glistening, shiny, silver.  Of course these weren't fields of crops as we know, but fields of water for rice cultivation.  Beautiful countryside, unfortunately that will have to be another trip.  When I arrived in Tokyo 14 hours later I was beat.  I traded some currency, and ate some sort of Japanese dish (don't know what it was, but it was excellent).  It contained rice and some flavor, and meat and eggs.  That was all I could handle.  I found a spot near my next departure gate, laid down and took a nap.

Singapore fun fact day 1:  Singapore is named such because Malay legend Sumatran Prince Sang Nila Utama saw a tiger on the island while sheltering from a storm - this was apparently a good omen that prompted the Prince to found a city there called Singapura (Lion City).  Fun fact 1a: it is highly unlikely lions ever lived on the island.