Oh, I almost forgot, what would you guys like me to bring back? I think I could fit a couple BJ70s in my suitcase and some 20-valve VVT 4A-GE engines I should have some left over room after that, so let me know

Looking forward to hearing about the trip Mike!!! Have fun and travel safe!

Just talked to Michael a few minutes ago. He was at the gate getting ready to board his plane. Flight should take approximately 13 hours. Can't imagine sitting on a plane for that length of time. Said he would e-mail me when he arrived there at his in-laws.

Mrs. Crawler

Bring me back a Hilux diesel swap!

Lots of pictures like last time. 

Hey guys! I am finally in Japan! I flew to Osaka International Airport, and then took a Limosuine Bus to Itami Airport where I`ve checked in my bags and am in a small internet cafe sipping on a delicious ice tea while I wait for my final flight to Kyushuu Island.

It`s 18:39 Friday evening over here, and I should arrive in Kumamoto at 20:55

I flew on a new 777. I don`t really know if it`s "new", but it is a LOT nicer than previous 777`s I`ve flown on in the past. It was the smoothest flight I`ve ever been on. I can`t post any pictures right now (it`s a public computer so I`m not gonna mess around with my USB SD card reader on it), but I will post up later Looking at the time stamps on the pictures, the flight from S.F. to Osaka took 11 hours & 11 mins to get here. I was surprised; it usually takes longer. At times we were even flying into 68 MPH headwind!!

The food was pretty good. I requested "special vegetarian" meals which was AWESOME as they served the veggie meals first & I got to eat a lot of tofu dishes, which was awesome.

I purposely chose a rear most window seat (happened to be on the port side) just to try something different and man what a great deal that was. Since no one was behind my seat, I could put my bag back there and also the seat reclined further than other seats. Other benefits included being able to watch the flaps on the wings operate, no one was kicking the back of my seat, I was very close to the bathroom, and the food cart would come up from the back kitchen and would serve me right away. It was nice.

The window isle was comprised of just two seats. My neighbor was a SUPER nice Japanese lady named Terumi-san. She was on her way back to her home in Osaka returning from a Nursing convention in Pheonix. Apparently she was, and get this, the Japanese Nursing Diplomat. It was really interesting, we talked a lot in both mixed Japanese and English. I would say she was in her early 40s, but I am not too good at guessing the ages of Japanese people yet.

BRB

Glad to hear you made it there safe mike.  Its almost 5am here and for some odd reason im still up.  Have a safe trip mike, and remember... dont take candy from strangers. 

Ok, I made it all the way to their house now!

While I was waiting at Gate #5, some girl approached me and asked me in English if I remember her? And I said, Well, you look very familiar... And she asked if I go to Fresno State University? and I was like Hey! You are friends of Nao-cha! It was crazy, one of Misato`s classmate`s friends happened to be traveling to Japan on the same plane as I! And it turned out she was on the 1st plane I took too. Wow, small world!

So I saw Misato and her sister Ayami waiting for me at the airport. It was SO GREAT to see Misato again! She has been in Japan for the past 3 weeks so it was rough living apart from each other for that long.

We drove to the laundry mat to drop off some clothes, and while we were there I saw a lifted Suzuki Samurai (with 31" tires probably), a fully stock Orange 40-series land cruiser and also a 70-series land cruiser!! They passed by so quick there was no way I could get a picture of them! I was really excited! 4WD trucks are far more common in the country side where we are now.

I am typing on a brand new Windows 7 machine over here and I am in the process of setting up some programs on it. I`ll be right back with some pics :picture:

That nice!Try to look for a late 60 Nissan Patrol!

Windows 7 is pretty good actually! I personally think its better then mac!

Ok guys,

Quick update. I was up until 2 working on their new laptop here. It's difficult navigating Windows 7, which I have never used before, plus everything is in Japanese. I spent a lot of time reconfiguring their router, which uses a full Japanese GUI

What do you guys use for a quick bulk picture resizer in Windows 7? The nifty Windows XP Powertoy image resizer does not work with Windows 7 and I can't upload any of my pics to the forum because they are all huge. Also, I am not interesting in using MS Paint or equivalent as I will have hundreds of pictures before this trip is finished and I don't want to resize them 1 by 1.

Right now we woke up and ate Miso soup for breakfast, and are leaving to go to the Mt. Aso volcano. I've already been there before, but it's an awesome place that's right up the hill from here, so we're gonna go check it out.

I won't be back home until very late, like 1 or 2 am. It is currently 11am here, and we are going to stay out until her sister gets off work at midnight, and then we'll likely go hang out at a simple cafe for a couple hours with her.

I'll try to get pics resized and uploaded tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Mike

have you though of just resizing them on photobucket or flicker or any online photo thing?

Tell us moooore

Dad and I are very happy that you made it there okay. Keep us posted on how things are going. Miss you Misato lots!

Love,

Mom
(aka Mrs. Crawler )

Ok guys, I am way behind with the pics, so I am just gonna comment really briefly on these or else this thread will turn into one of my build threads (ie. stop because updates are overwhelming)

Heading to S.F. to stay with Zembalayan's


I found Bill's 4Runner!!


Here is little Billy! He is extremely cute!


Here is the Zembalayan family: Tomoko, Bill, and Little Billy


Saying good by at the S.F. airport


Heading to the plane


My AWESOME back row seat


The view from the back of the 777


Leaving American soil at 12:08 PM


Cruising the friendly sky at 545 MPH


Got some delicious green tea and pretzels at 12:53 PM. I drank about 10 cups of Green Tea throughout the flight, that and water was all I drank.


The first meal served at 1:41 PM. It was rice, spinach, and some sort of vegetable mabodofu, which was excellent


The in-flight movie setup was pretty nice, much better than the last time I flew in 2006. I could choose between 7 different movies, but the only bummer is that I couldn't control any movie, they would just play straight through (no pause/rewind/etc controls). After each movie was finished, it would display a "Please select another channel" message until the last movie (the longest movie) had completed. Then it would delay about 15 mins and then it would restart all 9 movies. So I only had 1 chance about every 2.5 hours to be able to watch a movie from the beginning. I didn't mind too much, because after all I just needed something to kill the time. Watching two movies would erase about 5 hours instantly from the flight.

The movie list was alright I guess, but it had some questionable entries.
How to Train Your Dragon
WALL-E
The Book of Eli
Edge of Darkness
Alice in Wonderland
Dear John
Some Like It Hot

I watched how to train your dragon twice (because I missed the first 30 mins the first time), then WALL-E, then parts of the book of Eli, the Edge of Darkness, and then the ending to Some Like It Hot. I was pretty surprised that they had movies like The Book of Eli and the Edge of Darkness that had a lot of blood, killing, unnecessary violence, and cussing. There were a LOT of kids on the flight, and the LCD displays had a VERY narrow viewing angle. So if I had a kid and he was sitting next to me, I would have to lean way across into his line of sight in order to see what he is watching. Anyway, just something I was thinking about while sitting on the plane for ever

JAPAN!!!! 11:17PM This is a pic of the many landfills at Osaka near the International Airport, itself a landfill


The exact time the flights took from take off to touch down was 11 hours 11 mins. I thought that was REALLY fast. I remember it taking about 13 hours last time, hmmmmmm

There were many of these "Smoking Rooms" at the airports. I really hate California laws but I do like the no smoking law, the few things I REALLY miss in Japan


Here I am on the Limousine Bus


Check out the 6 speed! SWEET! Forget Automatics, that's for lazy American bus drivers


Here are some various pics from the bus ride

Some really old Japanese fishing boats


I saw a ton of small vegetable and fruit gardens like this stashed all over the city


Lots of old houses


Traffic


A Toyota shop! cool


Check this out, this is a sign on the freeway that shows the real time traffic congestion of the routes ahead


Finally made it to Itami Airport. The bus ride took 1 hour 10 mins. I'm glad that guy was driving 100 KPH