Itte Rasshai

"Don't be so humble, you're not that great," said Golda Meir to an esteemed dignitary. And so, with no shackles too great to bind me by cloaking my blessings for the sake of being modest, I give you the reasons why I am so tenderly fortunate:

I have:

…swam in waters of the Philippines
…driven up and down the coast of California
…peaked into the Crater Lake of Oregon
…ran upon the highest peak of Seattle’s space needle
…eaten fresh mangos on the island of Maui
…yelled into the Grand Canyon
…stood beneath a Yosemite waterfall
…sailed a boat in Lake Tahoe
…laughed in the rain in Orlando
…floated down the Colorado River
…danced at A Tribe Called Quest concert in Arizona
…pretended to know how to gamble in Las Vegas
…lived in central London for a semester
…visited Buckingham Palace twice
…danced on the street with strangers at Notting Hill
…taken a boat ride down the River Thames
…visited Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul’s
…purchased something from Harrods
…ran on green and grassy Irish fields
…drank authentic Guinness in Dublin
…made a wish on a real Irish rainbow
…been tattooed in Camden Town
…embraced a stone at Stonehenge
…put my finger in Roman Baths in Bath
…walked down the isle where Princess Diana got married
…spoken Spanish to a Spaniard in Spain
…watched a bull fight & futbol game in Madrid
…drank sangria and ate tapas in Barcelona
…devoured gelato on the set of Casanova in Venice
…ran around the perimeter of Lake Como at 5am
…attended mass at the Vatican
…visited the Pantheon, & climbed the Coliseum
…ice skated at the Somerset House
…got on a plane to France after sleeping at a closed airport
…climbed the Eiffel tower with my favorite roommate
…been to Euro Disney, Notre Dame, and the Louver
…watched Sarah be attacked by pigeons in Amsterdam
…cringed at knotties of the Red Light District
…had high tea at Fortnum and Mason’s
…straddled the prime meridian at Greenwich
…attended a movie premier at the Odeon

Now to add something pink to that list…

As they say in Japanese, Sayonara! Itte rasshai! I’m leaving for Japan! This trip has been a long time coming, and it’s off to backpack through Gifu, Tokyo, Yokohama, Shizoka, and Nagoya. I promised Helen in November that I'd visit her in Spring, and after purchasing a $1000 ticket in January... the sun is out and so am I. It’s going to be cherry blossoms and kite festivals galore! God is good. More after the jump...