Last Minute Travel Plans

It's finally settling in that I'm going to be on the road, living out of a backpack, for the next 10 weeks.

In anticipation of this, I made a list of things I need to do before leaving:

1. Figure out when my flight leaves
2. Buy plug adapters since I will need to recharge electrical thingies (camera, ipod)
3. Buy a guidebook
4. Book a hotel in Thailand for the first night.
5. Write down address for rendez-vous with Shazz.
6. Fix hole in travel pants.
   

Number 1 was quickly taken care of. Thanks to the good folks at United, I got a friendly email inviting me to check in online for my flight. That was handy, so I followed the link and got the following error: "You cannot check in online for this flight. Please check in at the airport."

This leads me to believe that United's Email Guy really needs to talk to their Online Check-in Guy. No wonder these guys keep going bankrupt.

Anyways, to my shock, I discovered that my flight is NOT a redeye flight. In fact, it leaves at noon, which means that my patented "drink a beer and pass out for 12 hours" move won't work. It's 13 hours to Japan, and unless I stay up all night (which I have done before), I'm going to need something to do on that plane. So, I've added "buy a really thick book" to my list of things to do before I leave.

Speaking of Japan, I'm quite excited about my 4hr stopover there. I've never been there and I anticipate a giddy time checking out interesting (and mostly useless) gadgets, hot japanese stewardesses, and really weird TV shows.