I'm somewhere. But where?

Well, I'm here. Or there. Or however you want to describe it. And I'm completely overwhelmed. It wasn't just the flight. Or the taxi ride to the hotel. Or the room itself. I just don't know, it's EVERYTHING.

The flight. It's long. Damn long. How long? Well, just as you're thinking it can't last much longer, you find out it's still 5 hours to Tokyo, and at least 5 hours past that to Guangzhou. Let's do the math. I left my house at 12:30 pm on Tuesday. I've been in the hotel for about 30 minutes. It's 12:30 am Thursday now. Which is actually 11:30 am on Wednesday in Minnesota. So my actual door to door travel time was 23 hours! Add in 13 time zones, and it's like 36 hours! Flying Business class is the only way to go, at least on the 747-400. The seats lie nearly flat (176 degrees, says NWA). They fed me until I didn't want to eat, and the food was actually decent.

Security checks in Tokyo suck, however. They tore apart everything, and I had to turn every piece of electronic gismo on. That's two computers, a cell phone, Yahtzee game, digital camera, and even the calculator I had. They were very curtious (or courteous.) about it, though.

Guangzhou instantly reminded me of Florida. But without as much air conditioning and LOTS more neon. The airport was very clean. Driving, even at the hour I arrived, seemed like a nightmare. No one stays in the lane. Lots of flashing brights and honking. The hotel is okay, but I'm in an older room tonight, so we'll see what happens in the future.

Well, no going back now. Not until June, at least.