Staying up all night

Konnichiwa (good afternoon),

It is currently 1:01pm in Japan (JST) so I'm planning to stay up until I meet up with the group at 6:25am at the Bangor International Airport (7:25pm JST). This way I can sleep on the plane ride and avoid too much jet lag. Here's hoping it works.

I'm almost completely packed with the exception of any items I'll need to use in the morning while getting ready. I think I've actually packed more clothing than I could possibly wear in the one week we are there, but I'll be prepared for anything. I've got the camera, a tripod, a spare point-and-shoot camera, and my laptop for keeping this up-to-date.

To help keep track of my travels, I'll try to post the planned agenda for each day the day before.

Day 1 - Friday, May 15: Flights to Japan

• 8:25-10:45am EST (9:25-11:45pm JST): Depart from Bangor for Detroit via Northwest
• 12:01-2:06pm EST (1:01-3:06am JST): Depart from Detroit for Minneapolis
• 4:00pm-4:10am EST (5:00am-5:10pm JST): Depart from Minneapolis to Tokyo Narita Airport, arriving May 16, 2009

Fortunately for me, I have an aisle seat on both the 12 hour flights to and from Japan. I'll be in the middle section of the plane, so no seeing out the windows, but since I'm hoping to sleep that shouldn't be a problem. Since we'll be arriving before I'll have a chance to post again, I'll include Saturday's agenda.

Day 2 - Saturday, May 16: Check-in and optional evening tour (if we're still awake)

• 5:10pm JST (4:10am EST): Arrive at Narita Airport in Tokyo (Yay!)
• 5:10-6:00pm JST (4:10-5:00am EST): Immigration, luggage, customs, currency exchange, etc. Although apparently this may take two hours or more because they are boarding every plane in hazmat suits to make sure no one has the swine flu (not so yay.)
• 6:00-7:00pm JST (5:00-6:00am EST): Bus to Keio Press Inn Kayabacho, our Tokyo hotel
• 7:00-8:00pm JST (6:00-7:00am EST): Hotel check-in. Check out our hotel at Keio Presso Inn Kayabacho

Keio Presso Inn Kayabacho
1-3-5 Nihonbashi Kayabacho Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-0025
Tel: +81 (0)3-3669-0202

• Evening JST (Morning EST): Optional Ginza Walking Tour. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures if I'm still awake :)

Now, on top of reflecting on each day's journey and posting the agenda for the next day, I will also attempt to reflect on my paper topic for this class (technically this trip is an MBA course so we wrote a rough draft of a paper before the trip that we will finish up upon return). The topic I chose was Japanese women in the workplace. From my research, I have learned that of the developed nations, Japan has one of the worst records for equality in the workplace, but is trying to make changes because of the dramatically falling birthrates that are leading to a lack of tax money to support health care programs for the aging population. I'll attempt to reflect more on this during parts of the trip since we will get to meet and see representatives from multiple companies in Tokyo and Kyoto.

Time to watch more late night television until it is time to leave.

Arigatou and jaa mata! (thank you and see you later!)