Konichiwa from Okinawa

Hi all! I'm in Okinawa, roughly half-way between Japan proper and Taiwan. Flying from Vancouver to Tokyo took 10 hours, and I felt more or less like this image suggests I did:



I then wandered through Narita airport (the international airport for Tokyo) bewildered, as it was virtually empty of people, got my luggage significantly later than I thought I should have (since there didn't seem to be any other flights arriving, let alone people in general), and hopped on the limousine service between Narita and Haneda, the domestic airport somewhere else in Tokyo. Limousine actually means bus. We sped (literally), passing what must have been 20 or 30 small hotels that were all painted in some extremely bizarre fashion (for example, one of them was called the rainbow hotel, and each floor was painted a different colour). I also passed by a bunch of important looking buildings and finally got to the Haneda, which it turns out isn't one building, but at least two. The first for All Nippon Airways, and the second for Japan Airlines, which I was traveling on. This was significantly more like a regular airport, and it was *blocked* with people. Made the Vancouver airport seem boring. Hopped onto a second plane and flew the 2.5 hours down to Okinawa in a half-asleep daze, and was picked up there by the Single Molecule Workshop organizers, along with a half dozen other participants, and taken to a hotel somewhere in Okinawa city proper. It was extremely small (my head essentially touched the ceiling in the shower), and HOT. Okinawa is only slightly more North than Hawaii, and as such is quite warm right now and lush with beautiful vegetation, as in this image I took on our drive this morning from the hotel in the city to the conference venue:



Also note the funny boxy cars, which are all the rage in Japan. I'll leave you with this random coincidence; my roomate and I are watching Kill Bill volume 1, and she just bought a ticket to Okinawa. Who knew?! Sayanora.