Japan to Halifax

After waking at 4am at my grandparents' home in Saitama, Japan, I traveled by car, then train, then bus to Narita Airport, and went on to endure a grueling and sleepless 30-hour journey from Japan to Halifax where I'll be boarding the ship for the first time later today.

In Narita I randomly chatted up an American guy sitting next to me who looked like Santa Clause on a Carribbean vacation, who turned out to be a college professor/traveling writer/sailing enthusiast badass. Hearing about my plans he told me the story of a Robin Graham who sailed around the world alone at age 16, and whose historic sailboat "Dove" he had come to acquire. He kindly wrote me a good-luck letter during the flight and handed it to me in Chicago. Random encounter but meeting interesting people like this is one of my favorite things about traveling.

I got into Halifax at 10pm and even though I hadn't slept for over a day, I had trouble sleeping and woke up at 7:30, after which I went downstairs and had an awesome Canadian breakfast next to a scenic lake. With three cups of coffee and ham in my system I'm feeling pretty good, and since my taxi will be here to take me to port in 15 minutes I should probably stop writing now. The day I've been waiting for is finally here.