There is that moment, when you look around and realize that all the things that you have been thinking about are happening right now. It is that moment when you wake up a little bit, and actively soak in everything going on around you. This was my moment, when I realized that I was headed for the international date line, and wondered if we would be chasing the sunset around the world. Turns out we weren’t headed straight enough or fast enough for a 9 hour sunset. That it was not that far out of our grasp was too real to be true.
It was fantastic and surreal. And seen through the small fuzzy window of sleep deprivation, but the arrival in Tokyo was the super real moment that we wanted to take in forever. As long as we could grab a little sleep. 
Turns out that we were able to travel hack our wedding. United put out a deal with their millage card that allowed the two of us to get over 100,000 miles for putting our expenses on the card, and that allowed us both to get one way tickets with a 14 hour stopover at Tokyo international, where they have cleverly provided a very decent hotel right in the airport for a reasonable price. Plus, they have a great light rail that allows you to get right to the heart of Tokyo for cheap! Since we were getting the flight for miles, the extra cost of the hotel room (around $100 US, but off season) was well worth the price, and the realization that we are starting a new life together on the other side of the dateline? Priceless.
Of course, from this moment on everything seemed both super- and surreal. But the great moments of boarding our first EVA airlines flight really helped cement that everything was going to be a bit different from here on out.
So many things caught our eye from there to here. And we fell into the flip side of the tourist to Asia where we just had to take pictures of everything we came across. No wonder tourists get the stereotype of perpetual picture takers.. Even without the idea of blogging in the back of our brain, we definitely would have taken just as many snapshots with every step, but maybe not as many iterations to find the view that really would replace a 1000 words. And like they say, they really have all the same things over here as they do over there, but it is just the little differences that stick out.
