Pam and I arrived in Tokyo yesterday morning after a
marathon series of flights from Columbia. It was quite a journey, taking us
west to Houston then on to Los Angeles. After wandering through the endless
hallways, elevators, moving sidewalks and shuttle routes of the LAX
International Airport we miraculously found our seats on our flight for the
twelve-hour final leg. Getting here wasn't easy.
But that's not the half of it. The bigger part of
traveling to the far East from South Carolina is the time differential. You go
through twelve separate time zones as well as crossing over the International
Date Line, where today becomes tomorrow. If traveling in the opposite
direction, on the other hand, your yesterday would turn into today.
The act of dividing the world into 24 time zones--a
sensible contrivance that keeps distant locations functioning on a synchronized
schedule--quickly becomes unsettling over long distances. You get disoriented
and confused in a hurry. At least I do. For instance, while I'm blogging right
now in Tokyo at 5:00am on Friday morning I'm thinking how it's yesterday at
home. My head may explode at any moment.
