Thursday, May 7th

I did not go to sleep at all the night before we left because I had to leave Franklin at 4a.m. for the three-hour drive to Charlotte. After Rhys dropped me off, I saw Megan first, who was really the only person I knew from the pre-trip meetings, as I arrived at the American Air counter.

We left CLT around 9am and on the flight I sat with Megan and a hot military guy with a really nice arm tattoo that Megan took a photo of while he was sleeping. Megan and I had to do some convincing people to switch seats so we could sit together. We arrived in Dallas around 10am after the 3-hour flight and Megan and I walked around to find snacks and chapstick. Saw a sushi place in the airport but decided against getting sushi while we were still in America.

Our boarding was running a little late and there were a ton of Asians at the gate waiting for our Japan leg of the flight. We left DFW somewhere around noon and Megan and I sat with Kyle. That was fun...we all ordered some type of alcoholic beverage to prepare us for the 14-hour flight. At some point, I fell asleep and they took a lovely picture of me with my mouth hanging open.