My First Visitor From Japan!

If you've read this blog for long enough, you'll already know that I stalk my stalkers by using Site Meter.  Not only is it a counter, but it gives me a map of places from which people visit my blog.  This morning, I got on bright and early and found out that someone from Japan finally checked me out!  Not only that, but where my map used to be sparse, it now runneth over with visits from my JFMF conrades from all over the US, including Hawaii!  Check out the screencap I grabbed this morning:

Check out the little green dot on Japan!  My first visitor from the destination.  

There's also been a flurry of activity from around the US this weekend.  

That red thing on Florida?  Don't adjust your monitor, it's just my ego.

Weird, now I'm blogging about my blog.

*       *       *

I've started buying some of the travel needs for my trip, starting with a suitcase.  Kohl's had a 50% off sale on luggage this weekend, and by some amazing miracle I got the exact case I wanted for only $80!   I also bought one of those cool neck pillows to keep myself from getting a crick in my neck on the plane.  But the one thing I needed most from Kohl's was a good set of slippers.  These are worn all over the place in Japan's indoor spaces, and the JFMF Basics manual suggests bringing our own because the ones provided for visitors in many places will not fit the large feet of Americans.  When I asked the guy who was working in the shoe department about slippers, he got really uncomfortable (which I found really strange) and told me that they were a seasonal item and that I should come back in early December to find a pair.

OHHH NOOOOOOOOOOO!

It looks like I'm going to have to buy pair of filthy, nasty, scum-ridden slippers from eBay.  Dang it!

*       *       *

Wow, things sure move fast when you have 159 new friends overnight!  Right now I'm organizing an evening trip to see a pro baseball game in Japan, and a lot of people want to come too.  I say, "the more, the merrier," especially at a baseball game.  I've been working with a couple of folks, both in the group and in the JFMF administration to get things coordinated, and so far it's gone really smoothly.  There's a website called JapanBall that has all kinds of great info about Japanese baseball, and they even have a portal for buying advance tickets to games for those that would like to add one of these events to their travel itinerary.  So far the site owner has been really helpful, so I'm sure wrapping up the night out will go as smoothly as the rest of it has gone.

Well, I'm more tired now than I have been at any point during the entire school year.  There's still a lot more on my to do list for tonight, so I will leave you now and hopefully post again before the end of the week!  Bye!