My family packed up and moved there; it was a little rough at first, but we found that we truly enjoyed the Japanese culture and were able to lead relatively normal lives. For me, that meant attending an English-speaking grade-school in Futakotamagawa in Setagaya-ku. It was a forty-minute train ride from our home in Tokyo.
We moved back to The United States in 1986, and I returned to my American high school. I was in Japan from my sixth-grade year until my freshman year of high-school; I had my Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years in The United States.
The Class of 1988 at Saint Mary's International School recently held its reuinon in Las Vegas. I planned to take a motorcycle trip for my vacation, as usual, so I aligned the trip to coincide with the reunion.
I rode from Seattle to Las Vegas to attend the reunion. When the fun was over, I rode towards Boston. Because of the bad weather, I didn't quite make beantown and stopped in Hartford. Then, I returned to Seattle. And here's the story.
| Date | Start City | Stop City | Mileage |
| Wednesday, July 15, 1998 | Seattle, Washington | Winnemucca, Nevada | 715.8 |
| Thursday, July 16, 1998 | Winnemucca, Nevada | Las Vegas, Nevada | 480.2 |
| Friday, July 17, 1998 | Maintenance Day | 0.0 | |
| Saturday, July 18, 1998 | Reunion! | 0.0 | |
| Sunday, July 19, 1998 | Las Vegas, Nevada | Mesquite, Nevada | 83.1 |
| Monday, July 20, 1998 | Mesquite, Nevada | Glennwood Springs, Colorado | 578.0 |
| Tuesday, July 21, 1998 | Glennwood Springs, Colorado | Phillipsburg, Kansas | 500.1 |
| Wednesday, July 22, 1998 | Phillipsburg, Kansas | Macon, Mossouri | 389.2 |
| Thursday, July 23, 1998 | Macon, Mossouri | Dayton, Ohio | 483.8 |
| Friday, July 24, 1998 | Dayton, Ohio | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | 290.7 |
| Saturday, July 25, 1998 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Hartford, Connecticut | 490.9 |
| Sunday, July 26, 1998 | Hartford, Connecticut | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | 288.1 |
| Monday, July 27, 1998 | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | Fort Wayne, Indiana | 569.4 |
| Tuesday, July 28, 1998 | Fort Wayne, Indiana | Waterloo, Iowa | 499.2 |
| Wednesday, July 29, 1998 | Waterloo, Iowa | Sioux Falls, South Dakota | 319.5 |
| Thursday, July 30, 1998 | Sioux Falls, South Dakota | Billings, Montana | 681.4 |
| Friday, July 31, 1998 | Billings, Montana | Spokane, Washington | 568.1 |
| Saturday, August 1, 1998 | Spokane, Washington | Seattle, Washington | 288.2 |
| Total: | 7225.7 |
For this trip, I averaged 451.6 miles (728.4 kilometers) per day.
Some days don't have links because I'm still working on transcribing my notes.
These are transcriptions of my real journal entries. I did not bring a computer with me: my vacation was to get away from computers. I'm not a nerd, and I'm not really that important anyway: there's no reason to for you to see what the view would be from the top of my front fender every five minutes of the day. My journal entries often contain personal reflection and sensitive insights. When I've felt uncomfortable with their content, I've edited them before posting them here. What's here is still the work of my own two hands, so please treat it (and me) with respect.
The tour took me through these states: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Kansas, South Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, and Connecticut. I passed through Arizona and Wyoming by just barely clipping the corner of each state while traveling the highway.
Last modified on 26 May, 1998.