April 1, 1989 I landed at Narita Airport with a one-way ticket on a rainy evening. I had a total of $300 in my pocket--not enough to get me out of the airport if things had gone awry. But fortunately for me, the head teacher from Ichinoseki Shoko High School met me as planned. He greeted me with: Welcome to Japan, today we have a new tax, and then whisked me up north. As I rode the Shikansen, looking out at the evening lights blur past me, reality dropped its suffix and added a prefix. It would take days to lose the Dali-esque feel as the edges of the real world gradually came back into focus. It would take months before my dreams caught up.

February 14 to March 31 of that year was a whirlwind of activity with each new turn threatening to keep me grounded. As I look back, I wonder at the alternating bad and good fortunes that punctuated those weeks of turning my life upside down to embark on the unknown and uncertain.

My first task was to get a passport. I went down to the copy store on the strip off campus to get passport photos with my friend Carla. The deer in headlights photo would haunt me for the next ten years. With photos in hand, I ran into the first of many hurtles at the courthouse. At the time, Texas issued birth registration cards rather than birth certificates. I needed a birth certificate for a passport, birth certificates take 2 to 3 weeks to arrive. The clerk suggested, I contact Texas Vital Records directly and see if there was a way to expedite the process. I contacted them and yes, if I sent in an express mail request with all the information that I knew about my birth and a return express envelope they would would assist me. I typed up the information and headed to the post office for the first of a total of 4 sets of express mail with a return envelopes included to get me to Japan. One set cost almost $25 which was what I was living on for an entire week. Hello 10 for a dollar ramen noodles. Once I got my birth certificate, I included my second set of express mail envelopes to have my passport expedited.

While I was waiting for my passport to arrive, I consulted with my professors to determined how to handle the mid-semester interruption. In the end, I withdrew from two classes, took incompletes in two classes in order to continue them upon my return a year later, and finished course work in the remaining two classes before I left. What I expected to be the greatest challenge ended up the easiest to sort out.

Next came the plane ticket, I had to purchase my ticket with the promise of being reimbursed upon arrival. The Japanese teacher that was my liaison found me a discounted ticket on Thai Air, my dear friend Karen loaned me $500 to pay for the ticket. I sent in the deposit to my bank in Idabel, waited a few days and wrote a check for the plane ticket--nine days later I get a call that my check has bounced--11 days after I posted the deposit! I call my bank about 4:45 frantic, they said they will review everything and to call them back the next day. After a long night of panic and worry, I call the bank and by miracle they said that my deposit had arrived that morning in the mail and credited my account. I will never know what exactly happened to my deposit but of course it had to happen to me. At the time, I remember telling the clerk that I could have walked the 250 miles to Idabel in a shorter period of time. With money in the bank, I contact the travel agent to learn that with the bounced check, they will only accept a cashier check for the ticket. A trip to the bank and a trip to the post office for my 3rd set of express envelopes. Completely keyed up, I leave the post office wondering if I should just chuck it all in. I get in the car to return to campus and the Beatles

Let It Be begins to play on the radio.

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

As I listened, I felt the stress drain from me. I knew that I would do my part in trying to make this wild adventure happen, but otherwise, I would just have to Let It Be. Over the years, Let It Be has played on the radio at critical times, reminding me to relax, things will work out as they should.

As the express mail saga was playing out, I had arranged to meet my Japanese liaison in Tulsa during Spring Break that year. Up until the planned meeting, we were just voices to each other. Friday of spring break 1989 is a beautiful nearly 80 degree day, students don shorts as they leave campus for the long break. I stayed at my friend Karen's apartment that night as we were going to drive to Tulsa the next morning, That evening the temperature steadily drops and then sometime after midnight we hear pinging on the roof. The next morning we wake up to a blanket of ice, ranked as the 7th most severe storm in Oklahoma history, here is what Wikipedia has to say about that storm: Temperatures were at first above 70 °F (21 °C) but.. on Friday March 3... it suddenly got cold, below freezing, and ice started forming in the late evening. By Saturday morning, March 4, the ice was 2–3 inches (5–8 cm) thick on the roadways. Temperatures stayed cold for several days and the city was at a standstill. A week later on March 11, 1989, the temperature was 95 °F (35 °C) degrees again. The entire window for me to meet the teacher we were icebound.

After spring break, I take mid-terms and finals days apart, and begin to pack up to return to Idabel for last 10 days before my trip. In Idabel, I send the last of my express sets with my passport and the visa application to the Japanese Consulate in Houston. A week goes by, my departure date is dawning and I call the consulate. The receptionist gets my application to review. She says: Ah, yes, you do not have a 4 year degree. This is where being naive pays off. I responded: Yes, that's right, the school knows that I haven't graduated yet, and they still want me. She says: OK, as she stamps my passport with the work visa,I will put your passport in the mail today.

On March 29, I go out to my Aunt Pat's to spend one of my last nights on American soil. I make a call to check in with the school in Japan. It is evening, we have just finished dinner when I make the call while everyone is still around the dinner table. I speak with the head teacher and he says that he will be at the airport to meet me. At the end of the call, he says I'll see you next month. What? I yell back, I'll be there in 2 days, 2 days, not a month. I get off the phone really unsure if I will be met at the airport on the day I fly in or if I will have to wait 1 month get picked up. My aunt still laughs at this little mini-drama.

The next day, less than 24 hours before I am to leave the country, I get my passport back stamped with my visa. After six weeks of turmoil, I wake up on that last morning with: 6 completed college credits, a suitcase filled with a year's worth of clothes, a plane ticket, a valid passport and work visa, and a sinus infection that matched no others. To be continued...