Anticipation and Preparation

Dearest Rachel –

So. The time is pretty much upon us now. After a week of Daniel and I warning various people about our upcoming absences, we have to actually start making preparations to fly out Thursday evening to meet our ship that will take us around Japan. This is not going to be a typical week (as if there ever has been such a thing since my retirement and your departure); this is to be devoted to packing and various other tasks in anticipation of this trip.

Everyone we tell about this – and we do have to tell a lot of people, because we have a number of regular commitments that will have to be set aside for the majority of April – is excited and happy for us, for whatever reason. I suppose it’s better than outright hostility; I could understand people being jealous of our opportunity, or irritated that we can’t be there to perform our regular duties. It’s the nice thing about our community being predominantly within the local church; such negative attitudes rarely, if ever, come to the fore. The real incongruity comes from the fact that it sometimes seems that these other people are more excited about what we’re planning to do than we are.

I’m more than willing to admit that this is more on us than it is on them. One of the tenants of the Christian community is to share each others, joys and burdens; to weep with those who weep, and sing with those who sing. Our friends are more than doing their part; in particular, I’m almost amused by the fact that my dad is already carrying around a copy of our itinerary in his Bible, just as a reminder in advance of where we are at any given point of time in our journey.

But as for me, I’m just not able to work out the appropriate amount of gleeful anticipation anymore. Part of this has to do with the vestiges of what I refer to as Basel Syndrome; though it’s been said that Covid is over with, the authorities don’t act as if it is. We still have to be tested before we get on the plane (and later, before we get on the ship) and as a result, there’s always the risk of a false positive to ruin the entire thing. Not only that, but despite having fought off a cold (or what I’m going to consider to be a cold, since I never tested myself otherwise) about a week or so ago, I woke up this morning with a sort of pasty sensation in the back of my throat, like it had been covered with peanut butter, without the flavor. Even now, I’m feeling better than that, but I’m still nervous that it might be something more than just postnasal drip – or that the test might come to that conclusion, whether I’m really sick or not. It’s a frightening thing to think that all these plans and expenditures may come to naught all of a sudden, and it keeps me from getting too worked up about anything that might be in store.

And, unfortunately, my attitude rubs off on Daniel, I’m sure. While it doesn’t help that he hasn’t really been involved in any of the planning process, the fact that I’m not hyping it up to him leaves him more or less in the dark about what’s going to happen, which precludes him for getting at all excited about this trip, despite the fact that this is probably the one destination that he would really look forward to going to. We were just at a sales event being held by the travel agency less than a week ago (which could easily be the main focus of a separate letter to you), and he admitted there was no destination that was advertised that really called out to him, apart from the one we were just about to go on in the first place. He generally doesn’t share my wanderlust, so his lack of enthusiasm might be understandable, but I’m sure my approach to it all tends to exacerbate his apparent indifference.

Nevertheless, we’re running out of time, and we need to get ourselves put together. I’m still debating about whether to bother with a garment bag, as there are apparently certain customs (thankfully, not rules as such, as far as I can tell) on this ship about attire; I may end up telling you about ‘White Day’ when it happens (although it’s been the better part of a month since White Day actually happened in Japan, but that’s a different story in its own right). I also have yet to print out any travel documents; the printer at home is unreliable, and I’m not sure whether to bother at the folks’, since presumably, Daniel and I could just flash the information off of our respective phones, for the most part – unless there’s something we need to attach to our bags as we bring them onto the ship. I just don’t know at this point; maybe I should ask our agent.

In which case, I’ll have to wait for her reply, so until then, keep an eye on us, and wish us luck. We’re going to need it.