Today Jane and I booked tickets for our 2003 Asia Fall Tour

Two weeks from yesterday, we leave for Tokyo.

Then after two weeks, we leave for Seoul.

Two weeks later, back to San Francisco.

September 23 - October 8 [Tokyo, Japan] Tokyo Game Show, family and friends

October 8 - October 22 [Seoul, Korea (Republic of)] World Cyber Games, family and friends

Looking forward to some travel in parts of the world I enjoy, at a more leisurely pace than five days or a week allows. Four weeks away from home base is daunting. But the promise of the people we'll see is invigorating.

We don't yet have writing assignments for our time abroad; if we can gather our thoughts we'll sell stories to magazines or web sites. Definitely, our notes will appear on our personal web sites, and on Game Girl Advance. The UAL tickets would have been $601 for San Francisco-Tokyo; the Seoul leg added just $47. Funny that way.

We'll have a chance to study two regional gaming scenes. We'll travel cheap maybe and we'll linger with good people. Even if the money isn't forthcoming, I have to imagine this is a worthwhile debt to incur for the future of freelancing.