Hiroe had told us when we first met that the Japanese like to stand in lines. After several hours of doing so, after the sun had gone down leaving us dreaming of hot soup and space heaters (thank you Andrew for letting me have your "wind cheater," you are a prince!) and our knees no longer felt like articulating joints, I jokingly asked Hiroe if she was still happy to be in line. "Oh yes, still happy. Look!" And she pointed a the car full of screaming people whizzing by. I realized that for her it wasn't about the line, it was about keeping her eye on the prize, the anticipation of what we were there FOR.

The Fuji-Q mascots were getting a bit droopy towards the end of the day, maybe their paychecks weren't so much of a prize...