Right now it’s 5:30 am Japan time. Hooray for jet lag! And because I can’t sleep, I’ll start writing this first “In Japan” post.
So the trip to Japan was overall pretty good. I woke up at 5 am EST to get ready to leave and pack up the last minute items in my bag. My Dad, Mom, Sister and I all managed to successfully get out the door by 6 am. We were all really tired and conversation was nearly non-existent. However my dad took the scenic route through Detroit to get onto the highway, so I have a nice memory of Detroit in the wee hours of the morning to cherish. We got to the airport around 6:40 am and while my dad parked the car, I went with my Mom and Sister to check my bags. One of them ended up being really overweight and it weighed in at 74 lbs. So I had to take out 4 lbs of stuff, otherwise I would have had to pay $450 instead of just $50 for the weight. (For international flights outside of USA territories, Canada and Europe all checked bags up to 50 lbs are free.) My second bag weighed in at 47 lbs. So I was clear on that. However there was no possible way I could have fit those 4 lbs into my smaller suitcase, so my family just took the items back home and they will hopefully send me those things.
Detroit to Seattle: The flight was actually pretty smooth taking into account that it was pouring outside in Detroit. I always really enjoy flying on Delta as I have never had any horrible flights experiences with them. The take off was a bit bumpy, but everything smoothed out once we cleared the clouds, and Seattle had some cloudy skies, but no precipitation. I also got very lucky on this flight because I ended up in a row where there were only two passengers for the 3 seats in the row. So it was me on the aisle, and a small woman, (whose name is escaping me right now but she was super friendly!) sitting in the window seat. The middle seat was left unoccupied and we both took the chance to stretch out our legs a little more than normal. The flight was about 5 hours long, and I was already exhausted after just that one flight. But there was a movie to watch (I think it’s called “How do you know?” or something. It’s a romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson and another actor whose name I don’t know.) The movie was cute and very new. I watch a lot of films and I hadn’t seen this particular romantic comedy before. So that is what entertained me through most of the flight. The plane arrived early in Seattle and the airport wasn’t quite ready for us, so we ended up waiting about 10 minutes before they opened the door to let us out. But I got to meet one of Wisconsin’s State Senators during that time. He was having a conversation with a couple of the other passengers, but the first thought that ran through my head was “How about those Union Rights?” But I knew it was inappropriate to ask, or even tease about it and instead we played guessing games that a man named “Abraham Vinegar” kept posing. (He wanted the senator to guess his name and he kept using these strange ways of giving clues. I managed to guess his last name “Vinegar” which is why I’m able to remember this at all.)
The layover in Seattle was also pleasant. I managed to get off the plane fairly quickly and bathroom needs and lunch were both attended to. I phoned home to let my family know that I got through the first leg of the trip just fine. I also ended up meeting up with other future NETs with Amity! I had ended up sitting down right behind them because there was a lot of military guys strewn around the airport and so there wasn’t a ton of open seating available, so I had sat down by other civilian-type people and funny enough, those people were also flying out for Amity! This definitely made this part of the trip a LOT better for me as now I didn’t have to go through everything alone.
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| There were Army guys all over the terminal! |
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| My Lunch. |
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| A really neat overhead light. |
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| He's got the right idea... |
Seattle to Osaka: Again, I got very lucky and I had an aisle seat with two empty seats next to me. So I took great advantage of those seats and stretched out for a long flight. I didn’t really get much sleep, but the sleep I did get was greatly valued. They also showed a bunch of films that I really liked! They showed “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1”, And “Grown Ups”. Unfortunately I slept through “Grown Ups” and the majority of Harry Potter, but sleep was much more important at the time. The food on the plane also wasn’t that bad. I was pretty surprised about that. There was shrimp cocktail and a salad and I got the beef meal which had some peas and vegetables that look like tiny corn on the cob (I have no clue what they’re called). There was also a really tasty brownie! It was the first time I’ve ever had an on-flight meal and I really wasn’t expecting very much, but I was pleasantly surprised! This was also the largest plane I’ve ever been on. I’m really used to riding on sardine cans with only one aisle and very few seating, but this plane had two aisles and a LOT of seating. And what’s funny is that people kept saying how small they thought the plane was. I really started thinking that the huge planes with several aisles were just a myth, but I guess I’ve been hopping on the wrong flights all these years!
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| Big screen TV! |
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| I had TONS of space! |
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| The screen would show where we were and the stats along with the movies! |
Once getting off the plane and again attending to restroom needs, I found myself going through customs, which went very smoothly and I only kind of got lost once. The people were very nice and the man who was checking my papers told me that he wish he was a student again. It was cute. After that baggage was collected, and I was so relieved that nothing got lost! That is such a big fear of mine and I always find that I concentrate super hard on seeing my bags again at my final destination. Thankfully carts were provided for public use which meant I could actually carry all of my bags through the baggage check and out of the airport to have the forwarded to my school! This is where we met with our Training Staff! They were all so friendly and helpful and didn’t mind in the least that we were a bit slap happy after that flight.
We all left the airport as one super-loud gaijin (foreigner) group and hopped on a train. I really had no idea where we were going, only that we were moving very fast and that I had 3 tickets that I shouldn’t lose. I still kind of felt like I was watching Japan go by on a movie screen still and not that I was finally actually in Japan! In a way it still hasn’t registered, but having to speak Japanese everywhere I go and not recognizing half the change in my pocket to buy groceries with has been helping a lot.
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| Hey look! It's Japan! |
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| On the train. The conductor bowed before leaving too! |
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| I look soooooo tired... |
So after the train, we hopped on to the shikansen! The fabled fastest train in the world! And I totally fell asleep on it! I woke up just in time though because everyone was standing again to get off the train when I woke up. I know they wouldn’t have left me behind but it was definitely an “oops” moment. From there we were shown to our dorm and shown some spots to buy things, like the convenience store and some vague directions to the international center and the grocery store! (I found it eventually though.)
So the whole group of new NETs dropped off their things, said thank you and goodnight to the Training Staff and went in search of internet… Which we found an internet café in a smoky Manga hut on the 4th floor of a hole in the wall-entrance. Those of us that could, sent out e-mails to our family to let them know that we were okay and safe. The place was sooo warm and smoky though that I could feel myself getting dizzy, so I laid down while everyone finished up. Then we left, got some snacks at the convenience store and then went on a hunt for curry. (One of the other NETs who had been to Japan previously really wanted curry and so we ended up at a curry place. Unfortunately I couldn’t eat much of it because I still felt a little ill after the flight.
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| Pork Curry. It was a littly spicy for me. Not good for an upset stomach. |
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| Fellow trainees! |
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| Curry Poster! |
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| Me, still looking exhausted with new friends! |
Then we returned to the dorm and I passed out…
My weekend in Japan in next! But I just really wanted to get this up before I forgot what happened and while I still could steal internet… (shh! Don’t tell! Ha ha!)
