So...the night before the flight I slept for about three hours...partly due to excitement, partly due to trying to purposefully change my sleep schedule and partly due to having to do last minute random stuff.
My mom took me to the airport and we waited 1 1/2 in the check-in line. It was hard to say bye to my mom, but a little easier than when she drove off from St. Olaf freshman year. Everything went pretty smoothly throughout the trip although someone was sitting on my seat in the airplane when I first got on and there was a lot of turbulence. It was a huge plane - to give you a better perspective...I was in row 61 and there were 7 seats to a row. After the plane ride I realized that I did not get up once in 13 hours to stretch or use the bathroom. But I think that I slept for about 9 hours of the flight...
We went through customs and immigration smoothly (you have to have a picture taken and get fingerprints done when entering Japan), got our bags (mine were heavy - I did not realize that the carts were free and I did not have any yen so I carried them), carried them through the airport and sent one bag that will be shipped directly to our prefecture city and got on our bus to the Keio Hotel in Tokyo where the national orienation will be. On Wednesday we will jump on another bus to our prefectural orientation (Fukui City). There were a lot of former JETs there in bright yellow shirts to lead the way. There was actually an Ole I knew on the bus and I met another one at the hotel...small world.
Once we got to the hotel they efficiently gave us lots more paperwork (yay) and once I settled in with my roommates we went to find a place to eat. After walking around a little in the horrible humidity we decided to go back to the hotel and ask where some restaurants were. Pretty much we just had walked out of the wrong side of the hotel. We found a nice Japanese restaurant...already had some things lost in translation, we ate in a Japanese style room (where you take your shoes off) and I ate some delicious sukiyaki nabe udon. Then I came back and tried out the Japanese toilet (it has buttons that wash and dry ;-) and tried to figure out the phone card (and found out Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of Toledo and 14 ahead of Minnesota).
I am pretty disoriented but I have been trying to remember my initial observations/reactions - one of my observations this far are that all the Japanese women I have seen dress really cute! Also, I feel off balance because everything (cars, pedestrians, escalators, etc.) is the opposite way than in the US. Everyone is very helpful and polite always saying arigatoo gozaimasu. I should go to sleep because we have two FULL days of orienation...
oyasuminasai
My mom took me to the airport and we waited 1 1/2 in the check-in line. It was hard to say bye to my mom, but a little easier than when she drove off from St. Olaf freshman year. Everything went pretty smoothly throughout the trip although someone was sitting on my seat in the airplane when I first got on and there was a lot of turbulence. It was a huge plane - to give you a better perspective...I was in row 61 and there were 7 seats to a row. After the plane ride I realized that I did not get up once in 13 hours to stretch or use the bathroom. But I think that I slept for about 9 hours of the flight...
We went through customs and immigration smoothly (you have to have a picture taken and get fingerprints done when entering Japan), got our bags (mine were heavy - I did not realize that the carts were free and I did not have any yen so I carried them), carried them through the airport and sent one bag that will be shipped directly to our prefecture city and got on our bus to the Keio Hotel in Tokyo where the national orienation will be. On Wednesday we will jump on another bus to our prefectural orientation (Fukui City). There were a lot of former JETs there in bright yellow shirts to lead the way. There was actually an Ole I knew on the bus and I met another one at the hotel...small world.
Once we got to the hotel they efficiently gave us lots more paperwork (yay) and once I settled in with my roommates we went to find a place to eat. After walking around a little in the horrible humidity we decided to go back to the hotel and ask where some restaurants were. Pretty much we just had walked out of the wrong side of the hotel. We found a nice Japanese restaurant...already had some things lost in translation, we ate in a Japanese style room (where you take your shoes off) and I ate some delicious sukiyaki nabe udon. Then I came back and tried out the Japanese toilet (it has buttons that wash and dry ;-) and tried to figure out the phone card (and found out Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of Toledo and 14 ahead of Minnesota).
I am pretty disoriented but I have been trying to remember my initial observations/reactions - one of my observations this far are that all the Japanese women I have seen dress really cute! Also, I feel off balance because everything (cars, pedestrians, escalators, etc.) is the opposite way than in the US. Everyone is very helpful and polite always saying arigatoo gozaimasu. I should go to sleep because we have two FULL days of orienation...
oyasuminasai
1 comment:
Reney!!! Just for the record, don't ever feel like you're rambling...it is so fun and interesting to read about your experiences every step of the way! thanks for blogging about what's going on with you--it's really cool to hear first hand what its like to travel and live abroad
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