Weeeeee a recap of me life so far....

Konnichiwa from the land of Japan! That’s right, I am finally here! All of you will probably not see this until a few days after I write it because we don’t have internet in our dorm rooms. I will get it later, but to get it we have to pay per month and sign up for a contract and all that kind of stuff… what a hassle!

Anyway, let me recount my first few days in Japan. Ah this might take a while, so I think I will probably break it up into 3 posts or so… buuuut first the nice 17 hour plain ride.

hey look! It’s a plane, it’s a bird, no wait! It’s David flying all over the world with a bunch of Asian people! That’s right, there were soooo many Asians on the flight that I felt weird taking out my genki (Japanese) textbook and studing elementary Japanese with so many fluent speakers around… I‘m such a noob! So… guess what, I didn’t.

Anyways, let me regale you with the most interesting details of my flights.
First flight: destination, Chicago Ohare. I don’t remember much about this flight. (interesting detail, eh?) Basically I had the excitement of taking off and then promptly fell asleep for the remainder of the trip, only to awaken to the captain informing us that we were about to land. God did bless me with a nice person to sit next to, though. It was a lady about 40ish or so, and her child, 11. The child played the violin so we had an instant connection. I talked to both of them during the 10 minute take off. She was into sudoku and her child was into Harry Potter. Anyways, I got her to help me find what gate my next flight was leaving at. It was basically my first flight, how am I supposed to know how the airports work? Anywho….

Flight number two: The long one, 13 hours and 42 minutes, not counting the 1 hour delay. That’s right, 1 hour… supposedly, they filled up one wing with gas but forgot about the other wing, so our plane was tilting more than a drunk trying to walk home. It really wasn’t nearly as hard a flight as I thought it was going to be. I didn’t even use all the battery on my laptop OR my PDA, amazing eh? I did finish “House” though (that’s a book my mommy game me to read on the plane! ^_^) In all honesty it was a pretty fun flight. I read till I got bored, then watched some of the onboard movie (which was in Japanese) and then watched some shows I brought along on my computer, and then I slept, then read till I got bored, then watched some of the onboard movie (which was in Japanese) and then watched some shows I brought along on my computer then I slept, then read till I got bored, then watched some of the onboard movie (which was in Japanese) and then watched some shows I brought along on my computer then I slept, then... etc :D

After the flight landed in Narita, Japan I had to go through customs (which took a little time but no problems arose) and grab my bags before jumping on the bus to YCAT (Yokohama basically). It wasn’t too hard, minus the fact that I accidentally went to the wrong bag place so I didn’t find my bags for a while…. How was I supposed to know that when it says (FLIGHT 881: B4) it meant I was supposed to go to the B4 and not the B5 bag area?! Oh ok so it was silly of me, but after about 15 minutes I figured out that this was NOT the right place to be.

So, after finally grabbing my bags, I jumped onto the bus to YCAT. This is my first experience of being the "token white guy"! Hurray! I was the ONLY non-Japanese person on the bus. I felt a wee bit silly about 15 minutes into the trip though, because I forgot to ask the dude I sat next to if the seat was free ( I know how to do that in Japanese, but if he replyed with anything other than “no you can sit here.” I‘d have been uber confused!) Oh well, I’m allowed to be rude cus I’m just a silly gaijin, eh? ^_^

After I got off the bus at YCAT (hey “at YCAT” rhymes, sugeeeeee!( sugee is Japanese for cool!)) my student tutor was waiting for me. Saito-san. His English is not very good but its good enough to get around. I think it might be a vocabulary problem, so I say everything to him 2-3 times in different ways to help him understands. It is alittle fun, but a little frustrating too. Oh well, it is still good that he is my student tutor because he is very nice and knows where we have to go and what papers I have to sign and put my stamp on. Yep, we get a Hanko, which is basically a Japanese signature stamp. It is supposed to be the last name of the family you belong to, buuut I don’t have one so we just got something that somewhat sounds like Webster. I’ll have a picture of it later on probably!

Anyway after catching a takshi (or at least that’s how my student tutor pronounced taxi) and driving through the strangest backstreets, we finally got to Minesawa dorms. At this point I was in total asian overload (not really… mostly just sleep depervation, I‘d been up for 26-28 hours or something… but asian overload had such a good ring to it!), so I went to my room and fell asleep.

My tutor did something really nice though… he got me two gifts: tissues and toilet paper… two things they don’t provide here! No wonder rent is so cheap! I pay for my own electric bill too… and there are spiders everywhere… no wonder rent is so cheap, for real! Anywhoooooo….. the first night I was in Japan I fell asleep at 8. Not good to set a pattern! Ever since then I fall asleep early and go to bed early. I feel like my parents! Ahhh! the sad part is even the few nights I have fallen asleep at a reasonable time, like midnight or one, I still wake up early because of my lousy bed. It is HORRIBLE…. today I bought a futon to lay on top of it though. because tonight is the first night I get to test it I’m excited, woohoo!

More later, I guess...

toodles for now!

-David

PS: btw, this is the boring part of the trip, just wait till you hear about what we are doing here! (mostly it is boring too, but thats because you have to walk FOREVER to get anywhere.... i need a bike... bah... X_x... later!)