Flight and Tokyo Night #1

We (all, like, 100 of us) got to the San Fransisco airport around 9:00, checked in, waited a while, and eventually headed to the gate. We agreed that it didn't really seem like we were actually going to be in Japan in a matter of hours. Finally, after a few final phone calls, we boarded the plane and settled in for our 10.5 hour flight to Tokyo. I was stuck in the middle between a bro-ish psychologist from California and a lady from Toronto who was bringing her daughter's dog to Singapore.

Oh, right, I forgot to mention in the last post what happened on the last night in San Jose. The staff called me to the YFU office there and asked me if I would be willing to present this YFU-supporting ambassador with a plaque on our first morning in Tokyo. Sounded good to me, so I accepted. As I was walking out, he added, "Oh, if you could also give a short speech in Japanese to show everyone's appreciation for all Ambassador Okawara has done, that would be great." I was all like, ":0....ok." So, this brings me to what I did during the flight to Japan. I slept a good deal, read some nihongo Harry Potter, and, of course, worked on the speech I would have to give the next day. It was pretty rough because I tried to write most of it in keigo (the most honorific form of Japanese), and I wasn't really sure what exactly to thank the good ambassador for. Nevertheless, I managed to get something down on paper that I decided I would have some Japanese person in Tokyo check.


Surprisingly, the flight didn't drag on like I thought it would. Before I could say "oh my goshimashite" (thanks, Peter), our altitude started dropping and I saw glorious Nippon for the first time. I thought of all of my hours spent doing reps on my SRS, listening to ripped Japanese shows on my ipod, going to Japanese school, reading Ore Tachi no Tabi before bed, everything that had gotten me to that point. I guess it was a pretty momentous occasion. If you had asked me what I was going to write about this moment before it actually happened, I'd have answered that I would probably say something like, "What really struck me during that first descent was ________." But there was nothing like that. I was just floored that I was actually there.


So, we disembarked and went through a couple of swine flu checkpoints. Then, the craziest thing happened. On my way to customs, I glanced to the side and saw this Japanese girl. But this was not ordinary Japanese girl; it was my friend Saori from Greenville! And with her was another friend, Tasuke! They had just come in on a different flight. Our minds were blown by the guuzen of it all. We just happened to be in the same place in the Tokyo airport on the same day at the same time. Craziness. So I got through customs, and went out to the terminal. Then things got insane. Who was standing in the terminal waiting for her friend to arrive? Our family friend Haruko and her daughter Keeto (they live in Tokyo now)! She had no idea that I was coming at that time! We were so happy to see each other and talked for a good while. Everyone thought that she was my host mom, hohoho. I was feeling pretty good as we headed out to the bus that would take us into Tokyo.
Narita airport is actually about 2 hours from Tokyo (by bus, at least), so we got to see some of the Japanese countryside (read: ride fields) before getting into the city. I had always though that my first ride through Tokyo would be surreal, and I wasn't disappointed. It was everything I've ever hoped. The funny thing is though (I'm writing this at about 5:30 PM the next day), the surreal feeling wore off pretty quickly. It's hard to explain, but when I walk down the street, it's more like, "Oh, everyone else finally got the memo that everything is supposed to be in Japanese." Still, though, whenever I look out of the hotel window and see the city spread out before me, that feeling comes back slightly. What I've dreamed of for 3 years now is finally reality.

All corniness aside, though, it's incredible to be here.

Ferrari Enzo

We got to the hotel and found out it was a 47 story building in the middle of Shinjuku! Needless to say, we were pretty pumped. We went inside, and 3 Japanese former YFU exchange students talked to us and told us what we would be up to for the next day and a half. Then, we had the rest of the night (from about 6:30 on) free! The only catch? We...couldn't ...leave....the....hotel >.< We bought some Japanese drinks (CC Lemon, Pocari Sweat, and Calpis) at the conbini in the hotel to go with out bentos and just chilled in the rooms for a while. We explored the hotel (found out there was a karaoke place on the 47th floor - see night #2), played cards, talked, and did all kinds of other boring stuff we could have done in the US. .... (I finished this on my host family`s computer, and I can`t get it to allow me to put up pictures. Until I manage to get them up here, imagine there are cool pictures of me. sankyuu~) I came back to the room, accidentally woke up big J (my roommate John from Hawaii), and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. I decided the time was right to try out the options that the famous Japanese toilets offer. It turns out getting your behind sprayed with water simply leaves you with a slightly uncomfortable feeling while it happens and a wet behind afterwards. Thus ended my first night in Japan.