初めて

As most of you already know, I'm in Japan.

I arrived here on August 26th. My friend in a nearby town generously let us 3 of us stay in her 2-person apartment until the 31st, when we moved our tons and tons of luggage to International Christian University in Mitaka-shi, Tokyo, Japan.

It will take me a while to be caught up with everything, but I can probably summarize the last three weeks--has it really only been 3 weeks? It feels like ages--in this one post. If someone happens to want any details at any point, just shoot me a message on Facebook, since this is probably where most of you are coming from.

My flight was a non-stop from Logan Airport in Boston to Narita Airport in Tokyo on a Boeing 787. It was a sleepless thirteen-and-a-half hours. Still, it was probably the most comfortable flight I have experienced. My stomach was obviously in knots when I boarded the plane, despite playing PSY'S GANGNAM STYLE on repeat to put me in a better mood. I traveled alone, so I was prepared for a complete stranger--most likely Japanese--to sit next to me. On the contrary, an elderly American man was my companion. He had lived in Fukuoka for the past 55 years. This fact comforted me more than I knew; if he could live there for 55 years, then my staying there for 10 months would surely be a breeze. Since I was shy, tired, and anxious, I ended up not talking to him besides asking him a few times if I could get out to use the bathroom. Looking back, he must have been a really interesting person to have talked to. I should be more extroverted.

I tried reading and listening to music, but neither could hold my attention. So, logically, I started picking out movies to watch. My studious side told me I should pick something in Japanese so I could dive headfirst into the experience, but a much larger part of me said, "OMG HUNGER GAMES." So, I watched The Hunger Games with Japanese subtitles. I also watched a Japanese movie called ｢レンタネコ」 (Rent a Cat), which was cute and easy to understand. As for food (which wasn't all that bad, honestly), I had rice crackers, chicken curry, and some strange pasta dish.

So, let's get to the interesting stuff. Finally, it was time for the plane to land. I almost didn't want it to land because I knew I was completely on my own with my 75+lbs of luggage and a violin to make my way from the airport to a train to meet up with my friend in Shinjuku. I went through customs without any troubles, used my first bit of Japanese at immigrations ("How long are you staying in Japan?" "10 months." "Is that all of your luggage?" "Yes."), struggled embarrassingly with a luggage cart, fumbled over how to ask for a ticket to Shinjuku, stood around in the train for ten minutes before asking for someone for help with my luggage, and waited as the express train took me to my friend. Finally, we reached Shinjuku. We squeezed onto another train with all of my luggage, then dragged it tediously through the streets for 10 minutes before we finally reached her apartment, drenched in sweat. It was at least 30C that day (and has been hovering around there ever since). We got inside, had dinner, and I made myself stay up until at least 11pm so I could fight jetlag.

The next few days were overstimulating, but awesome. In all, we visited Shinjuku, Shibuya, Asakusa, Tokyo Tower, Odaiba, Harajuku, and other places I can't remember right now. I can safely say I can vaguely understand public transportation, and my Suica train pass card has had a lot of use already. I didn't experience jetlag at all, but I definitely experienced exhaustion...or so I thought.

Our blissful 4 days of nonstop adventures in Tokyo came to an end when we had to move into our dorms on the ICU campus.

This is where I'm going to start posting things in sections, because I don't want to make huge ranting posts like this all the time.