Nihon ni tsukimashita
I have arrived in Japan. I left Sebring on Friday around 4 am EST, after less than 3 hours of sleep from last minute packing. My mom drove me to the Tampa airport, during which time I got about an hour/hour and a half of sleep, and my plane departed for Dallas at 8:30 am EST. As luck would have it I met someone who is also going to Kansai Gaidai (my foreign university); her name is Meghan and she is a junior at UF. The person sitting next to me let Meghan swap seats with him, so the two-hour flight to Dallas went by really quickly. At Dallas Meghan and I had an adventure trying to find Gate D. The airport is shaped like a donut, and the Gates increase in number and letter as you travel around the donut. Meghan and I got off somewhere in the C's, and it seemed like we had been walking forever by the time we realized that the C Gate numbers were decreasing and we were walking toward the B gates. But then we spotted the escalator to the TRAM SYSTEM, which took us to the gate we needed much faster than it would have taken by foot. Our flight to Osaka didn't leave until 12:45 pm EST, so we decided to grab a light lunch.
On the flight to Osaka I got to sit next to Meghan again, which was fun except the plane was a lot bigger and a lot noisier so it was hard to hear each other, and having talked for a good 4 hours beforehand, we were starting to run out of things to talk about. So the thirteen hour flight to Osaka consisted mostly of me looking at my watch, checking the TV for where the plane was over North America/the Pacific Ocean, popping my ears, and trying to fall asleep. This monotony was puncuated by in-flight movies ("Akila and the Bee" was excellent, and "RV" was surprisingly funny), 3 naps in 1-hour intervals, and in-flight meals. For all the bad rap airplane food gets, I thought it was actually pretty good and filling to boot. The real highlight of the trip was when we reached Japan. It is such an amazing country from 40,000 feet in the air: buildings and developments spread out across the entire island, except for the mountains and hills which are covered in lush, green forests.
When we arrived in Osaka at Kansai International Airport, we first had to go through immigration. It was about 2:30 am EST, but since Japan is thirteen hours ahead (truly the land of the rising sun) the local time was 3:30 pm. Despite my fears, I entered the country without a problem. I was actually surprised by the lack of security at customs- no one checked my carry-on bag for the prescription drugs I was carrying, much less my baggage. Before the airport exit was a group from Kansai Gaidai greeting students. All the Kansai Gaidai students on my flight (there were tons of them) we herded into a group and told to wait for the shuttle bus to arrive. While I waited I made my first purchase in Japan: I paid 375 yen for a little cup of Coke that was half-filled with ice. But I didn't care about the size; I got to order in Japanese, so I was happy ("Kora onegaishimasu"). I tried to call my parents using an international card from Wal-Mart, but it wasn't cooperating with the machines. Finally the shuttle bus to Kansai Gaidai arrived, and we began our travel on the Japanese freeway. Osaka is a sprawling city: not once in the 90-minute trip to Kansai Gaidai did the buildings thin out. The only noticeable change was that the farther away from the center of the city we went, the less flashy the buildings and advertisements became (small bars and residential homes replaced hotels with flashing lights and pachinko gaming arcades). The whole environment is really awe-inspiring: as much as the signs and buildings demand attention, the traffic catches your eye because it is so different from America. Cars driving on the left side of narrow roads crowded with cars and motorbikes, while bicyclists of all ages share the sidewalks with walkers. I really can't describe it; it's just mystic.
So when we got to Kansai Gaidai, we were ushered to Seminar House 4 where there is temporary housing for all students during orientation. It was really confusing trying to interpret the greeter's hand gestures (she didn't speak English, and was trying to tell me to leave my bags at the front door, take off my shoes, and put them in a cubby hole in an adjacent room. But after I got my shoes off I was lead to my temporary room: a small room with a tatami mat, two small closets, three futons (three of us are going to be packed in there), a window, and two small desks for study. I'm glad I'm not staying at the dorms permanently... I don't know if I could deal with the lack of space. One nice thing about the dorms, though, is the bathroom. Since you basically walk through the dorms in your socks the whole time, they have these bathroom slippers to keep the bathroom floor germs out of everybody's rooms. The toilets have an arm on the right side with buttons that control its special features, including: a seat warmer (it's nice and toasty right from the start), a jet spray with water pressure control for that extra clean feeling, and a toilet-flush sound with adjustable volume. Now I haven't figured out the purpose of the toilet-flush sound button yet, but I'm sure there's a reason they slapped it on that thing. I just find it amusing that the toilet runs on electricity.
So the only other adventure today was a short night tour of Kansai Gaidai's surroundings. They showed us the 24-hour grocery store, where I bought a pair of chopsticks, three instant noodle packages, and what I thought were two bottled waters. Actually, they were a sports drink kinda like Gatorade and have a lemon flavor. Surprise, surprise. So now it's 12:30 am Osaka time, and I think I'm going to try to get some sleep. Nothing's on the schedule for orientation tomorrow, so I'm hoping to hit the town with some friends and try to find a noodle shop. A wonderful first day.
On the flight to Osaka I got to sit next to Meghan again, which was fun except the plane was a lot bigger and a lot noisier so it was hard to hear each other, and having talked for a good 4 hours beforehand, we were starting to run out of things to talk about. So the thirteen hour flight to Osaka consisted mostly of me looking at my watch, checking the TV for where the plane was over North America/the Pacific Ocean, popping my ears, and trying to fall asleep. This monotony was puncuated by in-flight movies ("Akila and the Bee" was excellent, and "RV" was surprisingly funny), 3 naps in 1-hour intervals, and in-flight meals. For all the bad rap airplane food gets, I thought it was actually pretty good and filling to boot. The real highlight of the trip was when we reached Japan. It is such an amazing country from 40,000 feet in the air: buildings and developments spread out across the entire island, except for the mountains and hills which are covered in lush, green forests.
When we arrived in Osaka at Kansai International Airport, we first had to go through immigration. It was about 2:30 am EST, but since Japan is thirteen hours ahead (truly the land of the rising sun) the local time was 3:30 pm. Despite my fears, I entered the country without a problem. I was actually surprised by the lack of security at customs- no one checked my carry-on bag for the prescription drugs I was carrying, much less my baggage. Before the airport exit was a group from Kansai Gaidai greeting students. All the Kansai Gaidai students on my flight (there were tons of them) we herded into a group and told to wait for the shuttle bus to arrive. While I waited I made my first purchase in Japan: I paid 375 yen for a little cup of Coke that was half-filled with ice. But I didn't care about the size; I got to order in Japanese, so I was happy ("Kora onegaishimasu"). I tried to call my parents using an international card from Wal-Mart, but it wasn't cooperating with the machines. Finally the shuttle bus to Kansai Gaidai arrived, and we began our travel on the Japanese freeway. Osaka is a sprawling city: not once in the 90-minute trip to Kansai Gaidai did the buildings thin out. The only noticeable change was that the farther away from the center of the city we went, the less flashy the buildings and advertisements became (small bars and residential homes replaced hotels with flashing lights and pachinko gaming arcades). The whole environment is really awe-inspiring: as much as the signs and buildings demand attention, the traffic catches your eye because it is so different from America. Cars driving on the left side of narrow roads crowded with cars and motorbikes, while bicyclists of all ages share the sidewalks with walkers. I really can't describe it; it's just mystic.
So when we got to Kansai Gaidai, we were ushered to Seminar House 4 where there is temporary housing for all students during orientation. It was really confusing trying to interpret the greeter's hand gestures (she didn't speak English, and was trying to tell me to leave my bags at the front door, take off my shoes, and put them in a cubby hole in an adjacent room. But after I got my shoes off I was lead to my temporary room: a small room with a tatami mat, two small closets, three futons (three of us are going to be packed in there), a window, and two small desks for study. I'm glad I'm not staying at the dorms permanently... I don't know if I could deal with the lack of space. One nice thing about the dorms, though, is the bathroom. Since you basically walk through the dorms in your socks the whole time, they have these bathroom slippers to keep the bathroom floor germs out of everybody's rooms. The toilets have an arm on the right side with buttons that control its special features, including: a seat warmer (it's nice and toasty right from the start), a jet spray with water pressure control for that extra clean feeling, and a toilet-flush sound with adjustable volume. Now I haven't figured out the purpose of the toilet-flush sound button yet, but I'm sure there's a reason they slapped it on that thing. I just find it amusing that the toilet runs on electricity.
So the only other adventure today was a short night tour of Kansai Gaidai's surroundings. They showed us the 24-hour grocery store, where I bought a pair of chopsticks, three instant noodle packages, and what I thought were two bottled waters. Actually, they were a sports drink kinda like Gatorade and have a lemon flavor. Surprise, surprise. So now it's 12:30 am Osaka time, and I think I'm going to try to get some sleep. Nothing's on the schedule for orientation tomorrow, so I'm hoping to hit the town with some friends and try to find a noodle shop. A wonderful first day.