The First Day in Japan
July 29th, 2007
I think I was probably packing the entire last night that I was in Los Angeles. I went out to Canters diner/delicatessen with Gateway, Meg, Mark and his wife Shannon. I didn't eat much, but everything was delicious; Eggs Benedict, a coke float, and a matzo ball soup! After that I went home to the apartment to finish packing and cleaning... I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. Meg woke up early and said goodbye to me, it was sad.
The next morning I finished with goodwill and throwing out the trash and packing up the car and went over to Starbucks for the last time. I had breakfast with Toshi, Amie, Aaron, Letty, Suzanne and Holly! Well, to say we had coffee and then chatted for an hour. Then I ran off to the airport! It was a very very sad goodbye. I'm going to miss Starbucks and everyone there, oddly!
At the airport we had to stand in a long line for checking in with the JET people and then another long line to get our tickets, then for security... then we waited at the airport for a long long time before getting on our enormous plane. The plane was like nothing else! I mean, it was a plane, but the flight rather. We had the most amazing foods ever! Free beer, I got some very hoppy beer which helped me snooze a little on the eleven hour flight. But for the first meal we had espresso sponge cake, eel teryaki with rice and peas, cucumber salad, crab and shrimp salad, and all with chopsticks! So good! Then for lunch we had pasta, soba noodles, various fruits and melons, etc etc etc. It was just amazing. Fresh Japanese green tea the whole time (at least as far as I can tell). It almost made up for a very boring flight. plus all the flight attendants were about 90 pounds, adorable and had special JAL aprons! Pink or blue, with little hot air balloons. It was wonderful.
The Japanese airport in Narita was a blur. We were all so tired... thinking, "let's see... I left at 12pm Saturday and now it's like 5pm Sunday... wait... wait..." and then every JET from Chicago or Los Angeles was trying to find our bags, get them shipped to our prefecture, and then hop on the bus for 2 hours to take our ride into Tokyo to our Keio Plaza hotel. The bus ride was another blur, apparently I missed a glimpse of Disney Tokyo. I just remember lots of grey, never quite being on the ground, and many buildings. I was too tired to read most of the company names. It was strange though, eerily silent. Nobody honking their horns, and I swear we weren't on the actual ground once. The roads seem to float in the air... buildings pop out of everywhere. It felt like outer space.
At the hotel everyone was very helpful and accommodating. I went up to the room, thanks to the lovely girl in the elevator, and met my very theatre-girl roommate, Danielle. She is super excited to be here too. I haven't felt nervous once. Then I had the best shower of my whole life. In the bathroom I was thinking, "this bathroom isn't very tall". I can touch the roof with my hands easily and in the shower, i can almost reach to my elbows! Nobody over 5'9" would fit in the shower! It's awesome! Hooray Tokyo!
