Arrived in Japan!

It is currently 9:49p.m. on March 31st and I'm sitting in my nice and cozy hotel room, eager to get to bed after a very very long day. But I do want to make sure I keep this blog up to date and don't get behind (which there is always potential for at the beginning). So how did I manage to finally make it to Kyoto?

At a very dark 4:45 am, I awoke to the vibrating of my phone's alarm (I don't do sound alarms; vibrating alarms jolt me awake, though in this case, I hadn't really slept much do to the nerves from the coming day). After putting together the rest of my stuff, my mother urged me into the car and we headed for the Burbank airport. Getting through security and waiting at the gate was pretty uneventful and getting on the flight was uneventful. Following 45 minutes of reading my required book (I managed to flash through 4 chapters, around 75 pages during the flight), we landed in SFO and I was forced to figure out where to go from the domestic UNITED terminal to the international UNITED terminal. Granted, I've been to SFO plenty of times (due to my job with EPGY and shuttling kids back and forth) so I knew where the international terminal was...kind of. But I eventually followed the signs, found my gate on one of the UNITED departure TV screens and made my way across what seemed like half of the airport to the gate, and found a group of Stanford students already sitting and waiting. :)

The twelve hour flight itself was also pretty normal; there was very little turbulence, no babies were constantly screaming, lines to the bathroom weren't unbearable, the airline food was actually appetizing, and the hours seemed to roll by. On the plus side as well, Nancy sat next to me, so we chatted throughout the flight. Unfortunately, I did not finish my required reading...I did get through 75% of it though (if you count the parts I skimmed...). And I read the entire Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Voneggut, which was really interesting (in terms of story structure and plot). But I didn't get to any Japanese (whoops) and I didn't really sleep (I don't really think closing my eyes and listening to my ipod counts as napping). So basically I've been up for more than 24 hours (considering the 16 hour time difference -- 16 hours, ISN'T THAT CRAZY?)

The flight landed, we made it through customs suprisingly fast (though not really considering how efficient the Japanese are and how inefficient America is...), found our bags (though I had a freak out moment I though that my bags had been left in SFO -- turns out Nancy and I have the SAME luggage; coincidence?), and met up with the taxi service that would be taking us to the hotel (NOTE: this entire time I was trying to get wireless in the airport with my ipod touch and apparently not even the tech savvy Japanese have wifi in the airport...LAME). Our taxi driver was very kind and managed to squeeze all our luggage (8 or 9 suitcases between 5 students) in our taxi and off we went!

(Me and Nancy in the Taxi)

We did stop on the way to the hotel to stretch our legs since it was a 1.5-2 hour drive. And the place we stopped out, while it was a popular spot for Asian tourists of Japan (IT'S TRUE!!), we saw...CHERRY BLOSSOMS! So I can cross that off my list now.

Anyway, we made it to the hotel, checked in, and then I found out that between my room and Nancy's room, my friend Austen had her room! And then we found Ben (or rather ran into Ben in the lobby) and we decided to go get dinner together. We ate at this place called Mr. YoungMen (see below) and I had delicious ramen. :)

After that we just walked around for a bit and then headed back to the hotel...but stopped at a SIX STORY ARCADE. I mean...SIX STORIES. This was so crazy! We ventured up to the second floor and played 4 person air hockey (teams of two in case you had trouble with the math...). HOWEVER, what they don't tell you is that at random points in time the game will spit out more than one puck on the hockey board! We must've looked like loons, trying to keep up with the four pucks that were out, laughing our heads off, claiming which team was the better team. It was none to say the least AMAZING and something to do again.

Anyway, I do need to head to bed. We have to be in the lobby tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. to start our orientation. I believe it involves a scavenger hunt of sorts tomorrow.

Oh Japan...I love it here and I've literally only been in the country for six hours. Can't wait for the rest of the quarter!

The Eve Before Departure

Tomorrow morning, at approximately 4:45 a.m. I will be waking up to get ready to leave. First I have a flight up to San Francisco International Airport, and from there I will get on my 12 hour flight to Japan, arriving there at 3:30 in the afternoon, though my biological clock will tell me it's 11:30 at night. Twelve hours...at least it will force me to read the book I have to read for the program (Yes...I have yet to do that and no I don't feel too bad procrastinating). I did spend a good deal of time in Border's yesterday looking up and buying books for my flights to and from Japan (it's only ten hours back! Oh joy!). Hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the flight though, otherwise I might end up falling asleep during orientation by the time we finally get to the hotel. I figure it will be an hour to get out of the airport, through customs, and then an hour and half in the taxi to the hotel since I'm landing in Osaka and have to get to Kyoto.

However, the part that I'm least worried about is getting there and orientation and hanging out with 30 other students I don't know. I'm still nervous about meeting my host family. Actually, today I got an email from my host father/grandfather, all in Japanese. After spending a few minutes translating, I figured out what was being said. :) Basically, he said that the family got the introduction I sent to them via the Center. He and his wife are currently living on their own but their two daughters and son (from what I could read, they are all married), live nearby. I figure this means that I'll probably meet them during the course of the quarter (which could be fun; hopefully I'll have some Japanese mastered by then). They don't have any pets, but they are excited to see me on April 3rd. So I'm a little less nervous and a little more excited now.

I also spent some time (well, actually a lot of time) yesterday reading up on all sorts of Japanese etiquette and customs, and reviewing various Japanese kanji characters. I think I'll spend some time on my flight going over basic grammar structures (I'm bringing on my old textbooks onto the flight with me) and preparing some stock sentences to memorize so if I have trouble because i'm so nervous at least I can just spit something out instead of looking like I'm completely struggling (which will be inevitable at some point in time). I also spoke a tiny bit with my mother's Japanese friend on the phone today in Japanese. While it was just basic conversation, it made me feel a bit better about going overseas and trying to communicate in a totally new language.

Here I am though. About to embark on a trip I've wanted to go on since freshman year. It's still hard to believe it's finally here. I'm sitting on the floor of my room, writing this right now as Princess and the Frog is playing, frequently looking at the clock to see what time it is, and how close I am to Japan. I remember the first time I heard about the Kyoto program Stanford had and knew that I really wanted to go. I remember the shock I got when I received an email in fall quarter saying I had gotten off the wait list and was now slated to go to Kyoto in the spring. It was I think the second week of the quarter and I was walking to Japanese I believe in the early morning, and I called my Mom to tell her the news. And just after the conversation, I started crying I was just so happy (and over emotional, haha). Kyoto was my favorite part of my Japan trip in my senior year of high school and I'm so excited to go back. I'm finally so excited to go, even if I'm still a bit nervous.

Well, the next time I write, I'll be far across the ocean, in the land of rice paddies, sushi, otakus, pop idols, shinto shrines, buddhist temples, and lots of tofu. I'll be in Japan. Wish me luck!

Time to fall down my rabbit hole!

Packing...Check!

After spending the week making sure that I had everything that I needed for packing, I realized this morning (or rather my Mom told me) that I still had to actually pack my two suitcases for my Tuesday departure. So I spent the majority of my day picking out my clothes, putting bottles into plastic bags so they wouldn't burst onto all my stuff in case of emergencies, looking over my packing checklist, occasionally finding things that weren't on the checklist to put in my suitcase, and ultimately arranging everything in an organized manner in my luggage. So now I'm basically done packing, and it's kind of a relief to think I won't be scurrying around Monday night making sure that I have this, that and the other thing. However, upon the advent of being packed, and the fact that my departure date is nearing, Japan is becoming an ever increasing reality. Seriously, WHERE DID MY SPRING BREAK GO? Just last week I was finishing up finals and packing up my dorm room, ready to come home to a relaxing week before I vacated the country for three months. And now in basically three days I will be moving myself once again, except far from the beautiful golden state to a wonderful island in the Atlantic. Now, my nerves have begun to spike.

I haven't done nearly the amount of studying of Japanese I wanted to do this past week. Actually, I have done none. That was most definitely not the plan (lol!). But oddly enough, last night (or maybe the night before...the days kind of run together...) I was watching an episode of Sailor Moon in bed and the subtitles on the disc were lagging (which concerned me but that's beside the point). But in the moment the subtitles were lagging, two characters were having a conversation...and without subtitles, I UNDERSTOOD IT ALL. To clarify, it was all in Japanese! I was so shocked that I proceeded to rewind the disc a bit and played it again, with the lagging subtitles and I heard and understood the conversation perfectly. It was definitely the 'win' moment of the day. So...maybe it isn't all a lost cause. Perhaps I do have some confidence in my Japanese language abilities! Well...we shall see, we shall see.

One Week 'Till Japan

Considering that I made this blog a month ago and have yet to post on it does not bode well for the future. HAHA. Anyway, I am currently sitting on my bedroom floor, with tons of Japanese travel guides and other information about Japan strewn around me as I try to figure out where Nancy and I will travel during Golden Week. There's SO MUCH to see and so little time to do it all in! However, just reading and reading about all the cool places to go makes me super excited. I just hope that we can work the transportation out so that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Currently, the plan is to visit either or both Kyushu and Shikoku, two of the southern islands from the main island of Japan. While I know a group of Stanford students is going to Tokyo, and while I really want to go to Tokyo, I have been and maybe I can make my way there during the quarter some time for a weekend or such. MUST GO ON ADVENTURES. That's my mantra for this trip. TRY NEW THINGS. Meaning...eat everything unless it looks absolutely unappetizing and could be dangerous to my health.

A week from today I will be...I think almost to Japan by now. I may be one or two hours out (I'm still unsure of the time difference). It's so weird to think that I will be in another country a week from now, when literally last week I was thinking to myself, "Two weeks from now..." Time has passed so so fast this year, especially in comparison to last year. But I guess that means I just have to make the most of it. In reality, I'll only be there for 2.5 months. I'm already thinking about how short a timespan that is and how sad I will be to come back (and I haven't even left yet!). Funny thing as well, as I get closer to the departure date, my stress level seems to go down. You would think that the two are inversely related, or at least Negatively correlated: the fewer days left till I leave the country, the more stress I should have. Rather...it seems to be the opposite. Nancy this morning/afternoon made our shuttle reservations from the airport to the hotel and I got so excited that I forwarded the email to my mother. All it was was a confirmation for our shuttle; I realized how much of a complete dork I was after sending it (story of my life, lol).

Anyway, now I'm rambling. I'm going to AAA tomorrow to discuss transportation options etc. Hopefully we'll find something cheap cheap so that we can splurge more on sightseeing, shopping, and of course FOOD.