Arrival

Okay so this is a day late but I was way too tired last night. I came into Tokyo at Narita Airport at about 4:00pm yesterday afternoon. (unless i say otherwise all times are based on the time here.) Customs wasn't anywhere near as complicated as I thought it was going to be. I just went right through. After that I was a little lost when I was trying to find the bus I needed to take, but the people at the coutner were really helpful. Then I lugged all my luggage to go wait for half an hour for my bus to come. (In case anyone was wondering, while I intended to pack everything in one bag, anyone who knows me knows that was wistful thinking. So everything was stuffed into two heavy bags.) The bus finally got there and it was an hour and a half ride into Tokyo. The ride wasn't too bad. Not a whole lot to see, some houses and trees and stuff. I didn't really pass through the "bright lights" of Tokyo, as I was going in another direction. So I finally got to the Miyako Hotel where I picked up a taxi. Thank goodness I had actually thought ahead (for once). See, Temple in all their geniusness wrote down the address in english, but not in Japanese at all. So on the plane I had rewritten it in japanese on a piece of paper. So when I got into the taxi i just gave him the paper and he used this little navigator system that was in the car. That was another 20 min uneventful drive. In japan everyone drives on the left side of the road and the driver's seat is on the right, so that took a little getting used to. And the taxi doors swing open automatically. So the taxi dropped me off in front of my apartment, but I didn't know which building it was. So I looked around for like 5 or 10 minutes, only to realize I was standing right in front of it. So I lugged my stuff up to what I had assumed was the front office. After knocking and ringing the doorbell and getting no answer, I walked in to find no one there. Luckily as I came back out the door another student was leaving a room. He told me that Kota (the guy in charge of the apartments) wasn't here so i could wait in the common room. He then called him and told me he'd come get me if kota called him back. So I waited in the common room and met another student who is from Philadelphia and doesn't speak any Japanese. While we sat around and attempted to find something on tv, another student walked in. She's from China and also doesn't speak Japanese, but her English is pretty good. Eventually Kota ended up calling and the guy came in to tell me my room number and give me the phone. Apparently Kota had left the room open and my key was inside the apartment. He also told me that my roommate (who's Japanese) had already moved in, but she's in Kyoto right now. I went in and the apartment is small, but not as small as it could be. (I'll post pictures later, as soon as I find a way to connect my camera). So I only partially unpacked because my roommate already has her stuff organized, but we're going to have to rearrange. I then went back downstairs to find out where I could eat. So the guy I had talked with earlier, Travis, showed me a place to eat that's down the street. It's called "Denny's" but I'm not sure it's affiliated with the one in the U.S. So after looking through the menu and trying to find something I thought I could actually eat, I ordered a bowl of udon noodles and tempura shrimp. So I discovered last night that I really don't like udon. Udon are thick noodles, very thick noodles. And since in Japan you're not supposed to bite a noodle but slurp it, that's a lot of noodle to have to put into your mouth and try to chew. It was not fun. I'm sure the Japanese patrons had a lot of fun watching me though. Between trying to pick up the noodles with my chopsticks and ceramic spoon and taking 20 minutes to chew each noodle, I'm sure I was a great source of entertainment. After I came back I immediately went to bed (at about 11:30). I woke up at around 6:30 this morning and tried to better organize all my things. Then I went to take a shower. Now that was an experience. Once I get the pictures up I'm sure you'll understand. I think I used it wrong but it got me clean. I hope my roommate is a patient person because once she gets here she's going to have to explain the entire apartment to me. That pretty much sums up my arrival to Japan, so now I'm going to go try to get back up to my room while there's a break in this rain!

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