Flight and Day 1

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So its about 4AM here but I couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to update. First off, the trip over went well despite being rediculously long. I navigated the airports okay and if you ever get a chance to fly Korean air I would definately recommend it. Their economy class service was more like the first class on British Air.

The plane was not very full so I had three seats to myself and spent most of the flight watching movies and litening to music on their in flight entertainment system. They had B.O.B's new album on there which made me very happy and reminded me of Jesse.

It sounds over-dramatic but being away from him is turning out to be really really hard. I had an interesting moment with that at the airport. I've always found airports to be pretty emotional places - leaving one thing behind for something else - and I guess I'm not the only one. Jesse had droppd me off for my flight around 5AM and I found my terminal pretty quickly. So, I'm sitting there trying to blink back tears and wondering how I was going to manage over a week of this when I raise my head and look accross the aisle. In the seat opposite me there is an old man crying freely and he notices me looking at him. He looks back for a minute and then pulls out a guitar and begins to play right in the airport. I don't know what it was he played but I thanked him when I left. That little moment of unspoken connection made me feel a little less invisible. He didn't know the reason for my tears and I didn't know the reason for his, but in the moment, it didn't matter. The music expressed it perfectly.

Finally, I arrived at Tokyo Narita airport after virtually no sleep the whole trip or the night prior and began the task of navigating Tokyo. I found the train station alright and got my rail pass activated. I had to ask for help with figuring out the subway and finding the hostel but two hours later I finally made it. Ihave to say this is the friendliest place I have traveled. I had heard things about japanese treating foreigners as outcasts but from my experience so far everyone here is eager to help any way they can and even if they don't speak english, they do their best.


The hostel gave me a free coupon for sake at a nearby bar so I left to try and find it. I was hopelessly lost pretty quickly but luckily this is Tokyo ad not Seattle. Being a girl wandering at night and by myself, I never one lt threatened. I stopped by a mini-mart and picked up a beer just to test out what its like to be f legal drinking age. They didnt even check my ID which I'm finding to be a trend here. Finally after an hour or so, I managed to wander into the bar. It was a cool little place where everyone spoke english and most of the people were fellow travelers. I met a guy from belgium, two american marines stationed in Korea, a girl who teaches in Korea, a couple from Brazil, and the Japanese bartenders all in the hour I stopped by. I also got thouroghly drunk as apparently it was "sexy night" and apparently yoga pants qualify so I kept getting free drinks. I somehow navigated back to th hostel and passed out pretty quickly. Overall, its a nice experience to meet people from other places and realize the commonalities and yet the differences too. In that regard, the hostel experience is exactly what I had hoped.

Today, I'm off to see the fish market and explore some more of Tokyo. I'll update again soon, hopefully with some photos next time! Hope all is well back home.
-Terri

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