Hirakata Bound

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Alas! Finally my search for a ticket to Japan is compleate! I must say, of all the times I have traveled outside the U.S. this has by far been the hardest one to find a ticket for. I think maby it was more because I had a certain time that I had to be there by and a period of days set if I didnt want to try and find my way to the college after ariving there for the first time. Kansai Gaidai sends a Limo Bus to pick you up but they will only do pick ups at certain times on certain days. The day that I wanted to arrive on would be Aug. 29th. So where I would be flying into would be the Kansai Airport and the Limo bus will pick up all arrivals before 6 that night. I figured this wouldnt be a problem seeing as how im still three months out before I have to leave. But it seems I was mistaken. I really think that the Airport sets their schedual up KNOWING that there will be hoards of International students coming in on that certain day and just decide to have a little fun out of their day. Every single ticket that was anywhere near the price I was willing to pay arrived at 6:05! Five minutes after the set time that the bus would leave. I couldnt believe it. 5 freaking mins! You wouldnt believe the differance that makes in a price! I did find one that arrived at 3:30 but the price was in the 8,000 range wich is more than I am paying to actually live there so that was out lol. After going to a travel agency and asking if they could find anything for me (they couldnt) and then going home and searching for hours, I finally found one that would arrive at 5:30, with only a minor differance in price. However that was still cutting it a little too close for me and though I was extreamly excited at the prospect of a two hour layover in Tokyo, my excitement was soon lost on the fact that in order to take the next plane I would have to travel to another airport in Tokyo that would take around an hour and a half depending on the day and only left at certain times. If I missed that bus or something was delayed I would kind of be screwed. So I decided to keep looking and figured if worse came to worse, I could either sleep over in the airport and wait for the bus to come or just take the ticket that arrived at 5:30 and take my chances. Eventually though I found one last ticket that actually was just about perfect! No switching Airports and it arrived at 4:30! I was so excited! Like I said though the time differance makes the price differance. I wanted to pay only a little over a thousand if I could get by with it and in fact all the ones that arrived at 6:05 were indeed the perfect price that I had in mind. The ticket that arrived at 4:30 would set me back around 1,893 almost double what I wanted to pay. Im a poor college student after all, money just doesnt seem to like me much. I knew however that if I didnt get one soon then I would be without any options as there were only a few tickets left for seating. So I decided that considering all the options I had (or lack there of) that I should just pay the extra and go for the 4:30. So! Thats my horribly exciting story of searching for a ticket. Wich also I might add, another con to getting that particular ticket was that there were no refunds should anything come up and they would only give paper tickets through UPS taht you had to pay for shipment. They just arrived the other day and this means that I had better not loose them cause I cant get another set and I cant do it electronically when I get to the airport. Also means that after I arrive there I will have to keep those tickets in a safe place for the semester that I am there. Im not really that good at keeping track of things and something as important as that, Im going to have to keep track of for at least 7 months! But what is done is done and now Im just waiting for the time to get here to at least use half of the tickets. I cant wait to go to Japan! This is something I have been wanting to do for quite sometime now. Someone asked me the other day why I could possibly want to go to such a random place as Japan, where I would no doubt stick out like a sore thumb (other than my height, I cant wait to be the same height as everyone else!) and I told them that I figured that if I was going to move out of my parents house for the first time, I might as well make the most of it and go ahead and move to the other side of the world. But really, all jokes aside, this is something that I have wanted to do for a really long time. I am obsessed with Japan, from the culture to the people. Never before had I actually considered living in japan for any amount of time. Really I would have been content just to visit the country. But now that I have discovered the path of studying abroad, and have been accepted, this is like a dream come true for me. The thought of living in Japan, I cant even describe how appealing that sounds to me. This will definately be the time of my life. I really believe that this semester will be the deciding factor in my life to many many things. If I had the money I would be staying for a year but as that is just not going to happen I will be content with the time I am given. Only three more months to go! hmm had the time for scholarships not been over I might have recycled some of thise into one of them. darn <_<

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