カルピス:体にピス (Calpis: peace for your body)
So that's why it's called "Calpis". You learn something new every day. (Sorry, the TV here keeps showing that same advertisement over and over.)
Well! So far the “drink a bunch of tea and don’t sleep on the plane!” method of beating jet lag seems to be working nicely. It feels much more like 4 PM than it does 3 AM. I am here, in Tokyo, at my gate to leave for Nagoya. I have about two hours here, so it’s all smooth sailing from now on. Miraculously, not only I, but also my luggage(!!) arrived safely on the Chicago-->Tokyo flight. The luggage is checked on to Nagoya, so I’ll be able to pick it up and then ship it to my host family as planned.
Going through customs wasn’t worth the freak-out. They didn’t even ask to see any of the things I thought they might need to see, and even though the girl spoke to me only in Japanese I did it! That’s right! My rudimentary Japanese is enough to navigate customs and airport security! やった〜！(I did it!)
Now I have to decide whether to splurge for internet to upload this, or just wait... days... I think I might splurge. It’s like $6 an hour and I’ll only use an hour or less, just to upload this and... check twitter.
I only have an hour of battery left anyway and I don’t see any American style outlets right now and my adapter’s in my checked bag.
There are a few other IES students here with me. Well, one for sure IES student, and 3 other college-aged looking girls. (The guys from the plane I was wondering about are not here.) No one seems very talkative, though. Fair enough, they’re probably tired. I AM CAFFEINE BUZZED. Whatever, we’ll all meet each other properly soon anyway.
I just want to throw my arms up in the air, Hiro-from-Heroes style and shout やった〜！
This beats the heck out of the bout of anxiety I started having halfway through the flight.
Still need to:
-Actually get yen, which means no vending machines for me right now. :( Oh well, there will be plenty of time for Japanese vending machines. I still have food left over from the flight anyway. And pretzels from Mom. Love you Mom! And chocolate from Torffy! Love you too Torffy!
-Figure out how the heck my cell phone works. I managed to call home, but I don’t know how to turn the annoying sounds off or anything.
Okay another one of the girls is also for sure on IES. She's studying our kanji. ...How good of her.
I... don't know if I brought that sheet. Whoops.
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
アメリカ、さようなら！ (Goodbye, America!)
Monday, August 29, 2011
7:00 PM (USA Central Time)
Well, I’m here, I’m on my plane. I’ve been on it for about... six hours now. We’re somewhere over Alaska right now. I didn’t realize Alaska was so far away. I figure, it’s, what, a four or five hour flight to California from here? Alaska’s just right there, right? I didn’t really account for the “north”, just the “west” part. You don’t really think about things like Alaska when you live in the midwest. I guess it really has good reason for always being drawn on maps in that little box set off to the side.
Also, we’re going 525 mph right now and it’s -65 degrees Fahrenheit outside according to the console thing in front of me. The earth. It’s crazy.
You can tell I’ve been reading Blue Like Jazz and watching Midnight in Paris, can’t you?
I’ve also already lost one knitting needle. I dropped it down between my seat and the wall and it fell into this stupid perfectly knitting needle sized groove in the floor and I can contort enough to reach it and push it around but not to pry it out. Ugh. Good thing you can knit in the round with 4 as well as 5 DPNs.
But let’s start at the beginning.
It’s been an... adventurous day. I almost didn’t make it here.
I woke up this morning at 5:50 AM, got up, got ready to go, loaded a bunch of country music onto my ipod (I gotta carry my Americana with me to these yonder foreign parts okay), and my parents drove me to the airport. Ran into traffic, but that was fine, we were still 2 hours ahead of time.
I checked my bag, went through security, sat down at my gate, boarded, that all went smoothly.
We’re getting ready to take off when we get the message that the plane has two flat tires and we’ll be waiting for about an hour.
Well, because I’m an idiot I’d only booked an hour layover for myself in Chicago before getting on my flight to Tokyo.
Insert panic.
After frantic phone calls to my airline I was told they had the plane marked as leaving only a half hour late, and if that was the case I would be totally fine to make my connection. My gate for my connecting flight would be right next to the gate we arrived in, so the best thing I could do was see if any seats had opened up toward the front of the plane, try to sit closer to the door, and be ready to run for it once we got to our gate.
We landed in Chicago literally 10 minutes before my plane was scheduled to leave.
I turn on my phone to alert my parents and they’d called my airline and been told that it was highly unlikely I’d make my connection, no, no one would hold the plane for me (or any of the other people connecting to Tokyo on my flight) and I should expect to stay in Chicago over night, which they would pay for. Screw that! I sped off my plane ushered along by the flight attendants telling those of us connecting to Tokyo to just go straight to our gate. Which was numbered consecutively from the gate we boarded from but was around a confusing freaking corner. I got there, panting, collapsed into my seat, and I’m here.
I probably have no luggage, and I’m not sure how I’m going to work that out, but I do have four days worth of clothes and toiletries because I was required to pack them in my carry-on for orientation anyway.
I’ll just ask IES what to do when I get to Tokyo if I find I have no luggage. If it’s a day behind me (only one flight going out of Chicago to Tokyo each day) I’m assuming it would continue on to Nagoya tomorrow, too? But we’ll have left Nagoya for our 4 day orientation by then... It’d be lovely if they could just deliver it to my host family. But I don’t have near enough experience with flying to know how that whole process works.
I’m also still strangely nervous about customs. I was trying to nap and I kept thinking about how I haven’t filled out the customs declaration form yet. But I don’t want to do it until later because they’ll go over the intercom and tell us more about it when we get closer to Tokyo, so I don’t want to do anything wrong by accident.
I’m jealous of the woman sitting next to me. She’s actually been able to sleep, probably because her legs are a lot shorter than mine.
There are two youngish (could be my age, could be a bit older) guys across the aisle from me. I can’t help but wonder if they’re going on my program, too. They seem to know each other. Well, I’ll see if they’re on my flight to Nagoya, too.
So far I’ve read a bit, watched two movies, and done some knitting. That’s probably what I’ll keep doing, too, since I’m in the window seat and it’s awkward to keep climbing over my seat mate, since she’s trying to sleep. I could sleep again, maybe, but my half hour nap refreshed me a bit.
6:30 hours left, then about 2 hours in Narita Airport, then about an hour til Nagoya.
9 more hours. 7:35 PM Japan Time is when I’m scheduled to finally arrive.
That puts it at like 6:35 AM US time. 24 hours of being awake whee!
Plus time to actually get around in the airport, get yen, figure out my luggage situation, meet my IES person, and then get to our hotel.
I know I should try to sleep on the plane but I just don’t think I can.
7:00 PM (USA Central Time)
Well, I’m here, I’m on my plane. I’ve been on it for about... six hours now. We’re somewhere over Alaska right now. I didn’t realize Alaska was so far away. I figure, it’s, what, a four or five hour flight to California from here? Alaska’s just right there, right? I didn’t really account for the “north”, just the “west” part. You don’t really think about things like Alaska when you live in the midwest. I guess it really has good reason for always being drawn on maps in that little box set off to the side.
Also, we’re going 525 mph right now and it’s -65 degrees Fahrenheit outside according to the console thing in front of me. The earth. It’s crazy.
You can tell I’ve been reading Blue Like Jazz and watching Midnight in Paris, can’t you?
I’ve also already lost one knitting needle. I dropped it down between my seat and the wall and it fell into this stupid perfectly knitting needle sized groove in the floor and I can contort enough to reach it and push it around but not to pry it out. Ugh. Good thing you can knit in the round with 4 as well as 5 DPNs.
But let’s start at the beginning.
It’s been an... adventurous day. I almost didn’t make it here.
I woke up this morning at 5:50 AM, got up, got ready to go, loaded a bunch of country music onto my ipod (I gotta carry my Americana with me to these yonder foreign parts okay), and my parents drove me to the airport. Ran into traffic, but that was fine, we were still 2 hours ahead of time.
I checked my bag, went through security, sat down at my gate, boarded, that all went smoothly.
We’re getting ready to take off when we get the message that the plane has two flat tires and we’ll be waiting for about an hour.
Well, because I’m an idiot I’d only booked an hour layover for myself in Chicago before getting on my flight to Tokyo.
Insert panic.
After frantic phone calls to my airline I was told they had the plane marked as leaving only a half hour late, and if that was the case I would be totally fine to make my connection. My gate for my connecting flight would be right next to the gate we arrived in, so the best thing I could do was see if any seats had opened up toward the front of the plane, try to sit closer to the door, and be ready to run for it once we got to our gate.
We landed in Chicago literally 10 minutes before my plane was scheduled to leave.
I turn on my phone to alert my parents and they’d called my airline and been told that it was highly unlikely I’d make my connection, no, no one would hold the plane for me (or any of the other people connecting to Tokyo on my flight) and I should expect to stay in Chicago over night, which they would pay for. Screw that! I sped off my plane ushered along by the flight attendants telling those of us connecting to Tokyo to just go straight to our gate. Which was numbered consecutively from the gate we boarded from but was around a confusing freaking corner. I got there, panting, collapsed into my seat, and I’m here.
I probably have no luggage, and I’m not sure how I’m going to work that out, but I do have four days worth of clothes and toiletries because I was required to pack them in my carry-on for orientation anyway.
I’ll just ask IES what to do when I get to Tokyo if I find I have no luggage. If it’s a day behind me (only one flight going out of Chicago to Tokyo each day) I’m assuming it would continue on to Nagoya tomorrow, too? But we’ll have left Nagoya for our 4 day orientation by then... It’d be lovely if they could just deliver it to my host family. But I don’t have near enough experience with flying to know how that whole process works.
I’m also still strangely nervous about customs. I was trying to nap and I kept thinking about how I haven’t filled out the customs declaration form yet. But I don’t want to do it until later because they’ll go over the intercom and tell us more about it when we get closer to Tokyo, so I don’t want to do anything wrong by accident.
I’m jealous of the woman sitting next to me. She’s actually been able to sleep, probably because her legs are a lot shorter than mine.
There are two youngish (could be my age, could be a bit older) guys across the aisle from me. I can’t help but wonder if they’re going on my program, too. They seem to know each other. Well, I’ll see if they’re on my flight to Nagoya, too.
So far I’ve read a bit, watched two movies, and done some knitting. That’s probably what I’ll keep doing, too, since I’m in the window seat and it’s awkward to keep climbing over my seat mate, since she’s trying to sleep. I could sleep again, maybe, but my half hour nap refreshed me a bit.
6:30 hours left, then about 2 hours in Narita Airport, then about an hour til Nagoya.
9 more hours. 7:35 PM Japan Time is when I’m scheduled to finally arrive.
That puts it at like 6:35 AM US time. 24 hours of being awake whee!
Plus time to actually get around in the airport, get yen, figure out my luggage situation, meet my IES person, and then get to our hotel.
I know I should try to sleep on the plane but I just don’t think I can.
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