After two days In Japan, I finally have a chance to give an update. I’ve been through a lot, so I’ll just start from the beginning.

I woke up at around 7 am on the Jan 3, the morning of my flight. My family took me to the airport, and we said our goodbyes. Got through security in about 15 minutes. It wasn’t nearly as busy as as I’d thought. Got to my gate, had breakfast at McDonalds, and got on the plane about an hour later. Nothing exciting…

Flew on ANA. The flight was okay. Excruciatingly long, but okay. My seat was all the way in the back of the plane, middle seat, so it was kind of cramped. I couldn’t recline much, and there was no room in the overhead compartments, so i kept my bags under the seat in front of me. Therefore, no leg room.

Service was good though. The flight attendants were nice and always smiling. There were two meals, one towards the beginning of the flight, and one towards the end, and drinks were served at all times. At one point, I started to notice something odd. All the flight attendants looked exactly the same. Same face, same figure, same hairstyle. At first I thought there we’re twins, but then there was another, and another, and so on. Creepy.

Entertainment was cool. They had plenty of movies available on demand viewable on your own screen. They had movies that had not been released on video yet, such as Surrogates, Public Enemies, and Astro Boy. I watched none of these. I ended up watching Edward Scissorhands and Moulin Rouge (which I must say is kind of an overwhelming experience.)

Other than that, I tried to sleep, but it didn’t go well. I spent most of my time listening to music and watching the live flight tracker slowly inch towards Japan. Interestingly enough, the plane actually flew north through Canada and over Alaska. I’m sure there’s some reason for that.

About an hour before the end of the flight, the pilot announced that we were making the final approach to Japan. Moments later, we flew through the clouds and land was now visible through the windows. When I saw the land, I had a moment of like, “Holy shit, I’m actually here!”

-At this point I stopped typing and went to bed, and two days later, I am now getting around to finishing it-

Where was I?
I Landed, made my way through immigration, had my picture and fingerprints taken, picked up my luggage, bought a train ticket and went off to the train platform under the airport.

-I need to just post more often so there’s less to type at a time…For now I’ll just condense it-

Took the train from the airport to Tokyo station, got lost, got unlost, got on the Yamanote line to Meguro station, took a bus to the meeting point at a hotel, and took a cab to the dorm, all while carrying two shoulder bags and 45 pounds of luggage.

So that’s my arrival. Everything between then and now has been nothing but going back and forth between the dorm and school. But, I have some free time coming up!

It’s 3:23 AM here in Chicago, and I have not been able to sleep. Can you guess why? The title of this post, as well as the content from my last two posts should give you a serious clue. Furthermore, if you’re reading this (pretty big “if” there at this point), then there’s a rather large chance that you actually know me, know what kind of person I am, know what my interests are, and know what I’m doing in 6 days.

Either way, at this point, I’m trying to cope with insomnia by posting an update. Yes, I am for sure going to Japan. Yes, I will for sure be living in Tokyo. And yes this will happen 6 days from now. I haven’t actually prepared much. I still need to get my stuff together, pack my bags, print up a few maps, and learn enough Japanese to ensure I make it home the first day. None of this should take particularly long, but then again, I’m a chronic procrastinator (not a good thing at all!)

Only thing I have really done is go over all the TSA airport regulations and stuff. Kinda scary to think about the recent “crotch bomb” incident that could have ruined me. Due to the incident, new rules have been made forbidding the use of any electronic devices of any kind, including in-flight entertainment services, as well as making the last hour of the flight a “Sterile Period” during which there should be no one out of their seats and all laps must be visible (so no blankets!)

I’m not going to go into how the TSA are becoming more Nazi-like with their meaningless rules that won’t change a thing other than making flying more uncomfortable than before (I guess I just have, didn’t I?), only because those rules only apply to international flight going into the US. Not outbound flights. Kinda narrowly dodged a bullet there, didn’t I? But seriously, I would not be able to survive a 13 hour flight without any music, movies, or games. Sure, I could read a book, but I’m a really fast reader, and would need a large pile of books, which, of course, would get pretty bulky. But thank goodness that’s not the case….well not for me, at least….

While I may not have to without entertainment, those coming in the other way will. Those poor souls will have to spend 13 hours trapped on a plane with nothing to do. Can you imagine? 13 hours? On a plane? No music, no movies, no distraction whatsoever. 13 hours of listening to the loud hum of jet engines. Perhaps people are wearing watches. Perhaps they’re getting louder. Perhaps they’re somehow in sync. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick…..Tock………I think I’ve made my point.

Anyway, I think I’m starting to ramble. Excellent. I never would have thought I would be able to write so much in a short amount of time. And, wow! It actually did pass the time. It’s now 4:00 AM. I’ve killed 37………38 minutes getting to this point……Cool….

Expect more updates soon….

So, today, after deciding I couldn’t wait any longer without risking increasing prices, I bought my ticket to Japan today. I should probably mention that I’m attending Temple University in Japan next semester. So, yeah, provided my visa application is approved (there’s a really, really low chance that it doesn’t) I’ll be moving to Japan this January! That’s about when this blog will start getting interesting, and that’s really what this blog is intended for. Anyone, who want’s to check up on me can do so by checking this blog. This way, I don’t have to personally keep in e-mail everyone (not that I don’t want to, but I probably won’t have the time…)