The last few days have been a blur. I feel like I’m sitting on a merry-go-round while someone pushes me as fast as they can. So many things have happened and I can hardly believe that a few days ago I was halfway across the world. I should probably just start at the beginning.Â
On Tuesday morning I got up, dressed, and hauled all of my belongings that I was taking to the car. Mom and I stopped at Starbucks and headed to the airport. When we got there we had to wait forever and a day (at least) for someone to let me check in with my bags and everything. Apparently the airline I was flying shuts down for an hour and a half in the morning. If I’d known that I would have slept in longer! Anyways, I was so nervous about how much my bags were going to weigh and then the guy didn’t even weigh them! He asked me if I knew how much they weighed and I told what they should weigh and he said okay and sent them all through! So much for freaking out over how much my bags weigh. After that I had to do something I didn’t want to do, I had to tell my mom bye. I miss her.Â
Not having a phone on the plane journey was difficult. I couldn’t play candy crush. I know, first world problems. I couldn’t call or text people to tell them that I was safe and okay. I felt like I was missing something. Which in all honesty is sad. I shouldn’t be so attached to a device, but that is the world that we live in today. I was however very grateful that I had my Kindle and that there was Wifi in the DFW airport. This way I could let people know that I had made it to Dallas safely and would soon be boarding my plane for Japan. I still remember exactly what it felt like when I walked onto the plane. It was the “no turning back now” moment.Â
I made notes on the plane so I would remember what to write about and hopefully I haven’t forgotten anything important.Â
First of all, the plane ride didn’t feel like it was 13 almost 14 hours (I’ll explain why later) long. Maybe it’s because I spent so much time reading. I probably would have finished my book if my Kindle hadn’t died or if I could have charged it. Anyways, the seat to my right was empty which surprised me but I was glad to have the extra room. I mainly used half of it to put my extra stuff in while the guy on the other side of the empty seat used it to lay down. I might have used it to lay down if I’d slept more than an hour the whole plane ride. I don’t do well sleeping on planes. Planes make my butt hurt sitting that long. I think that’s more miserable than anything else. Everything on the plane was in two languages and that was awesome. So about halfway through the flight I needed a reading break and I wanted to watch some of the movies and Tv shows on the plane. I hadn’t taken the free pair they’d offered me at the beginning of the trip because I knew I’d packed mine. Then, of course, I couldn’t find them. So the first half I had some of the shows and movies play while I read even though I couldn’t listen to them. I did decide that I wanted to be able to listen to them when I was eating. So I finally asked for some. They were great and I got to watch two episodes of The Big Bang Theory with sound! After that break I decided I would go back to reading until my Kindle died and then I could watch Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 and Despicable Me 2 and by then the plane should be landing. This was a great plan until I broke the headphones. I really have no idea what happened but I’m sure, knowing me, that I did something ridiculous and didn’t even know it! I did go ahead and watch the movies after my Kindle died, I just didn’t get to hear them. It was kind of depressing. So I had a few more interesting things happen while I was on the plane. One thing I found comical was the coke I ordered. While examining the can I realized that it was not in english nor was it in Japanese. No, instead it was in Portuguese. Maybe American Airlines got confused when they ordered more Coca-Cola for the U.S. to Japan flight. I don’t know. One thing I found on the plane that I thought was super cool was the flight path option on my TV screen. This option allowed you to see exactly where you were flying and then told you how far you had left, in distance and time, what the weather was like at Narita, and the times. The times part was my favorite! It would tell me the local time in Tokyo, the local time at DFW and the local time at where the plane was at that moment! So what I discovered on the plane was that I went back in time 6 hours and then we hopped over the International Date Line and I was suddenly 20 hours into the future. I then went back in time again, I know this is all very confusing, and now I am currently 15 hours ahead of what I like to call “real time”. That being said, I am now referring to Japan as “the future”. That’s what it feels like to me, in some ways. Now going back to the flight plan. We literally flew up and over Alaska before coming back down to Narita. Don’t ask me why but that’s how it worked.Â
When I finally touched down in Narita I headed to immigration, got my bags, went through customs, and then met up with some of my staff. From there we loaded our luggage into a truck and hopped on a bus headed towards Sendai. On the way we stopped and had dinner. That’s when I learned that apparently doors here don’t just open like they do in American. Even when you stand there moving so the motion sensor can “detect” you it still doesn’t open and that’s because it has a button on it that says “Push”. So yeah, that’s how I came into Japan. Dinner the first night was great, I had noodles, and then we got Starbucks and got back on the bus. It was great getting to meet and talk to everyone but obviously we were all tired. I slept maybe another 2 hours on the bus and finally we arrived in Sendai!Â
When we arrived in was about 1 or 130am. I honestly don’t really remember. I had some awesome people greet me and help show me around my new apartment. It was wonderful and I love where I am right now. Since I’ve written so much though I’ll wait and tell you about my apartment and everything that has happened in the past few days later. There’s so much going on everywhere and I love taking it all in.Â
Sakura Sentiments 