Japan Day One

I am happy to report that the first day in Japan was not as bad as I had imagined. I pictured myself lost in the vast valleys of squinted eyes and yellow skin, with signs shouting at me in a language I have yet mastered. But in all honesty, not so much so.

The plane ride was more unbearable. But I will get to that in a second.

The morning of departure my mother was telling me to be safe and not do anything she wouldn't do. Not to trust anyone and so on and so on. In other words, the language of look out for yourself because she will no longer be able to. And it is understandable, she is a mother she has feelings and she wants nothing but her child's safety. I gave her my promise that I would act accordingly, and not do anything she wouldn't do. But therein lies a dilemma. I am not her, and she is not me. I am my mother's daughter, but I am not a mother. Do you see the flaw in that careless statement? I mean, I have been doing things that she wouldn't do, and garnered knowledge from those mistakes. I guess it just takes a life to know a life and hope for the best in things.

All the way down the long corridor I was still crying. I even the dramatic turn my back to look to see if my mother was still looking at me departing from her arms and I would rush back to her and stuff like in the movies. She wasn't so I continued.

I passed TSA without a hitch and boarded the plane for San Fran. Got there in less than an hour. Unpredictable only towards the end of the plane ride when there was an object in our way and stuff. So that was fun waiting in the plane for like an hour. Give or take.

My last meal from America was breakfast a lá Burger King style, with some tasty fries and a disgusting tea. Raspberry iced tea my ass.

The second plane ride was a total of almost 11 hours. That was the longest plane ride of my life. Granted I have only been on 2 plane rides before but hey shut up.

The good thing is that we had tv shows, and movies, and other cool stuff. You could even play games if we wanted to. I didn't want to.

I crashed in 21 Jump Street (again) Brave (not really as good as I would have thought), The Italian Job (again), Stand by Me (a movie that I was wanting to watch for a while) and TV shows Family Guy, New Girl, and HIMYM. From the haziness that is my memory I think that was it. If there is more I will try to include it as I continue with the entry.

I met my fellow NET Mark on the plane ride over, but he was further behind me so we didn't have a chance to talk. Oh, and a plus, I had the economy plus (see what I did there?) seat that provided a pillow and blanket. I was like yes!

I also tried sleeping on the plane, so I accomplished that somewhat, and went to pee twice, once in each bathroom beside me which was unintentional.

The plane food was adequate, but I lost my brownie from the first meal. I had chicken and rice with a side salad for the first meal (where the damn brownie got lost. I swear I should have lost the tissues and spared that poor brownie). For the second meal we had noodles with dim sum which again adequate. There was nothing bad about the plane food, I don't know why people complain. Shit, food is food. You want something gourmet go to the fucking restaurant that is hidden somewhere in the airplane.

Getting off and going through customs was again no big deal. Everything went off without a hitch and picking up luggage was no big thing either. The problem was that my fellow NET Mark Meihm (I should ask him how to pronounce his last name) got his luggage lost. Only one so he still had something to work with for training.

We walked out together to get greet by Alex, Stephanie and the rest of our group. I was happy to know that I was not the only girl. Too much testosterone would have been problematic for only one girl like me to handle. She is my roommate for the time we have for training. We are only five in total. Mark, me, Naomi, Darren, and Richard.

Any whoser, after two train rides, heavy lifting thanks to my dumbass for packing heavily when I just needed one bag, we got settled in and shown around our rooms for the week and started to unpack so things could get unwrinkled. Something exploded in my suitcase and got some things wet but nothing was soaked so for that I am grateful. I am assuming what exploded and until I get my scent back (did I mention I was fighting a cough? No? Well I am fighting a fucking sore throat, coughing and sniffles) was my cleanser and make up remover, but innocent until proven guilty.

Afterwards, we walked around to look for something to eat and went to a restaurant that had really decent food. In all honesty, the noodles were my favorite. The shiskabob meat was good and the japanese pancake was also pretty good, but the noodles were out of this world. I am hoping to try some curry next. Maybe for lunch with the guys.

So after that, we were just walking around some more. We found a Karaoke bar (damn you sore throat!) and were told that we couldn't walk through somewhere because it was an exit so weird number two. That's how they could tell we were foreigners. And that's how I felt really bad that I was a foreigner.

I was able to get in contact with Nancy and not so much so with Edith, but I was happy to know that I could give them a heads up about my situation. I am alive and well, I do miss them. But I am excited to be in Japan.

It's my second day, and after waking up at 3 in the morning today it still feels very surreal. Like I am still asleep or something. And then I pinch myself and realize, no I am not. I am actually in the place that I have dreamed of going to since I was a little girl. And I know that I still miss everyone, I am just happy to be here. And can't wait to get on with the day and take my camera, my non working phone, and money wallet with a passport.

Everything feels surreal. And I can't wait for it to sink into me more, so I can learn more from them.

I will let you know how day 2 goes after day 2 is over and done with.