Arrival in Japan

Hello from Japan!  I'm going to attempt to keep a blog about my time in Japan, so we'll see how it goes.  ^_~  I'll try to add in pictures once I start taking them.


Departure for a whole new world:


I got up at 5am after sleeping fewer than six hours.  //orz  We drove to Dayton and my head was still totally in a bubble.  Honestly, even at this point it's still hard to comprehend that I'm in Japan because we're kind of isolated, but I'll get to that in a few minutes.


At the airport, I super lucked out and didn't have to pay for my second checked bag.  Thank you, check-in lady!  <3 I said my goodbyes to my family and made my way through security.  The flight to Chicago wasn't bad at all. I sad next to a nice Englishman and chatted the whole way there.


At O'Hare, I met up with Lauren, and we got breakfast together and made it to our next flight with no trouble.  The flight to LA didn't go as quickly as I'd have liked.  I only managed to sleep for about 45 minutes.  :<   The guy next to me was asleep before take-off and only woke up to go to the bathroom once and then back to sleep until we landed!  o_o  Pro.


We landed at LAX and found our way to the next gate.  We bought WAY-OVER-PRICED sandwiches at a place that didn't have a vegetarian soup or sandwich (IN CALIFORNIA?!?!) so I was stuck with tuna.  D:  Over at the terminal area, we sat on the floor and ate them and made friends with Alex, who we discovered is also with Interac.  I tried to argue with the guy at the ticket counter when I realized that Lauren and I weren't next to each other like we were supposed to be, but to no avail, so we were 20 rows apart.


My seat wasn't bad in that I was right behind business class, so I had lots of leg room and I like having personal screens (the movie selection was boss), but being next to someone you don't know and being on the aisle makes it harder to sleep (at least for me) because you don't want to get too close to the other person.  he snored when he slept, but I was fidgety, so I guess I got back him in terms of annoyance.  <_<  I have a huge bone to pick with United over the fact that they didn't have my vegetarian meal.  The poor flight attendant.  I know it wasn't his fault and he did the best he could, but he eventually came back (after saying there were only two veg. meals on the flight and they'd been given out) with someone else who said that they stopped with the veg. meals on March 3rd or something.  Well, I selected the vegetarian option when booking my flight and they didn't alert me as to this change or anything.  >.<####  I ended up eating the sides that came with the standard meal and then the flight attendant brought me some left-over cheese, crackers, and grapes from first/business class.


A million years later, the flight ended and we got in about half an hour late.  D:  I only slept about two hours on that flight.  >.<  We through customs and I got the baggage claim (after waiting at two incorrect ones) just in time to get my bags which were being pulled off by attendants.  One of the feet on my red suitcase took a beating and is broken.  D:  I got the third degree in customs because I didn't have a phone number or address listed for where I would be staying.  NO ONE ELSE GOT THIS.  Apparently, I should have been in ANY OTHER LINE.  Oops.  I got through in the end, after a lecture.


I met up with the Interac rep. and changed some money.  They had to e-mail AmEx about the $500 checks, which took a minute, but they went through juuust fine in the end.  The way I read the chart, there were different exchange rates for cash and travelers checks.  The cash rate was lower.  Weird.  I'm not sure why.


We got the bus to the hotel and went through about four hours of orientation and waiting for orientation.  >.<  Lots of steps.  I'm sure it would have been a lot faster if 200 of us hadn't come in at once and flooded the area.  I finally got to my room at 11pm on Monday.  EXHAUSTINGGGGGGG.  The hotel is near the airport, but kind of in the middle of nowhere, so we're a bit isolated.  there's a Mini-Stop and 7/11 which are walkable.


I have a roommate while I'm at training.  Her name is (Doctor) Nicola (XP) and she's from England.  :>


Ummm I'll write a bit about training tomorrow, but they're a bit secretive, so I can only tell so much.  XD