My route was Chicago>Narita/Tokyo>Sapporo.
I was surprised when I realized that Chicago to Tokyo would be non-stop. I used to fly a lot as a kid, but I'd never seen a plane so large. The engine was incredible.
Inside, it was three columns of seats wide, 3, 3, 3. The flight attendent stations were in the middle column, and the bathrooms were on the sides. My flight was eleven and a half hours, and it was really weird to think of how time was changing for me as I travelled west, and eventually across the International date line. After a while I figured out how to use the interactive screen that's on the back of all the seats. Along with various forms of entertainment such as games and movies, there was a live camera from the front of the place as well as a course/route screen. On the screen it showed the total course, where we were at that moment, how high we were, how many miles we'd traveled, how much time remaining, and the current local time at origin and destination.
The woman that had been sitting in the aisle seat next to me left after not long--to a seat near the back so that she could have more space and lie down. Sure, it was nice to have three seats to myself, but I'd rather have someone to talk to, and prepare my Japanese a bit.
Given that'd I'd already taken a 20+ hour bus ride earlier this summer, it really didn't feel too long. Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep well. I figure I should have just stayed up through the night. The bathrooms were surprisingly comfortable, and over the 11 hours we got two full meals (almost more than I could bear to eat) and a snack. Among my vegetable tempura was one tempura shrimp, which I realized almost too late. Soon after, I nearly ate rice crackers that had shrimp flavoring too. I'm very allergic to shrimp, and I felt like this was a sign that I really, really would have to be careful in Japan. I'd hate to think what would happen if I had a reaction in a plane.
Nevertheless, I made it the Narita airport safely. Before we landed, a short video explained the procedures of immigration, baggage claim, and customs. All of which took very little time. I made my way to check in, which wasn't very hard to do. I was directed to the terminal, and made it there with only a bit of difficulty. At security I just mimicked the same things I was required to do for my American departure, sans the removing of my shoes, which seemed fine. When I got to the waiting area near my gate, there was one shop there, but i wasn't very hungry. Still it was exciting to see everything... so Japanese. There was even a display of One Piece anime phone charms. I know some friends that like One Piece, but decided to wait on souvineer buying.At Narita, I was hit with the first of more cultural differences to come: the lack of AC. The way I understood it, public buildings usually had AC while residences didn't, so I wasn't sure if it was becuase of the power conservation efforts due to the Fukushima incident (I noticed only about 50 percent of the lighting was turned on around the airport) or if they didn't have AC at all. Regardless, I sat there, sweating for four hours. The shop didn't sell any hand fans, so I had no choice but to bear with it. It was cooler downstairs, but the free wifi didn't work down there, so.... Shikatta ga nai. Can't be helped.
I was able to Skype my friend, Colton, for a little bit while i was there, which was pretty exciting. I'M IN JAPAN, there are JAPAN THINGS AROUND ME, SEE? Yeah, it was fairly silly. When I finally got on the plane (which I boarded from the ground, on stairs to the plane, I've never done that before, probably because it was a smaller plane) my sleep caught up to me and I passed out.
I arrived at Sapporo around 8:30 local time, waited for my baggage, and met up with Kondo-san and Phillip from Sapporo University pretty quickly. Kondo san had a sign with both my and the other student, Aaron's name on it, and Phillip had a cap from our home university. Kondo-san speaks little to no English, so Phillip was talking and translating for us most of the time.
My room, with it's short door (and I'm short), was merely a narrow hallway with a window facing another building. The bed is comfortably sized though, and the place seems fairly clean. There was new bedding waiting for me there. Overall, it seemed pretty good, though small.
At the time though, I was more worried about other things.
There was no way for us to get internet, or anyone to mooch internet off of. If I'd been in the building with
Teren, I'm sure he would have let me get on his internet to send emails/messages to let people know I was alright. I had told one of my friends that I'd be on at a specific time, but now that was impossible. I should have known better than to be so sure of things. I had to go to sleep that night, trying to calm the worry eating at my heart over someone worrying about me. I was alone, truly alone for the first time, left to figure things out on my own, in a new country where no one could understand me, and I could only understand them a little bit. I knew I had to calm down and believe things would get better.
