Arrival and First Day!

Here is the tale of my long trek to Japan. We arrived at the airport pretty early, but it worked out well since we were one of the first in line at the baggage check. Then we were able to grab breakfast together. From this meal the custom of the CBN was born (aka, the Celebratory Burrito Nub). 

I was able to meet up with Jordan, which was VERY fortunate because he has experience in going to other countries by airport. I would have gotten completely lost without him!

The plane ride wasn't bad at all! It took about ten hours, which is shorter than expected. The coolest thing about this airplane was a) the movies, and b) the food! This is what I had for lunch: curry, soba, and Haagen Dazs ice cream!

Probably the most impressive thing to me was that they gave us metal utensils! Don't tell anyone, but I totally took the ones they gave me. I figured it's one less thing to buy in Japan.

The plane had movies, so I watched Spy (hilarious--Noah and Dad, watch this one!) and Inside Out (made me cry a little). I started watching the new Terminator but opted to play my PS Vita instead. I was able to sleep a little bit, but all in all I probably got about thirty minutes of sleep. 

Jordan and I were able to successfully get through customs and found our guides. They're both very nice! They were nice enough to speak English with us and guide us through the many winding lines at the train station to the school. That whole affair probably took a good three hours. And then when we finally got to our destination, we had to walk a whole lot! We had to go up this huge hill, and we were still carrying all our luggage. I came out of that day very sweaty and dead tired.

On my first day, I wasted no time in finding opportunities to use my rusty Japanese skills. Before I went to bed the night before, while I was pleasantly surprised to find I had my own bathroom, there was a troubling problem...

...There was no toilet paper to be found!

So the next morning, I decided to explore the dorm building a bit. I didn't find any toilet paper, but I ran into an elderly cleaning lady and asked her about it (in Japanese). Apparently I had missed the shopping trip the rest of the students had taken before me and Jordan had arrived, so I was the only one without toilet paper. She told me I could buy some at the コンビニ (conbini = Japanese convenience store), but was nice enough to dig up two spares for me. We then talked for about half an hour about Japanese customs and things, although it was mostly one-sided on her part. I did my best to respond, but it was about 9 AM and that was my first instance of using Japanese seriously. She was very patient with me, and she was really kind to me! I wouldn't have been able to operate the dorm properly without her help.

That day we also went to shop at Shinjuku. It's amazing there! Although I live near in the quiet, scenic area at the dorm by the school, we're only about ten minutes away by train to the bustling city scene! Check how cool the cinema looks, the Godzilla at Universal Studios doesn't stand a chance to this one!

It looks even cooler at night, hopefully I can snap a picture sometime. There's a lot of places to see, so I have to get better at taking pictures! 

And that about sums up my first day or so. They were very busy days, but I made lots of new friends, and I really enjoyed myself! And to think at this point, I didn't even have wifi.