This post was recovered from an old blog that I had while studying abroad in Japan. I’ve only updated misspellings or dead links, but left any cringe worthy things or immature thoughts. I’ve decided to leave them as a snapshot of who I was and to see how far I’ve come. Any photos have been freshly edited and so are not the same as what was originally posted. Over the years I had several blogs, most lost to time, and I wanted to recover some lost memories and reflect on my life.

A s I sat reading about the deadly plane crash at Narita only a day before I was to arrive, I wondered how my flight would be. I told myself to relax, at least as much as you can in a sardine can with wings, and everything would be fine. I usually am not scared of flying, or maybe I should say I’m scared of flying, but not crashing. If the plane goes down what am I to do…nothing. I do hate flying though and with a 10 hour flight ahead of me, I needed to quickly come to peace with inevitable: crying babies, cramped legs, no sleep, shitty food and stinky people. I was prepared for all this, but I made one minor mistake that turned into something major. Instead of putting my Ibuprofen in my carry on, I relegated it to my checked baggage. So when, six hours into my flight, I got a minor headache, I had no relief. This headache turned into motion sickness by the time we were on final approach to Narita. It was all I could do to hold my stomach contents in and pray for a swift exit from the plane. Of course the lady sitting next to me who couldn’t hold her puke in didn’t help my situation. Was this all a cruel joke? I kept a relaxed mind as best I could and got through immigration to baggage claim. Relief! I popped some Ibuprofen, went through customs and out to my next set of challenges.

I passed through the automatic doors into Narita’s front arrival area. My three task were simple: Convert my USD to JPY, buy a bus ticket to Tama Plaza, and call Tomomichi-san, my couchsurfing host. I quickly converted my money with little problem. Then I found the correct desk to buy my bus ticket, after some help from Narita staff. Finally I popped a few ￥ 10 coins into the phone and called Tomo-san. A short bit into our conversation the phone began to beep, meaning “give me money or I’m shutting you off”. So while talking to Tomo-san and trying to make plans for him to meet me at Tama Plaza, I was also looking through a bunch of foreign coins trying to find some ￥ 10 ones. In the end I wasn’t quick enough and the phone cut out. With nothing but ￥ 100 coins left I was forced to use one, even though I should have used one from the start. Lesson learned. With bus ticket in hand I headed for bus stop 9 and waited for it to arrive.

SHIBUYA, TOKYO, JAPAN 2009-03-29

SHIBUYA, TOKYO, JAPAN 2009-03-27

After boarding the bus I went for the seat in the very back, on the way I realized I was the only caucasian person. For the first time in my life I’m the minority. Anyway, I sat down and as I adjusted my things a japanese girl looked at the seat next to and looked somewhat confused/scared. So I told her it was fine for her to sit down there. The bus went on it’s way through the countryside, bobbing up and down with the bumps. It was amazing, pure silence, not one person said anything on the bus. Well until I struck up a conversation with the girl next to me. She was looking through photos of her trip to San Francisco, so I talked with her about all the sites and stuff. I was so absorbed in our conversation and trying to remember all the Japanese that I’ve learned that I didn’t even notice we finally were in Tokyo. We passed the daylight glow of Shibuya and I turned my attention to the world outside the bus. I wanted to try and orientate myself so I asked the girl where we were several times. At last we came to Tama Plaza and I said goodbye to the first friend I had made in Japan.

TOMOMICHI-SAN 2009-03-26

I stepped off the bus and Tomo-san was waiting for me, with groceries in hand. We walked the mile or so to his place and talked about the usual things when you first meet someone. At his place he cooked me some Okonomiyaki, which is a Japanese pancake type thing, look it up on google. It was delicious, but I wasn’t able to eat much as my stomach was still a little uneasy from the flight and it was around four or five AM in the US. I thanked Tomo-san and headed for bed with my head spinning. My first night in Japan was coming to a close. Already I had experienced so much, what else was to come? Would I be able to survive with my language skills? Would I make friends? What about the trains, how will I learn to use…ZzZzzzzz