*Author's Note*
I'm posting this for my own reference. This is also here incase anyone is courious how it was for me in Japan. These letters/journals were written to my Mom, which kinda explains the format.
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May 3, 2008

So, it has been a super crazy day. My dumb plane from Seattle to San Fran was 2 hours delayed which caused me to run super late to my flight to Japan. I was so lost until the other intern recognized me from facebook. The gate is two stories, and I thought I'd check out both stories real quick. So, after that I went back up the stairs and talked to Jon (the other intern). Boy was I glad I found him. I told him I was super nervous about getting lost and that I hoped he'd stick with me to find out where we needed to go once we got there. He agreed and we talked until they boarded the plane. He only sat like 2 rows up from me, so that worked out.
The flight itself was uneventful. The tv system thing kept breaking, but it ended up working in the end. I'd almost say I like ANA better than JAL. The flight attendants were super nice. Oh, and I was the lone white chick on the whole plane, lol. I ended up eating the chicken thing for the first meal and some weird Alfredo tortellini for the second. I say weird cuz it had all sorts of weird things in the sauce and tons of seaweed piled on it. I just picked the tortellini out and ate that, lol. Oh, and we got like this thing of vanilla ice-cream. That rocked :P
Ok, so we land and Jon waits for me so we can get off the plane together. He's super stoked to be here, and kept singing "This is so fun" lol. He says it's from a song, but I'm not sure, lol. Anyway, so we are kinda slow off the plane and by the time we get to the bags they had them all off the carousel. So, we hurried up to the dudes and said they were ours. They got us these cool carts and loaded them up for us, which was super nice. So, we make our way to customs. I get up to the thing and do the finger print thing and the picture. Then the chick says she needs a form and calls some guy who asks me to follow him. Well, Jon is also at an agent and doesn't see me. So, I follow this dude who leads me to this waiting area and asks me to stay there for a moment. Well, I'm freaking out cuz I'm afraid I'm going to miss Jon and he'll not be sure where I am, so I keep trying to get his attention. Well, like 10 minutes later I'm like "This dude took my passport and is gone. No bueno." I dunno where he went.So, I'm just about to say something to someone when he appears and hands me back my passport and has me go through customs this other way. Thankfully Jon waited for me on the stairs so we left that area together. Well, then we slowly leave the area and watch for our names or something and we don't see it. So we decide to chill and wait cuz our flight got in early. So, we wait and talk. like 40 minutes later Brandon shows up. I guess he went through Dallas cuz he's staying longer than the rest of us so he had to find his own way. The company paid him back, but he had to find the flight. So, anyway, we find him and continue to chill. About an hour later we hear Jon and my name over the intercom and we find our dude that way. He'd been waiting for us, but he was on the other side and we had missed him, lol. He's British and was totally ok with it, he was just worried we had missed our flight or something. So, we still had to wait for Reina. She's not in for another hour and a half. Now, at this point Jon and I are dying. They've been having a lot of rain here so it's SUPER humid. Like, awful. So, we're both sticky and my hair is all sweaty, eww. At least it's curly, lol. Well, we end up spending like the whole day at the airport. Our plane landed at 2:50 and we didn't leave the airport til about 6. Fun times, lol.
So we finally leave and head for the hotel. That trip was uneventful, except that the other three kept talking about things they remember and want to try again along with people and places. I just sit there and nod, lol. They all seem real nice though, always wanting to stay busy which is good. Also, found out that Reina and I are not going to me roomies, like..ever. Her address is different than mine, funny huh?
Anyway, 2 train rides and several stairs later we get to the hotel. It's kinda crazy how small the rooms are. I had to video tape it cuz a pic wouldn't do it justice. It's smaller than your walk in closet, lol. And they have these fake flowers that they have next to the door. Our British dude said they show that the room has been cleaned and that tomorrow they'll be a different color. I took a pic so I can show you what I'm talking about. I just get inside my room when my phone rings. Shoko called me! Yay! I'm meeting her tomorrow at 11 am. She's coming to the hotel. She's so cute, I'm so excited to see her again :) Well, after a quick conversation with her we decide that we are hungry and so we go out to eat at this Italian place. I got their spaghetti with meatsauce. Yummy. I guess I could just live off of ramen and spaghetti here, lol. So, here I am, after the random meal I guess is dinner. I should go to sleep, but it's like only 10 pm. The dude who picked us up said they have Internet cafes around here, so I might have to go find one tomorrow. We'll see.
Well, that was my day. It's crazy to not just pick up the phone and tell you all this. I'm going to miss that. That, and I keep thinking that if I get lost I can't call dad to help me, lol. The British dude said that being in a middle school and in the area I'm in that I'm going to pick up a lot of the language rather fast. I kinda hope so, lol. I feel kinda left out of conversations cuz all these guys know Japanese people they just talk to in Japanese. Needless to say I feel like a retard standing at the register and the cashier is saying something that I have no idea what it means, lol.
I guess it's supposed to be hotter tomorrow, but less rain. I just hope I'll not die of heat issues, lol.