First post catch-up!

It's finally my first post! It's been a whirlwind of activity and exhaustion since we arrive in Japan, so I haven't really had any time to blog yet! I'll start by catching up on the beginning of the journey:

Monday, March 24th:
I packed my bags, said my goodbyes, and flew from St. Louis to Washington D.C. to meet up with Jen and Greg, my plane/residence/Sophia friends! Together we form the sannin, a legendary trio of scholars and adventurers the likes of which are unmatched in all of Japan. Jen came and picked me up and we hung out at her place until Greg arrived! We went and got dinner with some of Jen's family and then set up camp in Jen's basement. We all decided it would be a good idea to make a fort to keep out any possible invaders, so we did. We covered the ping-pong table with some blankets and reinforced the back with a couch cushion. The floor was constructed of comforters and pillows. It was actually extremely comfortable and cozy and we all slept quite well in preparation for our journey ahead.


Tuesday, March 25th:
Jen's parents drove us to the airport and we tried to get our boarding passes. There was a bit of a problem with our information, but the nice airport man fixed it for us. Then we had to play a little musical luggage while we transferred items from Greg's suitcase to ours in order to get his bags under 50lbs and save him the overweight fee. Ironically, both Jen's and my suitcase ended up weight more than Greg's. With Phase 1 complete, we moved on through security, Phase 2, with no problems at all. We found Teresa waiting for us at the gate, our fellow plane partner (though she upgraded to the next class).
The wait for boaring passed quickly as we chit-chatted, and before we knew it we were on our 14 hour flight! I sat in the middle of a 5-seat row with some men on my left, and Greg and Jen on my right. Time passed surprisingly fast on the plane, and we all slept surprisingly little (not by choice). Greg and I watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age on the screen on the back of the seats. We both thought it was pretty good, and an artsy, pretty movie to watch. Then I thought I'd put another movie on and try to sleep, but I ended up becoming way too engrossed in the movie to sleep at all. It was Becoming Jane with Anne Hathaway. I super liked it, I laughed, I cried (on the plane T_T) and while my feelings about the main characters' relationship has changed a bit, I still think I could watch it a few more times and still not be tired of it =)

Aside from all that, the sannin talked, ate the airline meals, went and visited Teresa, and occasionally got up to look out the window. Next thing we knew, we were in Japan! Jen's boyfriend Dan, who has been at Sophia half a year now, came to meet us. We got through customs and got our bags with no problem, and then Jen, Teresa, and I had the Kuroneko (Black Cat) service deliver our luggage to our residence. It was a little stressful, and since we found out a little too late that we wouldn't get them til the next morning, we were left with whatever clothes etc. was in our carry-ons, but it was definitely worth that inconvenience and the cost considering how much stuff we had and how far we were away from home. We took a train from inside the airport (Narita Airport) to Nishi Kawaguchi Station (I think we had a transfer once, and parted ways with Teresa somewhere in there as she went to stay at her hostel). I was just staring out the window taking it all in. Everything looks so different here! My first views of Japan! It was exciting, but I was also pretty worn out from the flight.
It was dark by the time we reached our neighborhood, but Dan managed to get us to the DK House! We checked in with Mr. Uzuki and he gave us the grand tour. We have a kitchen/common room with TV and computers, toilets and laundry on every floor, a small meeting room, a nice lobby, and the first floor has the boys and girls shower rooms. If we understood correctly, we switch sides each week because one of the shower rooms has a sauna, so boys and girls take turns (this week is boys, aw man). As for rooms, I'm on the second floor, Jen is on the third, and Greg is on the fourth. All of our rooms are right off the stairway, so that's super convenient! We also have the most beautiful view of a pathway covered by cherry blossoms right outside out balconies! I can hardly believe it, it's so perfect! There are people walking through there and having picnics all day, it's really nice. At night there are lanterns lining the walkway that are lit up too!

After we got settled, Dan took us back towards the station and we had Gyuudon (beef over rice) at a sort of Japanese fast food chain called Yoshinoya. It was cheap and delicious! Then we went back home and crashed for the night. Well... sort of. We had planned on going to buy bedding that night, but by the time it was all said and done there just wasn't time and we were all too exhausted. That night would be the first real test of the sannin. Our beds by themselves are just wooden boxes (sort of like the ones at UVA), but we all figured we were tired enough that we could just put some clothes on them and be fine to sleep. After layering clothes on my body to fight the coldness of my room at the time, I only had enough clothes with me to make a pillow. I laid down and wasn't too uncomfortable and managed to sleep about two hours. After that, I woke up and was just too cold to go back to sleep. I was wearing a total of three long sleeve shirts, plus a camisole, a sweater and a jacket, my jeans, and three pairs of socks, and I had actually taken down one of the curtains in my room to use as a blanket.... I've heard that Japanese buildings are very poorly insulated and I definitely believe it. All the rooms have an air conditioner inside but I hadn't really figured out much about it. I did notice that the maximum temperature was 30 degrees Celsius, which is definitely not cold air, so I started messing with the controls and looking online for help. After a while I got my Aircon to put out some warm air and I was finally able to get some more comfortable sleep, though only in 2-3 hour shifts. Jen had also figured out her heater that night, but poor Greg slept in the cold =(



I'll update about yesterday (Thursday, March 27th) in the next post!