6-6-12

Here's a blurb I wrote a few days ago that I haven't gotten the chance to post until now:

My flight to Japan wasn’t too bad. I wasn’t able to sleep on the plane (like always), so I ended up watching 3 or 4 movies. They had an okay movie selection, but I’m not a big movie watcher so there were only a few that seemed interesting. I watched Almost Famous, Enchanted, and Juno, all of which I’ve seen before so I knew they were pretty good. After watching those, my brain was fried but I still couldn’t sleep, so I ended up watching 21 Jump Street. I wouldn’t recommend it. I watched it knowing it was going to be dumb, but it managed to be dumber than I had imagined.

Also, on the long flight I sat next to an elderly Korean lady who was nice but kind of bossy.  She kept randomly telling me things like how to use my pillow (fold it in half so it “gives support”), and she also kept making me stop the flight attendants and give them random pieces of trash (which I know annoys them—especially when they don’t have their carts and they make special trash trips almost hourly anyways). She did give me some of her food from her meals, though, which was a plus because I was oddly hungry during the flight (and I had already eaten all of the food I packed during my first, shorter flight because I was oddly hungry then, too).

Getting through all of the customs stuff was really easy, especially since I have done it before so I’ve had practice. My bag was one of the last bags to come out at luggage claim, which made me nervous because I didn’t want to have to go through the whole ordeal of getting my luggage shipped down to Eri’s apartment. I think our plane might have landed a bit early because it was only 4:30 when I exited out into the main area of the airport. 

 

I stopped at a map quickly to get my bearings, and I am not exaggerating when I say I was looking at the map for at most 5 seconds when an airport worker came over and asked me if they could help direct me somewhere. I told them I knew where I was going, which was true, but my plan was just to go to the information counter and ask for directions anyways. I headed over to the counter and asked (in English, since the person started by asking me “How can I help you?”) where to exchange my train pass and get on the bus to my hotel. I headed down, exchanged my voucher for a real JR Rail Pass, and got to the bus station just in time to catch the 4:50 bus to my hotel.

Checking in to my hotel went smoothly. I once again talked with the worker in English. It feels weird to talk to them in Japanese because 1) my Japanese isn’t that awesome, and 2) they always talk to me in English, so it feels weird to respond in Japanese. They had no single rooms, so they gave me a double at the price I had originally booked my room at (really cheap). So I had a room with two beds. A worthless upgrade, really, but I took it as a sign that I’m going to have good luck this summer.

Once I had settled into my room, connected to the internet and sent messages to my parents and Eri telling them I was alive, drank some warm tea, and taken a shower, I went down to the lobby and bought dinner from a convenience store. I decided to treat myself and bought one of my favorite Japanese snacks (karintou), too. They had a couple restaurants that looked like they had good (and not too expensive) food, but I decided that it would be awkward to sit and eat on my own.

I ate dinner and watched tv in my room for a while. I was super tired but I wanted to stay up until a normal time before going to bed. I watched the news and understood about half of it, which I thought was a pretty big accomplishment compared to how I started at the beginning of my last visit when I couldn’t really understand anything on tv. I also watched a show about oddly shaped houses, which I found extremely interesting for no good reason. 

Around that time my phone rang. I picked it up and out of habit said “hello.” “You have phone call,” one of the front desk workers told me.  The guy was probably nervous to be talking in English, but honestly it sounded like he was really angry about me having a phone call. A little bit taken aback by the guy’s tone and completely confused as to who would be calling me, I just said “Ummm…. Okay.” And then sat there. And there was no response. So I decided to test out my Japanese and said hello in Japanese. And Eri answered, so that was good.

I talked to her for a bit and we planned out where/when to meet up, etc. She also convinced me that if I was tired I should probably just sleep. So I took her advice and fell asleep immediately after I talked to her.

I had a dream that my parents were sharing my hotel room with me and we didn’t have enough beds for the three of us, so I got a futon and slept on top of some wooden cabinets that looked like ones from one of the oddly-shaped houses I saw on tv. It was a really weird dream. I woke up at 6:30ish to an earthquake, which was cool/slightly scary. It feels like you’re in a vibrating bed or something. It was one of those really small earthquakes where I’m sure I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it if I wasn’t lying down in bed.

I got up and around slowly, taking my time to get ready since I knew I was in no big hurry to leave. I planned to meet Eri in Fukuoka at 6PM, meaning I technically didn’t really have to leave my hotel until about 10:30. Somehow, I still ended up being ready super early and making it on the 8AM airport shuttle bus. 

I walked around the airport for a while looking for a bookstore. When I finally found the bookstore, it ended up not even having what I wanted. (I was looking for sightseeing guides for either Kyushu or Yokohama, but they didn’t have any guides for areas in Japan—only for foreign countries. I guess that makes sense since the bookstore was in the departures area of the airport.)  

 

I headed down to the train area and got a ticket to Tokyo station. This time I spoke in Japanese, which was nice. I watched the people selling the tickets talk to people before me and noticed they tended to say “Next person please” in Japanese and then follow it by asking “How can I help you?” in English once the people got up to the counter. So I beat them to it and told them “Good morning” in Japanese as I was approaching the counter. I was rewarded by being spoken to completely in Japanese, and I’m pretty sure I came off as at least slightly coherent because the person didn’t seem worried or feel the need to re-explain everything in English after giving me my ticket. 

 

I rode the (really really nice) express train to Tokyo station and got my Shinkansen ticket to Hakata. Since I was running so far ahead of schedule, I had to specifically request a later ticket. I spent my extra time walking around the station looking for a bookstore again. I found one and was able to purchase a book about food and sightseeing in Yokohama. I looked through that as I waited for my train. From what I’ve read so far, it looks like there could be some fun stuff for me to do without having to venture too far from my apartment. That should make for some nice trips I can do even on days that I have classes.

Right now I’m riding on the train on my way to Osaka. I’ll switch to a different train in Osaka, then continue on to Hakata. I’ll meet up with Eri there, and then we’re going out to have curry for dinner. I will be glad to be able to get rid of my luggage because it’s really big and annoying. I probably could have brought a smaller bag because it’s really not full, which actually makes it more awkward because everything shifts around inside of it, making it hard to maneuver. 

 

On a random note, I’ve been using my phone to make a list of vocab words. I’ve decided that each time I look a word up, I’ll add it to a “daily list.” If I review these daily lists every night before I go to bed, I should be able to learn a good amount of words. I’m surprised I didn’t think of doing this last time I was here. I hope it proves to be a successful practice!

Well, that’s all I have for now. You can probably tell that I’m bored because I wrote a lot of stuff about nothing in particular. Sorry if it’s a boring read, but writing it has kept me entertained for the last 2 hours. I can only do Sudoku/Kenken puzzles for so long without becoming bored. If I think of anything else to write during the next four hours I might add tack it on to the end after this.