After boarding the flight, I did something I didn't really didn't think I had the courage to do at this point in my adventure. A couple of minutes before the flight attendants had started boarding the flight, an amazingly pretty/cute Japanese woman had caught my eye. As we waited in line to board the flight I walked over to her and introduced myself. Almost immediately we were having a great time conversing. I should probably mention that this entire incident was in Japanese! That's right not only had I begun picking up a girl, I had done it in a language I taught myself (I guess it is similar to how Flaver Flav attempts to pick up women and his native language is burned out gibberish)! For the next few minutes we talked as we boarded on the plane. Now, as she saw that the flight attendant was waiving her to her seat, this girl tries to discreetly look over to see if I was sitting near her. Now granted, she could have been looking over to make sure I was NOT sitting next to her, but I prefer to be an optimist in this particular case :D. (Spoiler: I dropped the ball didn't get her number or e-mail and only know that she lives in Chiba, which is huge, so sadly I'll never see her again). For all you sickos out there the girl looked somewhat like this:
For the record, this is Angela Aki a half Japanese singer. I love her music and I highly recommend giving one of her songs a try out. Some songs are even in English! (No wonder I was attracted to this girl ne?)The flight itself was fine, however according to the Japanese Travel Ministry, Laptops and Nintendo DS are not allowed to be used on Japanese flights, which threw a huge wrench in my entertainment plans. The food was good, and the entertainment provided, along with my copy of Catcher sufficed for the 13 hour debacle. However here's a recommendation to all of you, when on a long trip, go for the isle seat! While the window seat is nice to lean on and view the scenery, I can't tell you how much I would've loved to freely get up and walk around. I couldn't do this because the guy sitting right next to me essentially passed out for the ENTIRE flight and I didn't want to wake him just to be able to walk around. However the rest of the flight was enjoyable. All in all ***BEWARE! BLATANT PRODUCT PLACEMENT AHEAD!*** flying with JAL was a great choice as they are an excellent airline with almost constant attention from the flight attendants, comfy seat, and their entertainment system. So remember, you can't spell joy and Life without JAL...you know unless you misspell joy and life.
The best analogy I can create for my actual trip to Japan is this; imagine yourself reclining on a cloud. You have the perfect back support, leg support and a plethora of spirits and foods available to you. Now, you're listening to your favorite music and relaxing reading a nice book and sipping a glass of wine. As you slowly begin to drift off to to sleep, you feel another wave of relaxation overcome you. Feel free to imagine that feeling for a second. Now as you slowly drift deeper and deeper into your comfort zone, imagine the person you care most about walking over to you and whispering something tender and loving in your ear. Now as they do that, imagine that someone gently places a jackhammer into your eyesocket and lets that baby rip! Do that for 13 hours, and you'll have a good idea of what I experienced.
In Japan:
I was picked up from Narita by Fumo-san. I was amazed he was still there since it took an hour to get through immigration on a flight that was already extremely late! He is a cool guy and speaks English very well. Thank God for him being there because there is no way I could have navigated the rails to get to Kawasaki from Narita. I believe the trip is roughly 1.5 hours with a few change overs. Although I made a few mistakes with tickets and things we did get there alive. Although I learned that carrying several large and heavy bags of luggage on the trains, especially at Shinjuku Station, during rush hour is a major pain in the ass. But we finally arrived at my host family's neighborhood at 10 or 11. I must make a quick comment, which will be expounded on in a later post, about how safe Japan is. We were walking at 10 or 11 PM with large luggage and I never once felt in danger. When we arrived my host mother, who for now I will call okaasan (or mother in Japanese), was still awake and waiting for me, her oldest son who I will call Oniisan (brother in Japanese)#1 was also present to greet me. After a bit of initial awkwardness and greetings, as my Japanese is sort of piece-meal, my okaasan sat me down and served me a still warm dinner! We hit it off right away and spoke for some time. Now at this point some of you are asking, "How the hell is he conversing with her when he admits his Japanese is not that good?", and that is a good point. My okaaan speaks English extremely well, and between her broken English and my broken Japanese we can have some interesting and very deep conversations. So ended my trek to Japan. I was shown to my room and after brief good nights with my okaasan and oniisan #1 I quickly fell asleep, but then again, at this point I hadn't slept more than 30 minutes in roughly 28 hours.
I was picked up from Narita by Fumo-san. I was amazed he was still there since it took an hour to get through immigration on a flight that was already extremely late! He is a cool guy and speaks English very well. Thank God for him being there because there is no way I could have navigated the rails to get to Kawasaki from Narita. I believe the trip is roughly 1.5 hours with a few change overs. Although I made a few mistakes with tickets and things we did get there alive. Although I learned that carrying several large and heavy bags of luggage on the trains, especially at Shinjuku Station, during rush hour is a major pain in the ass. But we finally arrived at my host family's neighborhood at 10 or 11. I must make a quick comment, which will be expounded on in a later post, about how safe Japan is. We were walking at 10 or 11 PM with large luggage and I never once felt in danger. When we arrived my host mother, who for now I will call okaasan (or mother in Japanese), was still awake and waiting for me, her oldest son who I will call Oniisan (brother in Japanese)#1 was also present to greet me. After a bit of initial awkwardness and greetings, as my Japanese is sort of piece-meal, my okaasan sat me down and served me a still warm dinner! We hit it off right away and spoke for some time. Now at this point some of you are asking, "How the hell is he conversing with her when he admits his Japanese is not that good?", and that is a good point. My okaaan speaks English extremely well, and between her broken English and my broken Japanese we can have some interesting and very deep conversations. So ended my trek to Japan. I was shown to my room and after brief good nights with my okaasan and oniisan #1 I quickly fell asleep, but then again, at this point I hadn't slept more than 30 minutes in roughly 28 hours.
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