The journey..October 18, 2006

Kinichiwa! I'm finally in Japan!! I left Jacksonville this morning on an 8:30am flight to Detroit. From there, Sarah and I boarded a 3:00 flight straight to Tokyo. 13 hours is a LONG time to be on a plane! Thank you guys for writing me plane letters!! I had 35 of them, so that definately helped pass some of the time :). We got off the plane, and while we were waiting in line at customs, we watched everyone get their bags searched. Sarah and I were groaning, because we had soo much stuff (i def went over the limit on my 2 "50" lb bags..they both weighed close to 70lbs each..oops) it would have taken us FOREVER to get through!! When we got up there, they asked us what we were doing and how long we were there for, when we told them we were teachers, they let us right through, without even opening one bag. Everyone said they really respect teachers here. When we met up with the other Nova teachers, they tell us that those staying in hotels will need stuff for 4 days, because our luggage will be delivered to our apartment on Sunday(it was Wednesday). That was really frustrating, because we had specifically asked them before we packed and they said we'd have all our luggage while we were in the hotel. Well Sarah and I had to go through all our bags and get clothes and cosmetics out in the middle of the airport. After that, we took an hour and a half train to Shinjuku, where our hotel is. Then John, a Nova guy, met us at the train station and walked us to our hotel. It was pretty much like, "here you are, here is a packet of information...someone will pick you up Sunday" UMMM, hello did you forget none of us can speak Japanese and it's only Wednesday?! lol. There were 4 of us staying here, but 1 got to go to his apt today, so now there are 3. Our hotels are TINY! They are pretty much the size of the bed, haha. They provide a nightgown for us, and slippers that we are supposed to wear around. We were all beat so we just went across the street to the convenience store "ampm" and got dinner, I got cup noodles. After we ate, we all showered and passed out.
Russell's words of the day:
Good Morning-Ohayoo Gozaimasu (o-hi-o Ga-zi-a-mus)
Thank You-Arigato Gozaimasu (Ar-i-ga-toe Ga-zi-a-mus)