Alright, here comes the much delayed first post in Japan! Sorry guys, I guess I've still got some minor jet lag because I've been falling asleep before midnight these past two days and I know some of you will find that hard to believe knowing my bad habits haha.
So, May 27th, the big day. I didn't sleep at all that night because I knew I wouldn't be able to wake up at the crack of dawn (otherwise known as 5am), thus I stayed up to reorganize my suitcases, take out the less needed items, and look over my Japanese notes. With my first flight scheduled at 8:14am, I had to arrive at the airport 2 hours early to check in my luggage so my friend and I left at 5:45am to arrive just after 6am. If you don't know this already, I would always recommend arriving at least 2 hours early to your flight. I didn't expect it to be very busy, but the line to check in baggage was seriously HUGE. It took me at least another 30-50 minutes to get to the front of the line and check in my baggage.
A couple of things I learned about baggage:
1) No they do not measure or weigh your carry on. If it looks like it's roughly the right size, they leave it alone.
2) If your checked in bag is slightly over the weight limit (United Airlines states 50lbs, but mine turned out to be around 50.8lbs) then it's all good, they'll still check it in without any extra fees so long as it's within a reasonable range.
After checking in, my carry on and I decided to explore the airport terminal!
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| Chicago O'hare at 8:14am...yup |
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| They were Japanese! |
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| Window seat :) |
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| Lift off to Chicago |
So the flight to Chicago took roughly 2 hours. During that time I made friends with my seatmate, a nice guy named Philip who was on his way to Baltimore. We talked about food, life, and travels. It was a good flight :)
In Chicago:
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| B17 is the gate I needed to be at |
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| Exploring |
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| I can't believe I seriously paid for this bottle of water. Really? |
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| Lunchtime consisted of an egg and cheese bagel. A little too salty, but good nonetheless |
After a short break around the airport where I got food, I stopped by the information desk to ask about my luggage (this part is pretty important). I was worried since I'd accidentally thrown away my luggage receipt, so I asked the woman at the front desk to help me look up my baggage ID. She did, and I asked her if I was supposed to pick it up in Chicago to transfer to Tokyo and she told me that it should be sent directly to Tokyo. There was no need to transfer it from Chicago. No. Need.
So I returned to sit and wait for my flight, but when I returned I came back to this:
This incredibly chaotic crowd of people all waiting to board the same flight as me. There was lots of boring waiting where I people watched and inwardly cringed at my decision to dress comfortable rather than fashionable. Some of these kids were dressed nicer than I've ever dressed in my entire life! At this point I resolved to make every day in Japan a fashion statement haha.
Finally boarding my flight, I settled in for a long, exhausting 11 hours
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| No fancy chairs for me, no sir |
There should be a video montaging my flights coming up soon, so look out for it on my Youtube account!
I mostly slept during the flight, but when I could I tried to study my kanji. TMI: I was only able to go to the bathroom twice because I was on the inside of the row and the 2 people beside me were always sleeping....so just something to look out for when you're picking your seating arrangements. The window seat is nice, but if you have a small bladder then the aisle seat is the place for you haha.
Finally though, we arrive in Japan!
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| The shoreline |
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| It looked really beautiful |
Checking in however, I came across a dilemma. In baggage claims I waited for my suitcase to come around on the conveyor belt. And waited. Nothing.
Soon an employee came up to me asking for my bag number and informed me that my suitcase was still in Chicago.
Still. In. Chicago.
Apparently it never got redirected to Tokyo, so my baggage was going to be delayed for about 2 or 3 days. At this point I was freaking out a little because I wasn't even sure if they would be able to get it to me on time, not to mention I didn't have a number yet for them to contact me at and I wasn't sure exactly where they should send my luggage if it did arrive. Somehow though I got it sorted out despite the language barrier and left to exchange my cash. Since I had to buy both a cellphone and pay for my Hostel fees, I took out $300 USD and exchanged that amount for JPY. The exchange rate was a lot lower than I expected and definitely lower than the amount I saw posted on the Yahoo!Finance. Expecting it to be closer to the 79yen/USD I saw on the internet, I was pretty disappointed to see that it was only 76.
Somehow it slipped my mind that the JPY is stronger than the USD recently.....
Anyways, when I got to the SoftBank center, I noticed 3 other cell phone carriers beside it:
Just glancing briefly at the other sections however, I felt like they were more on the expensive side for tourists who were only staying in Japan for a short time. Maybe if I were considering staying for longer, say a year or 2, I would likely have gone with another provider, but I went with SoftBank instead since I'd already checked it out online.
I go into it a bit more at the bottom of the blog, but in total I spent 12,450 yen getting a cellphone, or roughly $162 USD.....good bye money :'(
I added a prepaid amount of 3,000 yen to the phone, which gives me roughly 33 minutes of talk time, and paid an additional 300yen for unlimited emails for 30 days. Apparently. I've learned it's more popular here to send emails rather than text messages. Maybe because Japanese people like to customize and make things unique, so a generic phone number just isn't interesting enough, unlike a unique email.
Once the cellphone situation got sorted out, I called the Hostel's manager Yamamoto-san, who offers a free pick up service from the airport. He arrived and we headed to the Hostel which was roughly 15 minutes away.
The hostel was really cute! I slept in a dorm style room, but I was the only one there the first night so I had the whole room to myself. In case someone did arrive, however, I had this little screen sheet to separate me from them.
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| Paper lantern lights! I had a lot of fun clicking these on and off |
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| the view outside my window. Lots of farmland |
After meeting and talking with another guest, a guy from Taiwan, we headed to the local 7/11 down the road together so I could pick up something to eat.
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| Dinner is served |
I made a video where I attempted to open the Puchin pudding the way you're supposed to...it didn't quite work out for me.
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| The common area. The Taiwanese guest and the Hostel owner Yamamoto-san |
After a long day of plane rides, baggage freakouts, and the abrupt realization that I have quite literally forgotten all 3 semesters of Japanese, I settled down to sort out my day.
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| Look, Japanese money! The meager leftovers after my first day in Japan |
I'm sure there's also a 5 yen coin, but I haven't gotten one yet
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| Excuse me while I stare into the depths of your soul with my cold, dead eyes. |
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| My SoftBank receipt |
I went to sleep pretty early since I was still tired from the flight, so I slept around maybe 10:30pm? The futon was really comfy. And thus ends my first day in Japan!
