Made it to Japan!!
Waking up at 6am wasn't as tough as I thought it would be... especially when we had a power outage the night of my trip. Adrian and both of his parents took me to the airport. As my last US meal, I ordered Chow Mein from Panda Express (haha). It sounded comforting to my stomach full of butterflies at the time (some of which, I felt, were cannibals). My friend Lyon showed up at the airport to wish me off too. I was happy to spend the last hour at the airport with all four of them.
Coming to Japan, my flights were pretty good. On the way to California, I was seated by the window with one woman next to me. We had a conversation during the whole 2 1/2 hour flight. She was a woman who just recently turned 50 and was a 4th grade teacher living in California. What brought her to Oregon was that she's looking to retire this coming year and relax in Oregon with her two dogs and cat. She was very polite, and the stories about her travels across the world and her family stories were very entertaining.
The only stress that I got from them was when we made it to California. Upon arrival, I had two hours before my next flight's take off... But that was cut down because the door to the airplane wasn't working and the bridge wasn't either, so we had to sit on the plane waiting for maintenance (yuck!). Trying to find my terminal was another struggle! It was a 20 minute walk across the airport in 1 of their 7 buildings. Luckily, I found a family that was on my previous flight, whom were from the Pearl District, moving back to Japan. An American father and Japanese mother with two young boys and another on the way! They were a sweet family, and all of the boys had wild cat names. The oldest being Leo (4), the younger one being Puma (1), and the boy on the way will be Tiger (6 months in the womb). We made it through the airport together and hopped onto the plane about 10 minutes after they started boarding people.
While racing through the airport, I ran into some people who were also looking for our flight. Three people from Malaysia that I kept running into throughout the airport and duration of the flight. None of them were together, but they stuck together as a group (most likely for language purposes). The tall male reminded me of Yao Ming. He didn't speak any English, but the other two women understood some. Despite that fact, I probably talked to 'Yao' the most. He and I would converse in our own languages and were somehow able to hold a full conversation. It was both fun and interesting. The three of them were all traveling to Singapore.
All of the stress at LAX was well worth it though. The flight service was the BEST I've ever had. The food they provided was wonderful! They even served Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream! Despite having a middle row seat, I had the aisle seat! I got lucky with that, since my row was the only one missing a chair. Throughout the flight, I kept running into the Malaysians-- Mainly 'Yao'.
For most of the duration of my flight from Cali to Narita, I watched the little plane map go across the ocean, chasing after the sun. It wasn't until the flight was half over that I became bored surprisingly, and realized that I had a DSi with Pokemon conquest. I only played it for at most 3 hours before returning to watching the little plane make it across the Earth. Once the plane finally landed, I ran into the Malaysians (whom where scattered across the plane) all at separate times, along with the family moving to Japan. It was really nice that I got to say good bye to all of them and wish them luck on their journeys. All of the people I met where polite, funny, and helpful people. It was nice that I wasn't 'alone' on my flights. (^ v ^)
--
Both of my grandparents were at Narita Airport to pick me up. I had forgotten how short my grandmother is!! She thinks that I've grown or she's shrunk. I think it might be a mixture of both (haha). All of yesterday and most of this morning felt so fake. As if it was a dream. The feeling of "YOU'RE IN JAPAN" is finally sinking in. Adrian's mother was right though-- that I would feel nervous talking at first, but my Japanese would come back to me easily. My grandmother and I talked the whole train ride from the airport to my aunt Masami's place, which is approx. 2 hours long.
I didn't arrive at my aunt Masami's house until around 11:30pm, but it was fun! I got to see my oldest cousin, Miina (F, 13) who was still doing homework and began to goof off once I got there. The other two were sound asleep. Miina, Masami, Masami's husband Namba-san, and I stayed up until 1am or so... on a school night, no less. Thinking back though, it does mean that I was awake for over 24 hours. Eheh... At least it was a nice end to a long day's worth of travels.
