So, I'll briefly go over how things went down, and then let you get on with your day.
We flew out the morning of July 24, thereby missing the pioneer day fireworks and parade. The flight to Denver was very short, only an hour long. I ate my beef jerky there, since I knew it couldn't come with me to Japan.
Denver orientation was nice. We had rooms at the La Quinta hotel, which was a nice place. All us Salt Lakers figured out who each other were on the shuttle ride there. There was me, my roommate Lily, then the other Amanda, Jason, Luke, and Tanya. Funny story, Tanya actually flew in from Nebraska (and was therefore not provided accommodations for her stay in Denver and had to pay for her own flight and hotel... weird). She figured out who we were on the shuttle by knowing when the Salt Lake flight was coming in and seeing how much stuff we were lugging around.
The actual orientation was at the Denver public library, which is enormous. There were about fifty JETs from the Rocky Mountain area. We had two JET alumni speakers, the coordinator we've been communicating with this whole time, our travel agent, and the consul-general of Japan in Denver who all spoke to us. Afterwards, there was a catered reception (a sushi practically-buffet, which is unfortunate because I'm not a fan of fish), and then we went back to the hotel to rest up for The Big Day.
We flew first from Denver to Minneapolis. We Salt Lakers didn't get to have breakfast because breakfast on Saturday starts at 6:00 instead of 5:00 at the La Quinta (lame). Our shuttle was a little late, but we let our travel agent know when we arrived and then got in the back of the line for JETs checking in. He (the travel agent) was checking names off a list to make sure we all got there, and had been a little concerned when we didn't show up for so long. So, we got to the airport at about 6:30, and then we went to get on the plane to Minnesota. And no, we didn't have time to buy breakfast at the airport.
As soon as the Minneapolis flight landed, we walked straight to our gate for Japan, which was already boarding. We just got right into line. While in line, I quickly called my parents to let them know I was getting on my way.
And thus began... the long flight.
The long flight was about eleven and a half hours long. It was supposed to be twelve, so that was an improvement. Unlike last time, I had my own personal monitor in front of me on the plane, so I got to choose movies to watch and games to play and stuff. That alone was a huge improvement over the last time I did this. I watched the new live-action Cinderella, Avengers 2, both Thor movies back to back, and then the Princess and the Frog, and I still had an hour and a half left when that last one was over. I was feeling pretty good through Cinderella, but by the time I hit Thor, my legs were starting to cramp up and it was getting uncomfortable. I got up once, ostensibly to use the bathroom but really just because I couldn't stand to be sitting down any longer.
The whole way, whenever I was feeling homesick or there were feelgoods about parents in the movies I was watching, I would get out the little charm Dad gave me and just run my fingers over it. It says "Wherever you are, you'll always be in my heart".
So once we finally did land, we got our own JET Program line for immigration, where they looked over our paperwork and gave us our residence card. It's like a green card in the US. While we were in line, the Atlanta JETs landed. It was pretty cool to meet them. Along the lines of, "Heeeeey, JETs!" (Identifiable because we were all given a sticker to wear to identify ourselves to the program coordinators in the airport.)
We cleared immigration and got our bags. Mine were the first coming round the bend on the carousel when I got there, which was great. I didn't have to sit there and wait and hope they didn't get lost somewhere. The luggage carts in the Tokyo airport are free, so I got to load them all up and head off without worrying about coordinating three big, heavy bags. Then I cleared customs (was pretty much waved through, actually) and starting navigating the airport.
Which was really actually very easy. There were JET representatives wearing distinctive green t-shirts standing within sight of each other from the door to the bus, so it was just a matter of walking from one green t-shirt to the next. I liked that a lot. Good system.
We got to the buses, and handed off the bags we were going to send ahead to our placement areas. The buses were "friendly airport limousines". That was printed on their sides, and I loved that! Even more so, they had air conditioning!
It was an eighty minute bus ride from the airport to our hotel, the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo. We were given some basic information on how orientation is going to run, some papers and schedules, and our room keys, and then given the rest of the night to relax. By now, it was 6:30 PM Japan time, so about 3:30 AM Utah time.
I got into the hotel room, and put my phone to charge, since I'd seen Mom and Dad had sent me a text and I hadn't been able to reply because my phone's battery had died while it was off on the airplane. Go figure. I took a blissful, blissful shower, tried to look over the papers even though it felt like my head was about to fall off, and then died.
I tried to stay up until at least 8:00, I really did. Unfortunately, my body was not happy with me for pushing a 24 hour day (I got no sleep on the airplane here). I laid down, had time to think "this is nice", and then passed out.
Compared to my last first night in Japan, I did pretty well at sleeping through the night. I woke up a few times, but was able to get back to sleep, until 4:00 AM rolled along. Not bad, really.
So, that's the international travel adventure. Not terribly exciting, I know, but it is what it is.
Actually, I lied. I do have one picture to show you.
This is the view from my hotel room. Really sit and let that sink in for a minute there.
Tokyo!
Amanda, Good luck on your first day of work. Always thinking of you, Love Dad
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