In the Air...

Yes, I've decided to attempt a blog again. No, I don't know if this one will last any longer than my first month in Japan, and, no-- I don't think anyone will actually read this. But if you happen to be doing so right now, fantastic! Welcome to the log of my second journey to Nippon and my adventures therein. This trip is vastly different than my first in the Spring of 2006 in a few ways, which I will list with convenient, organizational bullet points:

-I am no longer a student and will therefore not be attending university or taking Japanese classes (though I need them).
-I have a real-life-salary-paying-full-time-job this time around and probably won't have as many opportunities to dick around and miss the last train.
-I have to pay my own bills.
-I kiiiiinda know what to expect... but if I've learned anything it's that I still know very little about this crazy and surprise-filled nation of Japan.
-I will be staying longer than a year without return to my motherland, UHMERICA.
-I will be wearing a suit most of the time.

That about sums up all I can think of right now. Speaking of right now, I'm currently en route to Japan somewhere over Alaska. According to the screen in front of me, altitude is 34,000 feet and it is -74 degrees Fahrenheit outside. brrrr. I still have about 7 and a half hours left of my 13.5 hour flight. We were delayed out of Chicago by about an hour and a half. This worries me a bit because we are supposed to be arriving in Japan no later than 4pm (Friday, Nov. 2) local time and my flight as originally scheduled was coming in after that around 4:25. I was told this was okay, but now we aren't predicted to arrive until 5:40 pm or so. So, I will be rolling in last undoubtedly creating a stellar first impression to the Aeon representative meeting me there. I realize the delay isn't my fault, I just hope it doesn't cause any unforeseen complications.

After going through immigration and customs, getting my bags, and meeting the Aeon person, I have a 2 hour trip to Omiya, where I will be spending the next week in training. Omiya is about 20 or 30 minutes outside of Tokyo, and from what I hear, not much to boast about. I don't know if I'll have internet there or not, so I'm not even sure when I'll be able to post this. Or how, for that matter... but these are insignificant details which I'm sure I will work out promptly!

I should probably mention that I'm super excited to be in Japan again. I've been waiting for this for a long time and the more I think about it, the more excited I get... I'm not even IN Japan yet and get a load of all the neat things I've seen (bullet points again, I think?!):

-"Air Force 2," Which Dick Cheney arrived in Indianapolis in this morning, delaying my plane from landing.
-A really long, disco-like moving walkway treadmill deal in O'Hare that I'm pretty positive is where the video for Fiest's "My Moon, My Man" video was shot.
- Beautiful snow covered mountains under a pink sky in Alaska.
-The Sea of Okhotsk. Which we are currently flying over and I never even knew existed until today.

I also made friends with a young couple in the airport and got to use my "conversational" Japanese for the first time in a while. It was atrocious. I really hope it comes back to me quickly. I accidentally said I had an older brother instead of an older sister (ani vs. ane). I realized my mistake but decided to just roll with it. Sorry, Beth. The young woman replied "I bet he's really cute!" I simply replied "not at all."

If you are reading this, I probably already miss you a ton.



**ADDED NOTE: As I set up this blog from the training center, it is only available for set up in Japanese! I guess this means I will have a Japanese blog with a Japanese URL from here on out. Appropriate, I suppose :) but tricky...