Travel to Japan!

I sure hope this comes out alright, because my computer changed itself to Japanese, and I can only read half of the buttons...

Although I could spend forever and a day writing about my traveling to Japan, believe it or not, I'm a bit tired. I woke up at 7 o'clock yesterday after getting hardly any sleep, and since it is 11:35 pm in Japan as I am starting this, it's as if I have been constantly awake since then until 10:35 am the next day. Because who can sleep on those planes....

So Alex and I arrived early to Detroit Metro Airport, where we hung out for some time since we were able to get through every things über quickly since no one actually travels on Memorial Day. After that flight, we had an overlay in Chicago.

Eventually, Alex and I were joined by our former classmate, Jane, who was on her way to stay with her family in Korea.

<--- Alex and Jane

Alex and I were lucky enough to still have seats together, although they were in the 5-people-squished-in-a-row-middle section. With Alex squished in the middle. But it wasn't that bad, she had some nice middle-aged Thai ladies next to her who kept giving her food and I had a young Japanese woman next to me, who was kind enough not to complain when we stepped all over her trying to get out of the seats to go to the bathroom. And there was no way we weren't going to go to the bathroom, because we were on that plane for 14 hours, and I'd already had a water, a starbucks drink, and a coke. Although the flight should have taken only 13 hours, of course they had to "rearrange the cargo because of the heat", which ended up making us sit at the gate for one extra hour. I always believed that, despite the chairs' ability to reline quite a long way, it was proper airplane etiquette to only recline your chair an inch or two. I was, of course, behind the person who never got that memo. Sitting in those chairs for 14 hours, with your legs squished, with only the most dull, drab, movie/tv/game selections which a dozen hours of sheer boredom couldn't bring me to watch even through my mp3 player decided it would only play the 10 songs on shuffle over and over does not a happy camper make. And don't even get me started on the airplane food. I can't believe Alex was brave enough to eat any of it. Needless to say, I was absolutely starving by the time we arrived, which was only half an hour behind schedule. But the plan was to meet up with Mizuho, then Alex's friend Yuki, and grab some dinner.

However, things sort of hit a snag. After being some of the last people off the plane and then the last people out of the restrooms afterwards, by the time we went to find the rest of everybody, they were gone already. All the signs had secondary directions in English, but despite that, Alex and I couldn't figure out why the sign that had the baggage claim picture was trying to take us to domestic flight transfers. Well, after much walking in circles and asking questions in broken Japanese, we found the way we were going. But I was a little unnerved when we reached the baggage claim, because we were the only foreigners there. It's not that that is weird in itself, it's that there were a lot of foreigners on the flight, and we didn't see any of them there getting their luggage. However, we kept checking the electronic screen, and it said we were in the right place. But we became even more worried when our bags weren't coming out. 

Alex then glanced around a pillar to a smaller electronic sign, which was alerting that the luggage claim for Chicago's flight- our flight- was over, and apparently had been over for as long as we were over there, and this was luggage for a flight from L.A.! I was shocked- it's not like we had been THAT far behind he rest of the group, but somehow they decided since there were only two bags left, they would just take them off the baggage claim. We ran to the nearest official looking question, and Alex, who had been letting me take charge for all Japanese related things, started asking what had become of our luggage. The airport lady said she didn't know, but American Airlines had a desk on the other side of the room, and we turned, and saw two large suitcases sitting out in the open, a bit distance between them and the AA desk. That was beyond scary. And we looked mega dorky when we ran up the counter and grabbed those bags like they were our lost children.

But poor Mizuho- she had been waiting for us for an hour, what with the flight delay, the getting lost, and the baggage shenanigans. But she was there, waiting for us when we came out. I hadn't seen Mizuho since high school, and she looked absolutely adorable, and very fashion forward-like most Japanese girls- and I suddenly felt even more disgusting with how...disgusting I was, what with the traveling for nearly 24 hours. Although we had our giant suitcases with us, were exhausted, starving, disgusting, sore, and so many other negative adjectives, Yuki was set on meeting us at Tama Plaza station in Yokohama to eat at a Ramen shop (and that is pronounced Ra as in Egyptian Sun God, and men, as it what it's raining, hallelujah). So bought tickets for the rather expensive, but nice, charter bus, which would take us from Narita to Tama Plaza.

The bus drive actually took nearly two hours. We all were quite hungry by the time we got there, especially Mizuho, but we had so much fun reminiscing on the bus about high school, and talking about Japanese-which Mizuho still hasn't had to hear me more than speak one sentence in XD

^ Me and Mizuho                                                                ^ The Ramen

The ramen was absolutely delicious. I forgot to take a picture of it before I butchered it, but it was filled with pork and shallots and...other things that Mizuho didn't know what their English names were. And the tea they had was some ice tea with- I swear- honey and some other secret ingredient in it. It was excellent.

After dinner, Alex and Yuki and Mizuho and I split ways, and Mizuho and I headed off to her home hear outside Yokohama, via the train and a taxi (which are rather inexpensive here, I might add).

Once here, I took a shower in the Japanese style shower- I can't really explain it now. I'll have to take a picture- and started this blog. Oh, and was shunned by Mizuho's cat (I know, right? Who'd a thunk), who we call A-chan. It's short for Anzu (杏), which means apricot. While Mizuho was taking her shower, I talked to her mom a bit, and I presumably sounded like a child who can speak sentences, but is slow and challenged with them. As a thank you gift, I had brought Michigan made cherry preserves and pumpkin butter, which I believe went over successfully.

Right now though, I am exhausted. There is other stuff I didn't write about yet, mainly being the awesome ride through Tokyo. Tomorrow, since I'm spending the day in the city, I will cover that stuff, but for now I'll leave you with this random little video I made outside the ramen shop. I've gotta wake up early to go to school tomorrow. We're going to Mizuho's class about organs (as in the body kind)...not my favorite subject...but it should be adventurous! And perhaps magical, even :D Ja mata!

Mary

Location: Sitting on Mizuho's bed 

Mood: Exhausted (- -)z..z..z..

Listening to: A-chan's collar's bell jingle as she runs around the living room

Japanese for the day: 怠け者 (なまけもの) Namakemono - Lazy Person