The flight
Trip Start
Jan 27, 2008
1
2
6
Trip End
May 31, 2008
Osaka,
Japan
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The flight to Vancouver was on one of those fancy little propeller planes so it was pretty dang bouncy, but really neat to see a propeller plane that actually uses its propellers for flight rather than decoration. When I arrived at the airport it was pretty cool. It kind of looking like something you would see around home, lots of Native American - well, in this case I suppose they'd be Native Canadian - artwork, totem poles, whales, raven etc. There was this neat tropical fish tank in the center of the food court and it was on a bridge over a river. Not a real river mind you, a fake one, it even had fake, metal, salmon in it. I spent two hours there just waiting at the gate to talk to someone who could print me a boarding pass. The people that worked there were generally of no help, and the food court people spoke very little English. Fortunately their rudimentary English and my practically non-existent French was able to get me lunch.
The plane to Osaka, as stated before, was a nice flight. It was empty and there was plenty of in-flight entertainment. It was weird to hear so many announcements, they would say it in English and then repeat it in French and then repeat it in Japanese. It took about 7 minutes just to announced that we were ready for take-off.
The food on the plane was not very appetizing, and honestly quite small portions, I was glad that I grabbed some food in SeaTac. The entire flight was above a thick wall of clouds so I didn't get to see the ocean and wasn't able to see Japan until we were about 3 feet of the ground.
The trip through customs and the port of entry went ridiculously quick. They fingerprinted me and took my picture and then sent me on my way. Surprisingly my bags were there despite all the flight transfers, my bags made it to Osaka at the same time I did. The airport was small and muggy, but I was only in there for about a half and hour. I found the school's representatives right away and soon after that me and about 13 other people were whisked away onto a charter bus for a little under a two hour drive to the school's Seminar Houses. Well, to be more specific, to Seminar House 4, from there the rest of us had to walk about five minutes in the rain to the other seminar houses. Luckily the got a hold of a truck for all of our luggage.
For this week I'm staying in Seminar house 4. It's the nicest one in my opinion. It's a suite style. There's a kitchen, larger than mine at home even (but we're not allowed to use the dishes this week, they're all locked up), and a family room area, which is equipped with a TV and long couch. There's a bathroom with two toilets and two showers which I'm sharing with 9 other girls. The bathroom is very different to say the least. The shower has a mirror in it and the toilet has a sink on top of it. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to use it to wash my hands though because every time that is flushed the water on the top turns on automatically and there doesn't appear to be a way to turn it on other than to flush the toilet. The hand dryer is like that one in the commercials right now supposedly designed by that vacuum guy. It's neat and works really really well.
My two roommates aren't here yet by they should show up sometime tomorrow. The two girls in the room next door are really nice and they've been showing me how everything works. One is from North Carolina and the other is from New Zealand. By the time I finally got into my room I pretty much crashed. It was around 10 at night here, but it was somewhere around 5 or 6 in the morning back at home. It was a really hectic 24 hours.
Comments
Being There
Hi Princess,
Glad you made it safely to Japan. I hope your trip exceeds all of your expectations. Have fun and be safe. I'm going to forward your blog to Aunt Lynn and Poppy.
L
UNCKPY