The Journey to My New Home Pt. (a.k.a. why flying during typhoon season sucks)

As I settled into the plane, getting comfortable and mentally prepared for a 10 hours flight, I tried to subdue all my doubts and nervousness. Was I somehow making a huge mistake leaving home and deciding to live in a foreign country by myself for a year? All I could do was reassure myself that I wouldn’t truly know until I tried it.

Sleeping on the plane turned out to be quite easy. I had brought along my new puffy, purple coat and plush Totoro doll, which in combination made for a great pillow to sleep on. I did try my best to sleep (I had gotten maybe 5 hours at most the night before), and I thought that napping might help the ridiculously long travel time pass by faster. I also passed the time by watching movies, reading books, and playing Harvest Moon on my DS.

I felt lucky that United Airlines was able to offer me gluten-free food for the two meals they provided during out flight. However, it was still airplane food and thus was not the most appealing. Then again the regular, gluten-full foods didn’t look much better.  In the end I did the best I could with what was available.

Overall the majority of my 10ish hour flight was comfortable, but by the time we crossed over the Bering Strait, passing the Kamchatka peninsula, and heading south to Tokyo via northern Japan, we hit so many stormy patches that our plane was jostled by turbulence almost constantly for the last two hours.

Unfortunately this persistent and inescapable turbulence mixed with airplane cuisine resulted in me becoming intensely motion sick. I was very surprised by this since my last flight to Japan about 2 years ago had been so uneventful. I guess I just want everyone to know that what happened to me was unusual, and if you fly to Japan it will most likely be very comfortable and not nauseating. I find it amusing though that the airline has kept offering me an upgrade to a more expensive, more comfortable seat, but in the end no amount of leg room will protect you from motion sickness when the whole aircraft is shaken by a storm.  

I managed to keep my composure until we landed, and was grateful to by on solid ground once again. The heat and humidity though, were as oppressive as I remember. The temperature when we landed on Tuesday September, 7^th @ 3pm was over 90 degrees F with over 70% humidity. In other words, the atmosphere assaulted me as I left behind the air-conditioned airplane.

I am happy to say that getting through customs and security at Narita airport was a much more pleasant experience then getting through security in Seattle. I am not sure why this tends to be the case, but I always am treated better and with more respect in airports outside of the United States. After answering basic questions and presenting my official documentation, I was through customs without a hitch – no one even wanted to inspect my luggage.  

Now that I had finally arrived it was only a matter of finding the way to my hotel for the night. By this point in my journey I was exhausted and in recovery from my earlier motion sickness – all I wanted to do was get to my hotel room where I could relax, get online, check emails, check Facebook, skype, and just generally reconnect with my loved ones and life back in Seattle. The loneliness had begun to set in.

Me and my two ginormous suitcases (each was less then 50lbs, but combined were a 90lb monster I had to drag behind me) somehow made it on the free shuttle to the Narita Port Hotel. I immediately checked in and retired to my room. It was then to my great disappointment I learned that my room did not come with Wi-fi or any internet connection and I wouldn’t be able to truly reconnect with home until I moved into my dorm the next day. Needless to say my loneliness grew a little more.

I did manage to find a little internet kiosk near the lobby though, where for 100yen (roughly a dollar) I could get online long enough to check my emails for anything important and then send out a message letting my family know I had arrived safely.

After that I was too exhausted to do anything interesting. I didn’t eat, couldn’t even manage the bath I wanted so badly – I just fell asleep watching TV.