Flying Into Immersion

Bam! Slapped right into Tokyo! I feel like it was instant; as soon as I got off the plane. I stepped out and right into the warm embrace of the arms of foreign culture immersion. And though I felt prepared, I feel the one thing I needed most escaped me my first night here: my Japanese. It was as if I couldn’t utter a word. Well, let’s backtrack, instead of slapping you readers right into the middle of this I’ll find a clean starting point and go from there.

In reality, my journey started in America. Practically from the moment I got on the first plane. It being about half full I sat at the window with a center seat dividing me and the closest passenger. We chatted a little bit and just found out a bit about where the other was heading. Mostly I was too anxious to find any sleep or relaxation on the short flight. Now the second flight, that’s another story… I found myself quickly in the company of a rather multi-cultural group of people. Immigrants to America going home to visit family, other study students, people going home to Japan, and a few business men/women and others going for jobs. What I discovered at Narita Airport on my arrival was that more than half of the people on the plane were only connecting to another flight in Narita and planning to travel up to 6 hours more after the 13 hour flight! No way~

I sat at a window as I originally intended. Next to me sat a Thai immigrant who had been living in America for over 30 years. She had raised children and a family there. And her English was likewise, though surprisingly, perfect. And next to her sat a Chinese immigrant. Both were only connecting through Narita to their respective country. The Thai lady was very interesting and we carried on rather long conversations between sleeping. And I was surprised she was so into such mainstream things for being her age. She was talking to me about World of Warcraft, Guild Wars and other such internet games as well as various popular and lengthy anime (Japanese animation) series which she managed to watch all of and enjoyed. The food and service on the plane was amazing! When you fly international it’s like a completely different experience, it would seem.

Delicious sausage, eggs and hashbrowns.

While flying somewhere over the ocean I was excited to see some islands which, according to our location given by the screens on board, were the Kuril Islands. Islands like these are a new site to me. It’s not every day you get to see a volcano rising out of the ocean. Not when you’re from the east coast USA. Add to that the fact that we were about an hour and a half away from Tokyo and I was too excited to try to go back to sleep. So I stayed up the rest of the time and got the following pics:

Notice they're driving on the wrong side.

Narita hedges!

Walking to the arrivals area.

After arriving at Narita it was actually very smooth sailing through the passport, baggage claim, and customs areas. Instantly I experienced a big culture immersion as the largest writing on the signs was Japanese, not English. On the other side I met another guy who would be traveling back to the dorm with me and the two girls who were our guides. I exchanged money at 10 yen per dollar more than I did when in America and found the clerk very apologetic for keeping me waiting. She even gave me a pack of tissue as consolation.

I will reduce this post to only this much and post later on what I have experienced while here in Tokyo so far. It’s FAAAR too much for one post to handle. I may even have to break the next one into two parts. So, keep an eye out!

Writing from Koganei, Tokyo, Japan | September 22, 2008