The Flight to Japan

This is it, my official first update since my disclaimer. Rather then getting into great detail of how I came to be in the position that I am, that will be left up to future posts. I already feel that I'm too far ahead in the story but I thought it best to not put this off any longer and just start and move forward from here.

I'm now in Japan.

I'll wait for that to settle for a minute.

I think I plan to be here for a year but that may change. At least that's the plan right now. Why did I come? I'll leave that for another posting. Now, this time I did not attempt all this craziness by myself. Had circumstances been different, I may have attempted this adventure in time. But I am currently here in Kyoto, Japan, with my girlfriend Helene. You can visit her blog at http://heleneinjapan.blogspot.com . So for the most part when I say I, it may have been a we.

Its been 10 days since I've gotten here and already I have more to write and tell you about than I can possibly list here. In 10 days I've had to recover from an incredible jet-lag that I believe myself to still be suffering from. Currently it is a 13 hour difference between here and Ottawa, Canada. So if you Canadians are trying to figure out the conversion just add 13 to whatever time you may have.

The experience traveling here was 28 hours long from doorstep to doorstep; in and out of consciousness the whole way. I left my house at 4:00am on Wednesday September 16th and arrived at 10:00pm on Thursday September 17th at my final destination. If you're wondering how that doesn't add up to 28 hours it's because you didn't consider the time difference. The main flight from Chicago to Tokyo was 13 hours with Japan Airlines. The service was with a smile, and I mean a authentic smile, not those "I'm smiling so I don't get fired" kind of smiles. I believe that the Japanese pride themselves on whatever job they do. It's entrusted to them so they do it to the best of their abilities. I think this reflects many aspects of their society which I won't get into right now. They authentically seemed happy to serve. I don't know if that's possible but it seems to be here, even though the service was excellent the food was awful. A direct contrast to flying with French airlines. I'm not sure which I prefer more.

The guidebook that I purchased mentioned that I would have to be processed when I arrived at my final destination in Japan. Since I was sick when I left, I was very concerned that I would be held in the contamination ward. I have no idea how paranoid they are. There was a clear sign as I entered that people's temperature was being read somehow. I guess through an infrared or something? Apparently, blowing your nose in front of Japanese people is very much frowned upon. Wiping is alright but not blowing. If you need to, you move discreetly to a corner or something like that. Anyway, after the temperature section came the processing. Picture and figure prints are taken; not with ink but digitally. So I walked up, place your hand here and look here. That's it. I was helped with my bag and was approached with please and thank yous all though the metal detectors and the rest of it. It was fast and efficient and all done in a air-conditioned environment. Think of that next time you're at the Philadelphia airport with 3000 people's BO smelling up the place and the guard yelling at you to move and take off all your clothes while they prepare you for the full body cavity search. I was yelled at a few times in the Chicago processing because I didn't move fast enough. Nonetheless, the flights went smoothly and to reach our hostel I took a taxi. I simply could not prepare myself to decipher how to get where I needed to get in the mental condition I was in by this point in time.

Our final destination was a hostel named Jhoppers in Kyoto.