Hello Hirakata! (First non-advisory post)

Hello again, fellow travelers!

I'm happy to report that my flight across the biggest ocean on earth went just fine. Aside from being extremely exhausted by the time my plane landed in Tokyo on Monday afternoon, I was feeling really excited to finally be in Japan (and more than a little relieved to finally be off of the plane). Getting through customs turned out to be mostly really simple (the forms distributed on the plane were pretty self-explanatory). The only issue I had getting into the country was one simple mishap which turned out to actually not be a mishap at all.

You see, at no point did anyone tell me that upon arrival in Japan, I would be given an official residence card. So when I gave my passport and visa to the customs guy and was asked if I had a "name card," my immediate internal reaction was to panic that my name on my passport was wrong somehow. I showed him my US learners' permit, (the closest thing I had to a "name card"), but of course, that didn't do anything for me. He passed me off from one customs person to another, about five different people in a row, and thanks to my panic, my grasp of the Japanese language essentially went completely out the window. Thus, I had no idea what anyone was talking about. I ended up being directed by a rather stern-looking gentleman into a small waiting room with an angry-looking yellow sign on the wall that said "MOBILE PHONE USE IS NOT ALLOWED IN THIS ROOM" in like twelve different languages.

"I'm screwed," I thought. "I haven't even left the airport yet and I'm already getting deported for who-knows-what reason. Worst of all, I can't even contact the Embassy to beg them to come help my sorry self who doesn't even know what she did wrong."

While I was sitting in the waiting room, the stern-looking gentleman was busy typing into a computer in front of a desk just in front of me. While I wondered to myself how on earth I was going to afford getting on the very next flight back to the States, since that'd probably cost several thousands of dollars, the guy behind the desk suddenly stood up and gave me a big smile.

"Welcome to Japan, Miss Roop," he said as he handed me my freshly-printed Residence Card (think basically the Japanese equivalent of a green card). "We are so glad you are here."

Well, I just about died of relief. Several "arigatou gozaimasu"s later, I was able to continue through customs, pick up my baggage, go through even more customs, and then find myself in the main concourse of Narita International Airport.

With my internal clock set to about 2:00 AM at this point, things were about to get interesting (and possibly catastrophic, depending on how well they decided to unfold).

Task 1: Find and obtain pocket wifi so I could inform my probably-panicking-by-now mother that yes, I survived the flight and landing. I knew I was supposed to find a specific counter to pick up my pocket wifi, but a quick survey of the concourse didn't help my tired brain locate it. So, I resorted to stopping at a counter and asking "QL wa doko desu ka?" Even though I wasn't really able to understand the response, I understood the gestures, and after some more "arigatou"s, I headed off in the right direction and eventually located the counter. None of the people running it spoke English, but I was able (with my little Japanese) to communicate I was there to pick up reserved pocket wifi and receive it. A few minutes later, I was connected to the internet and able to inform people back home that yes, I was indeed still alive.

Task 2: Obtain Japanese cash. I headed over to a money exchange desk, but when I picked up an exchange form to fill out, my mind started to swim and nothing made sense. Alright, so that wasn't going to work. I remembered reading somewhere that there was a 7-Eleven in the airport, so "QL wa doko desu ka?" evolved into "Sebun-Erebun wa doko desu ka?" Soon enough, I was able to locate the 7-Eleven and get some cash out of an ATM. So far, so good.

Task 3: Find the train to my hotel and arrive there without getting irreparably lost. It was going on 3 AM EBST by this point (Elizabeth's Brain Standard Time), and again, when I tried to look at a subway map, my head swam.

Not knowing what else to do, I went up to the ticket counter and asked (probably somewhat helplessly) "Eigo wo hanasemasu ka?"

"Yes," the lady behind the counter answered with a big smile. "How may I help you?"

I know I'm a stupid foreigner and all, since I'm not fluent in Japanese, but I can't tell you how much I appreciate that wonderful lady. I showed her where my hotel was, and she pulled out a map of all the Tokyo lines, circled the station I'd need to transfer at, told me which line to take to get there and which line to switch to, and which stop to get off at. And then, she sold me a ticket covering the transfer, so I was able to get all the way to my hotel without having to stop to buy anymore tickets. I found my way down to the subway lines, got on the right train, got off at the right station, got on the right train again, got off at the right station, and using Apple maps, found my hotel about ten minutes after leaving the station. Check in was quick, and not much time later at all, I was finally able to stop dragging 100 pounds worth of luggage around and flop on the bed to reorganize myself for a few minutes.

After that, I found some water, cleaned up, and forced myself to stay awake a few more hours until it reached about 9 PM local time (which was about 6 AM EBST). After that, I passed out pretty much instantaneously.

I woke up at about 5:30 AM the next morning. After hanging out in my hotel room for awhile and calling my family, I picked up my bento box breakfast from downstairs (it was delicious), and then spent the day exploring the nearby Tokyo Solomachi, eating lunch at the Kirby Cafe, and going up the Tokyo Skytree. You can see a compilation of my adventures that day here. I passed out at about 8 PM that night, and woke up around 4:30 the next morning. After dozing on and off for a few hours, it was time to head to Kansai Gaidai.

And so began the most exhausting day of my trip so far.

Making it to Shinagawa Station (the nearest bullet train station) wasn't hard at all, despite the fact I was dragging around 100 pounds of luggage again. But once I got there, that was when things started getting difficult. First, I tried to go through the wrong ticket gate and had my ticket eaten by the machine. Congrats, doofus, you're officially stuck in Shinagawa Station forever. Thankfully, the station guard helped me get my ticket out and pointed me in the right direction. I ended up on the right floor to buy a shinkansen ticket, but managed to buy a reserved seat on the train without buying a ticket for the train itself. Once that got fixed, I had about fifteen minutes left until my train arrived.

Up to this point, every station I'd been in had had an elevator available to help me lug my bags around. Shinagawa had elevators elsewhere, but to get down to the bullet train platform, there were only escalators.

Now, later on in the day when I encountered places that just had stairs, I would just take one big checked bag down the stairs at a time, making sure to keep them both in full view at all times. But with a down escalator, you can't exactly do that if there's no up escalator right next to it. I was going to have to take both bags down at once.

And a moment after I began to try, it became fairly obvious that either one of my bags was going down, or I was. Rather than sacrifice myself, I ended up dropping the bigger of my two bags. Thank goodness, no one else was on the escalator at the time, but I felt so bad telling the station guard "gomen nasai" and bowing over and over again after he came to fetch my bag after it tumbled.

(Though an interesting side note--for some reason, after my bag started to fall, my instinctive reaction was to cry out "IIE!" instead of "NO!" Funny how quickly the brain changes languages.)


Somehow or other, I made it to the right platform with my bags about five minutes before the train arrived. I started to relax, only to remember about sixty seconds before the train arrived that I was supposed to get into a specific car. A quick look at my ticket told me I needed to find car 5.

I was currently standing at the spot for car 16 or 17, I don't remember which.

Whichever it was, it was nowhere near where I needed to be.

I raced down the platform, but once the train pulled into the station, I didn't want to risk getting left behind. I climbed onto car 9, and about ten seconds later, by the time I made it to car 8, the train took off. I somehow managed to maintain my forward momentum without falling over, and made it to car 5 a minute later.

And then proceeded to sit in the wrong seat.

I managed to get that part fixed a moment later, at least. Sadly, I was in an aisle seat, so I didn't get any pictures of the outside scenery, and wasn't exactly able to see it very well, either.

A couple hours later, I arrived at Kyoto station. I was able to get off the train with no problems or forgotten belongings. Now it was time to find my way to Hirakata. Thankfully, I was able to find a station guard who spoke English, who gave me a Kyoto area subway map and explained which stops I'd need to take to get to Hirakata, just as the lady in Tokyo had. I eventually found the right subway line and ticket machine, and bought a ticket to the transfer station since I'd be switching rail companies.

Once I got to the transfer station, I finally found some well-deserved lunch. By this point, I was about ready to fall over from exhaustion. "Just one more train," I told myself, "and you'll basically be there."

During that last train ride, a kind older lady noticed how tired I was, scooted over in her elder-reserved seating area, and patted the seat next to her, asking me to sit down even though I wasn't the seat's targeted demographic. I thanked her, and when I got off the train a few stops later, she basically told me the Japanese equivalent of "You take care now, dear."

Well, after that, I was indeed in the right city, but still not at Kansai Gaidai. I got a taxi to the main campus with some help from a kind gentleman who spoke very little English but was very eager to help an obviously-lost foreigner.

(During our short conversation, he told me, "I love America! But Japan is very good country." He helped me lug my bags from the wrong floor of the train station (where I was lost) to the taxi area and told the taxi driver to take me to campus. I wish him the best; he was definitely one of my favorite encounters so far.)

Unfortunately, once I got to the campus, it turned out I was in the wrong place. The campus guards gave me directions, but I got confused and ended up going the wrong way. I ran into a couple of exchange students, though, who pointed me in the right direction.

And so began my mile-and-a-half trek to the right dorms, dragging my bags behind me all the way. I thought about calling a taxi again, but quickly realized it'd be silly to spend money on a taxi when I was so close. I could have taken a bus, but I knew nothing about the local buses at this point and knew it'd be hard to navigate them with all of my luggage.

Finally, I arrived at the right dorm. After checking in and meeting my roommate, I got a little settled in, but then unrolled my futon and basically just passed out at 8 PM. I didn't even eat dinner; I was so tired.

Unfortunately, this meant when I woke up the next morning, I was super hungry and had nothing to eat. Thankfully, figuring out the buses wasn't hard at all, and I was able to find a 7-Eleven near campus to buy lunch at. (I highly recommend all of the different kinds of sandwiches you can get at 7-Eleven here in Japan; they're delicious.)

The past couple of days have mainly just involved doing orientation-type stuff at Kansai Gaidai. A large group of us foreign exchange students suffered through opening a local bank account (mainly a hassle because we all had to write in a very specific way, and if you messed up the style of even a single letter or number on a form, you had to completely start it over. By the end, those of us still struggling through (including me, who apparently cannot correctly write the number "8" to save her life) had started jokingly calling the experience "purgatory" and "eternal damnation.")

Following a Japanese placement test, I got put into a Level 2 class. I had hoped to do a little better than that, but oh well. Tomorrow afternoon, I meet and move in with my homestay family (who apparently have two young daughters around the age of my little sister back home, and live only about 25 minutes away from campus by bus). Classes start next Friday, and assuming I get the classes I want, I'll only have one 9:00 AM class all week; all the rest of my classes will start at 10:45 AM or later.

Well, that's a summary of what's been happening to me so far. I'm mainly just relieved I haven't gotten seriously lost yet or gotten on a wrong train at any point. Overall, Japan is even better than I'd ever imagined. And I don't know why it is, whether that I've studied the country so thoroughly in the past or what, but while some things have been surprising me (such as the 5 PM Chime, a phenomenon I have yet to get a decent video of but absolutely adore), I haven't really encountered any major culture shock yet. All of the food, while different, is delicious. Futon are surprisingly comfortable and sleep-on-able. If anything, the only thing I haven't really enjoyed so far is how cold all the buildings are. Central heating doesn't exist here; individual rooms have smaller heating/cooling units, but they're not terribly effective. Futons are warm, though, which means that I spend a lot of my free time in the dorm hiding under the heavy blankets (like I'm doing right this second, actually).

I've been posting lots of photos of my adventures so far to my Facebook story, so if you want to be able to see them, feel free to add me on Facebook! Assuming I actually know/trust you, I'll certainly accept the request.

Well, I've gone on more than long enough. Stay warm, fellow travelers (I've heard a giant snowstorm is about to pummel the Midwest), and I'll be back soon with more tales from afar.

Cloud Sandwich

"Cloud Sandwich" (original poem)

Clouds above.

Clouds below.

Clouds around,

Like pillowed snow.

Out of one layer--

Into another--

The world below

Is gone and smothered.

This awkward bird

With incredulous wings

Holds the only people

Left on earth, it seems.

With clouds above,

And clouds below,

I am inside

An Oreo;

A cloud sandwich

Is taking me far from home.

Off to new adventures

In lands as yet unknown.

It All Comes Together

There's not a lot to say in this post. Other than any further advice I might later have to offer about going through customs, this is where this blog changes from being "how to get to Japan" to "here's what I'm up to!" It might take me a few days or weeks to have time to write my first post, since I'm going to be traveling/busy for the next half a week or so (since I'm gonna be playing tourist for a couple days before heading to school). During the orientation week, I'll also probably be too busy to find time to write any new posts.

But we've made it this far, fellow travelers! It's time for all of my hard work over the past six months (and beyond that, over the past over seven years) to finally culminate in what will hopefully be an incredible, life-altering experience.

Stay safe and warm, my friends, and I'll see you on the other side (of the Pacific Ocean).

今まだ、頑張ります！

さようなら、アメリカ！初めまして、日本！

The Funnest Part of All

If you can't just hear the scathing sarcasm in that title, it's only because you don't know what it's referring to.

Packing.

Every time I go anywhere, I always tend to underestimate how much of a pain in the neck packing really is. Even if it's just to visit friends in another state for a few weeks, packing two checked bags and a backpack seems like a hassle. Imagine how much worse it is when you're trying to fit enough clothing, hygienic items, cosmetics, and reminders of home into two suitcases (especially when each suitcase has a 50-pound weight limit).

Needless to say, shoving my life into these two cloth cubes has not been a walk in the park this week.

(Especially since I wasn't able to fit my beloved ukulele anywhere, which has me more than a little bit sad.)

There are study abroad packing lists all over the internet, but I found these two to be particularly helpful: "2 Suitcases + 1 Year = Study Abroad Packing List" (from The Study Abroad Blog), about general study abroad packing, and "Packing for Japan" (from Temple University Storytellers), about packing for, well, Japan.

Past these, my biggest recommendation is vacuum space saver bags. If you're like me and abnormally tall, fitting an appropriate amount of clothes into an average-sized suitcase isn't exactly easy, especially if you're heading somewhere where winter weather is still a possibility, so you need to take boots and a heavy winter coat. I ended up using space saver bags to compact my clothes into dense blocks. With a bag for my pillow and a few favorite stuffed animals, a bag for most of my clothes, and a bag for my heavy coat, I was able to fit pretty much all the clothes I'm taking into one suitcase. Of course, if for whatever reason security tries to open the bags during transit, I'm probably gonna end up losing clothes. I tried to get a hand pump I could use with the bags, but the one I bought didn't fit my brand of bags.

Great luck, right?

So to try and avoid security deciding they need to inspect my bags any further than normal, I've taken the extra precaution of keeping any clothes that contain any sort of metal outside of the vacuum bags and floating free in the suitcase. I've also made sure to keep a few outfits outside of the bags (beyond the two in my carryon) so that I can access clean clothes without having to prematurely open the bags (since I'll be spending about a week in a dorm at Kansai Gaidai before being moved to my homestay).

I'm hoping everything goes alright with my checked bags, but the biggest suggestion I'd make if you want to use space saver bags is to either find a set that comes with a hand pump, or only invest in the travel space saver bags that you can roll the air out of instead of vacuuming them (I'm using two of those for my carryon; unfortunately, the set I got didn't come with any more than that).

Since I fit the vast majority of my clothes in one bag (here's hoping it doesn't get lost, either), I was able to fit my school supplies, some books, a gift for my homestay family, and everything else I needed/really wanted to take into my other (slightly smaller) bag. My carryon contains the typical carryon stuff (a quart-sized bag of liquids, my laptop, a veritable pound of spaghetti-aka-chargers, and a couple of clean changes of clothes), and I also have a smaller bag (aka my "personal item") that I'm using to carry even more chargers, my Nintendo 3DS (in-flight entertainment), and a good book (ditto).

The only other important thing I'd note about packing is to remember that you have to follow certain laws about what you can and can't bring into Japan. Pseudoephedrine is illegal in Japan (the active ingredient in Sudafed, among many other American medicines). Narcotics are strictly regulated, and all drugs with psychotropic effects are either strictly regulated or illegal. Viagra and Prozac are illegal. When it comes to drugs that are legal, you have to fill out a special form to bring more than one month's worth of any prescription drug, or more than two months' worth of any vitamin/supplement or OTC med.

When it comes to cosmetics, you are only allowed to bring 24 of each kind of makeup (so, like, 24 tubes of mascara, 24 lipsticks, etc.). My makeup collection isn't nearly this big, so I didn't really have any issues there (especially since I only ended up taking like a third of the little makeup I do have).

And of course, you are not allowed to bring any sort of weapons, whether a pocket knife, a sword, or any kind of firearm. Plants and animals will be held in quarantine for quite some time to prevent the spread of disease or pests, so if you have an emotional support animal, it won't be very easy to bring them into the country. Explicit materials are also not allowed (possessing explicit materials involving children will land you in especially hot water, as it bloody well should), as are illegal drugs and counterfeit money of any type. You are, however, allowed to bring up to 200 cigarettes and/or three bottles of drinking alcohol (up to 760 ml each).

Beyond that, just be sure to look over Japanese regulations on what you can and can't bring into the country. You don't want to start your study abroad adventure by being held up in customs at the airport, or worse, being fined, detained, or even deported.

I'm still not 100% sure how actually going through customs works, myself. I know in the movies they always ask "Do you have anything to declare?" but I'm not entirely sure what qualifies as being declaration-worthy. I've read that customs forms will be distributed on the plane, and I'm hoping that'll make it easier to figure out what does/doesn't need to be declared.

Well, I'll probably write another post about going through customs once I'm safely on the other side. Here's hoping me and all my stuff make it safely and soundly to the Land of the Rising Sun!

TL;DR: Honestly, there's not much I can really summarize here. Check out customs laws. Make sure to pack everything you're going to need. Don't overpack. Look into vacuum space saver bags.