Day 1: The Arrival

And to think everything was going so well up until I got here. After the brain-numbingly long flight, I arrived at the Narita airport to be informed in broken English that my bags were lost. Which is a problem, you see. Because when you're living abroad for a year, you need your bags. You see how that works?

And, yes, the toilets have more controls than a space shuttle.

Anyway, after a lot of scrambling back and forth between terminals and 26 hours of no sleep, I finally got my bags from the airline and headed for the orientation hotel. Though because it took so long for the airline to figure out what it did with my luggage, I had to head there after everyone else, causing me to miss the fun little meet and greet and dinner. I met a few people upon arrival—the few that hadn't yet gone to bed, that is. And they seemed like good folks. My hotel roommate Adrien and I got to know each other a bit before passing out from sheer exhaustion.

There really isn't a lot to write for today, because not a lot happened. I did get to practice my Japanese with two Japanese girls on the plane who were coming back from their first trip to America. They couldn't speak much English, and I couldn't speak much Japanese, but it was a fun conversation regardless.

Water pressure ALL the way up!

The toilets are pretty interesting too. They'll give you a little surprise if you're not careful about the buttons.