The First Few Days

Well, I've got a bit of catching up to do.  I meant to start blogging soon after I arrived in Japan, but there ended up being a little issue with phone and internet plans.  So now that I've forgotten a lot of details, here's the watered down version of my first month in Mito City. :)  Good thing I took a lot of pictures!

Wednesday April 8, 2015

I arrived at LAX around noon.  Up until this point I had been somewhat in denial that I was leaving.   Even while I had been packing until about 4am, I didn't cry until my friends finally went home (they had 'helped' me pack while watching The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).  I was a composed woman until my suitcases were out on the sidewalk at the International Terminal.  After a round of emotional farewells, I was on my way.

Both of my suitcases, as things turned out, were both over the weight limit (which was 23kg.  Mine were 26 and 24).  The lady at the counter was, thankfully, a very nice lady.  She simply stuck the bold "HEAVY" tags on the handles, heaved them onto the conveyor belt, and gave me my ticket without having me pay the overweight fee.

After a long wait to get through security, I finally made it to the terminal and met up with Jerrie, another AET.  We ate lunch, then made it back just in time for boarding.

When I had bought my Singapore Airlines tickets in early March, the plane was almost full.  Boarding the plane and locating my seat in 43C, however, yielded another story.  I have a hard time believing that the plane was even 3/4ths full.  Empty seats were everywhere.  Many people had entire rows to themselves (myself and the guy in front of me included).  Although it was a nice and comfortable situation, it occurred to me that many people had canceled their bookings due to the recent incident of the doomed Germanwings flight.

Our flight, to my relief, continued without issue and we departed from LAX at 3:45pm.

One thing to note about Asian airlines:  They do not skimp on their airline food or their beverages. The food, despite being airline food, was very tasty and made the 11 hour flight quite bearable.

Customs forms!

Thursday April 9, 2015

Due to the 16-hour time difference in Japan, we arrived at NRT around 7pm the next day.  I only had one hang-up getting through customs: that damn Yakkan Shoumei.  

For anyone bringing in (or planning on having) more than a month's worth of approved medication in Japan, declaration form called a Yakkan Shoumei needs to be filled out.  You have to meticulously fill out the ingredients, amount, and write a description of every single medication on a few sheets of paper, then send it to the proper Japanese department to be approved.  It takes about a week to send, and about another week to be stamped and sent back.  To my embarrassment, I only had about a week turnaround to get the form completed before I left.  I ended up having it arranged to where I was able to email the document to the right Inspector and have the Yakkan Shoumei emailed back to me in time. Ah, I love it when things are actually easy for a change.

That kicked me in the pants when I was actually going through customs and the inspectors couldn't figure out why I had the "abridged" version of the document I was supposed to have.  And of course I had left the original copy of the Yakkan Shoumei at home.  After watching the puzzled inspectors flip through a huge book of medications and struggle to match my words up with kanji for a good 15 minutes, I think they finally gave up and just let me catch up with my group.  I think they figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't trying to sneak in crystal meth.

Friday April 10, 2015

We all stayed at the Narita Excel Hotel Tokyu.  A Mito City bus was scheduled to pick us up at the hotel lobby around noon, so we spent a little while congregating in the lobby.  

With all our massive suitcases.

The Mito City bus pulled up right on time.  After meeting with our superiors, Mr. Hosoya and Ms. Haginoya, we piled in the bus alongside our compatriots from the Oklahoma Christian University and sped off into the countryside.

It was an overcast, drizzly day.  We passed miles of wet countryside and lots of uniquely Japanese architecture.  It was a sight I was familiar with, but it gave me a very different feeling this time around.  This was now my home.  There was a very good chance I would be seeing this sort of landscape every single day.  That still didn't stop me from taking a million pictures, though.

Kyle was the first AET to get dropped off.  He was pretty far out into the countryside and it was another fair bit of driving before we got to Mito Station, which was my stop.

Mito Station is located right beside the Sakuragawa River.  When we arrived, there were still sakura trees in bloom all the way down the riverbanks.  

I piled out of the bus and met my buddy and mentor: Taylor Christiansen.  One taxi ride later, we arrived at Sakuragawa Cherry Heights, my apartment complex.  The entire complex is a two-story building that is neatly tucked between a few other apartment buildings, houses, a pale green bridge, and is next to a red and grey gym called Renaissance.  The gym is quite a popular hangout for kids and adults and (I later discovered) can be seen from across the river.  Thankfully, my apartment was on the first floor, tucked at one end of the building.

I'm so glad I don't have to climb stairs to get to my apartment.

The apartment itself is (as most Japanese apartments are) on the small side.  Much to my surprise and extreme relief, it was almost completely furnished.  The previous AET had left behind some major pieces of furniture (the bed, a couch, a dresser, and a glass table) and many large appliances (a washing machine, microwave, convention oven, electric stove, and a refrigerator).  He had also left it very clean.  

Tradtional Japanese entryway.  Leave your shoes by the door before stepping up.

The door on the left is the toilet.  The shower is to the left of that.

I opened the closet to see what stuff was left behind for me.  I got an electric fan!

Definitely not a bad setup.  I had everything I needed for immediate comfort and I was in the most ideal place with the train station no more than five minutes away on foot.  The weekend was now mine to do with as I pleased.