Through the Looking Glass

Ohayoo! Good morning! Welcome to my blog. This will be a very simple blog, nothing too fancy. It's merely a way to record events and let friends and family know what's happening to me over here.

My journey to Japan began at 5:00 a.m. on January 25 in Rochester, MN. I traveled over 6,230 miles to arrive at 9:00 p.m. January 26 in Hirakata, my new home. The journey was long, but it went smoothly. I've never flown by myself before. However, I felt more lonely than anxious during my trip. Luckily, I had the journal some of my friends had given me on my 20th birthday. In the journal are pictures of them and my family, inspirational quotes, and best of all written messages from them. (Thank you so much Mikka, Megan, Nate, and Chris. You guys are amazing!)

On the 13 hour flight from Chicago to Tokyo I was served two meals, listened to some Japanese music, tried to brush up on my Japanese, and watched two movies. First to talk about the food. It was airplane food, so I didn't expect much. Nonetheless, it was delicious. There was rice, chicken, noodles, and best of all Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Also the second meal was rather odd. It looked like typical spaghetti, noodles and sauce, but with a seafood twist. I identified the shrimp and crab, but there were also clusters of purple tentacles! The whole thing actually tasted pretty good. While "studying" I listened to a Japanese station called "Sound Shower" that supposedly played popular Japanese songs, my favorite was "Sweet Happy Birthday." :) The two movies I watched were The Jane Austen Book Club and Meet the Robinsons. The 2nd, a Disney movie, was a definite fave. The quote that appeared at the end was extremely encouraging: "Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." ~Walt Disney. When I arrived at Osaka airport I met up with the Kansai Gaidai staff member, along with two other students, Alex and Mario from Mexico. We took an hour long shuttle ride to our the seminar house, where I was shown to my room.

Well, that about sums it up for my journey here. I'll write more later! Jaa mata!