I HAVE ARRIVED

Before I say anything else, I feel this is most important to point out:

I DON'T HAVE A ROOMMATE! I DON'T HAVE A ROOMMATE! I'M ALREADY NOT WEARING PANTS!

Let's start at the beginning.  Yes, that is a very good place to start.

Wake up> last minute shit> airport.  Yay.  The security line took for-fucking-ever to get through.  On top of that, these two russian douchebags (probably the same age as me) decided to cut in line.  To make matters worse, one of them smelled HORRIBLY of B.O. through TWO sweatshirts.  Now, in case that wasn't bad enough, when you get to the actual security thingy, you must remove all jackets.  He did so, AND THE SMELL WORSENED.  Thank god he wasn't on my flight...


Waited waited waited for my plane


Got on my plane


Sat on my plane for 11ish hours.


That's about as eventful as my plane ride was.  I napped a lot, I read a lot.  I left my DS in the wrong bag, so I couldn't play Witch's Tale.  I was really, really (possibly too) sad about this...


I SAW MT. FUJI FROM THE PLANE! I SAW OFUJISAN FROM THE PLANE! I could be making this up, but I coulda sworn I read somewhere that if you see Mt. Fuji while you're flying into Japan, it means you're going to have a great trip...  That mountian could have also not been Mt. Fuji, BUT DON'T YOU FUCKING RAIN ON MY PARADE THAT MOUNTAIN WAS MT. FUJI IF I SAY IT WAS FUCKING MT FUJI.


My plane was full of a ridiculous number of attractive people.  One of them looked like a taller version of a younger Ninomiya Kazunari.  He waited behind me in the line for the bathrooms.  I was tempted to tell him he could share mine.  There was this other hawt dood within staring distance.  AND AT ONE POINT HE FELL ASLEEP BUT THE WAY HE WAS SITTING HE LOOKED LIKE HE WAS COLD AND I WANTED TO CUDDLE HIM SO BAD YOU HAVE NO IDEA OH MY GOD.


I had a window and noone sat directly next to me, so I was happy.  The guy two seats left of me tried a couple times to make weird, awkward conversation.  I responded politely and in a way that killed it and prevented him from saying anything to prolong the torture.


My iPod battery didn't die and I'm unbelievably grateful.


About half an hour before landing, I got that "OH MY GOD IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!" feeling. I kept watching the little countdown thing on the screens that said how long it was until we landed. It went from 31 to 28 to 37.  I was pissed.


I tried to study on the plane for my Japanese Language Placement Test.  If that was any indication of anything, then I haven't learned Japanese in a year and I'm going to fail.


While in the airport, I kept getting distracted by ridiculously attractive people.  Like, no joke, there were multiple occasions where I'd start to stare at someone and then realize a minute later that there were about 10~20 feet between me and the next person in line.  I'm going to die in this country.


Furthermore, everyone that worked at the immigrations thing was ALSO ridiculously attractive.  And I really really mean that.  There were, like, 10 people working it and it was a healthy mix of men and women.  They were all REALLY REALLY pretty.  Like, this isn't even, "OH, TIM HAS YELLOW FEVER AND HE WOULD BANG THEM LOL." No!  Like, if these people were in our high school, they would be the popular, pretty asians and they could bang whoever they wanted only they'd just be banging each other because that's about as well as you can do, really.  Also, I had a favorite, and I got placed in his line and I was so happy.


I went and I picked up the bags I checked AND THAT'S WHEN THE TROUBLE BEGAN.  Let's focus on my luggage for a minute, shall we?  I'll go back and pick apart the other important parts of this story afterward, but my luggage needs special mention.  I had two carry-ons.  One was a messenger bag.  It was of a decent weight because it had my laptop in it among other things.  The other was a backpack that was quite full.  It wasn't heavy, but it was very full of stuff and so it was large and awkwardly shaped.  If that wasn't bad enough, I had two bags I checked.  These were both gigantic and weighed VERY close to 50 pounds each.  I think one was 45 and the other was 49.5 or 48.5.  I mean, yeah, anyone can lift 50 pounds, that ain't shit.  But I'm talking, I need to transport TWO fifty pound, cumbersome bags, AND a backpack, AND my messenger bag in a city I've never been to.  I threw the lighter bag on top of the heavier bag, raised its pully-dealy and pulled them together.  THIS HURT MY HAND.  It was easy to pull (WHEELS ARE AWESOME), but it was fucking crushing my palm.  It's one of those things where you keep switching hands because it hurts, but then both hands get hurt and by the end of it you just want to curl up in a ball wherever you are and die.  I had to carry these out of the airport (which included going through another security thing, which included waiting in line).  Then I had to go through a station and board a train.  Luckily, this was a seated train (meaning preselected seats based on your ticket) and it had spots for luggage.  I gladly put them down, took my seat, and rested my hand.  While in this neck of the journey, my muscles in my right forearm were so fucked up from that thing pressing on my palm, that when I was asked to write my email address for a friend, I LEGITIMATELY STRUGGLED (it was a combination of my locked up muscle, the shaky train, and the lack of a hard surface to write on).  Of course, this was only the beginning.  We disembarked at another station (one of the bigger and more crowded in the tokyo area) and waited on a crowded platform for another train.  This train was not the same, preselected seating setup.  I had to hold onto those bags in the midst of a crowded train.  It wasn't that bad, but there's also a semi-large gap between the platform and the train. TRY GETTING TWO BIG HEAVY BAGS OVER THAT OH MY GOD.  We got off that train, BUT THAT WASN'T THE END OF IT!  Now we just had one more train to ride to get to where I live.  I thought I was in the clear.  NO. We passed by the Shinjuku station, ONE OF THE BUSIEST IN THE FUCKING WORLD.  UNLESS I'M JUST NOT REMEMBERING CORRECTLY, IT'S THE ONE THAT HOLDS THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS RECORD FOR BUSIEST TRAIN STATION.  A shit ton of people got off the train, FOUR SHIT TONS OF PEOPLE GOT ON THE TRAIN.  MISERY.  We finally got off that train, the last train of the evening.  HOORAY, IT'S OVER I thought. WRONG. BATSU. DAME. FAIL DESU.  five minute walk to the dorm!  Now, a five minute walk is heavenly! That's nothing.  I'm really really glad the station is so conveniently close!  BUT MY ARMS WERE DYING.  THAT WALK FELT LIKE FOREVER.  TO MAKE IT WORSE, THE FUCKIN SMALLER BAG KEPT FALLING OFF THE BIGGER ONE.  SO I'D HAVE TO AWKWARDLY STOP AND FIX THEM AND CONTINUE WALKING.  Finally we get to my dorm.  THE ENTRANCE IS ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF IT, UP A FLIGHT OF STAIRS.  I can do this.  I CAN DO THIS. Get inside.  Talk to/greet ryouchou (head of the dorm).  He hands me my key.  I live on the FIFTH FLOOR. THERE IS NO ELEVATOR.  THERE IS NO ELEVATOR.  I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but now is just as relevant: TOKYO IS HOT AND HUMID AS FUUUUUCK RIGHT NOW.  I SWEAT ENOUGH AS IT IS, BUT I WAS LITERALLY DRIPPING DRIPPING AS I CARRIED THAT SHIT UP 3 MORE FLIGHTS OF STAIRS.  But then I was in my room and it was awesome and I was done carrying that shit for ten months and that's the end of that.


Now let's jump back in time and actually chronicle something other than pain and awkward gaijin-dom (well the awkward gaijin-dom is there regardless).


So when I finally cleared all of the lines at the freaking airport, I go out to the meeting/pickup area to find a person holding a sign with my name on it.  This person was Nayuta, my new BFFizzle.  He was the person I asked for to show up at the airport and guide me to my dorm.  THANK GOD FOR HIM OR I WOULD HAVE DIED SO MANY TIMES OH MY GOD.  Not only did he know his way around (and really well for that matter!) he also lived 10 minutes WALKING DISTANCE from my dorm!  This means I already have a conveniently located friend that can help me when I inevitably need help.  On top of that, he really was just an awesome dude.  At first I was expecting that they would gather large groups of us at the airports, split us off based on our dorm, and guide us all like a horrible, bumbling herd of terrified sheep to our dorm.  When I found out it was one guy just guiding me to my dorm, I was a bit nervous about the awkwardness of the endeavor we were about to undertake (especially when he said it would take a few hours to get there from this airport).  BUT IT TOTALLY WASN'T, OH MY GOD.  He was really, just the nicest guy.  He was talkative, but definitely not annoyingly so.  We kept up legit conversation the entire time with very few gaps (and when there were gaps, they weren't awkward at all!  I can't even believe it).  He offered to show me around.  He told me he'd show me lots of restaurants (he obviously really really likes raamen).  He offered to help me with Japanese, I offered to help him with English.  Fair trades are AWESOME.  He's a Spanish major, or at least studying it.  He likes languages a lot. WE WILL BE BEST FRIENDS.  He turns twenty in less than a month and it should be fun.  Now to make this about ME!  I HELD UP THAT ENTIRE CONVERSATION WITH HIM FOR HOURS.  I SPOKE ONLY IN JAPANESE! I am better at this language than I thought (and much better than I SHOULD be since I haven't really spoken it in about 4 or 5 months).  If THIS is any indication of how I'll do on the placement test, then I'm in decent shape!



My dorm is awesome.  The ryouchou is AMAZING.  He just seems like such an awesome dude.  He has his rules, but none of them seem to strict.  If you want to go out, you write down when you're gonna be out, when you come back (for multiple nights away), and a number/address he can reach you at.  Then you put a red thingy over your name tag thing near the door.  It's simple, it's easy, it doesn't seem too strict.  It really doesn't seem he's restricting how often you go out, he'd just like to know you're not dead or missing.  Laundry is free.  You can hang dry your clothes, or you can pay and use a dryer.  There's a Japanese style bath (OH MY GOD).  There are also two showers (what I will actually be using.).  I don't remember seeing toilets.  I need to find the bathroom on my floor (if there is one).  I think there is, because I think heard sinks.  Tonight I will go on an adventure to find one.  A pantsless adventure.  I am not wearing pants.  I have no roommate and I am not wearing pants.  I have no stinky roommate that will spill milk in the carpet and not clean it up and let it rot and never leave the room and constantly play robot clicky game in his massaging chair or noise and be nocturnal and I am not wearing pants.  I will not have a roommate that hangs a glow-in-the-dark cross and tells me my homosexuality makes him uncomfortable and stink and not do his stinky laundry and do workouts every night to make himself stink more and vomit in the room and try to blame me for it the next day and I am not wearing pants.  I am not wearing pants and it is grand.  Room's pretty sweet.  It's not too small.  It's got a desk, a dresser/armoir thing, this standing shelfy thing, and a bed.  Under the bed appear to be three large chest things I haven't investigated yet, but I can imagine them being very useful.  I have FOUR trashcans.  Learning to super sort my garbage will be an adventure on its own.  That'll probably be in a later entry...


It's 11:30 and I'm exhausted.  You people reading this are just beginning your day, and mine's just ending.  Weird.  I've only just begun to unpack, and I still have to make my bed up (sheets are in the bag thing still.  They look practically new~).  I'm pretty sure one of my neighbors is singing. I'm so thirsty.  I'm tired.  I don't want to take pictures of my place until I've unpacked.  I'll edit this (if I can?) post and put pictures in later.  I'm gonna go finish unpacking, making my bed, finding the nearest bathroom, and go to sleep.


You guys, I already fucking love Japan