Time Travel

I have finally arrived in Japan and the whole experience of getting hear was strange and entertaining. Leading up to my departure, I was nervous, excited, and very emotional. I spent the morning cuddling with my boyfriend for what would be the last time for three weeks, and then double/triple-checked that I had everything I needed. Before the airport we had breakfast with my father, mother, and stepfather so that I could see everyone before leaving. I hope you guys are reading this, as well as the rest of my friends and family, because I already miss you.

Getting checked in at the airport was easy, and after making my long tearful goodbyes, accentuated by kisses, hugs, and many "I'll miss you's", I made it through security. As I looked for the way to my gate, I realized that this trip would take me the farthest I have ever been from home, for the longest period of time, and to top it off all by myself. This was a liberating feeling, but since I am not accustomed to depending on solely myself, it was a little unsettling. At least I have made it this far (^-^).

Since everything had gone so quickly, I spent the hour before I boarded the plane imagining what was going to happen to me over the next 21 days. This became too daunting, so I just read my book and tried to decipher the announcements being made in Japanese. It was also nice to see a mix of Japanese, caucasians, and other ethnicities boarding the plane

My flight left Seatac at around 1:30pm on Monday September 1st, and was going to be an estimated 9 1/2 hours long. I had packed well for the long flight, but luckily United provided tons of things to keep the boredom at bay. The back of the seat in front of me had a built in screen with dozens of included programming for me to chose from. I could listen to different genres of XM radio, watch different movies in either English or Japanese, and they even had a "map" feature. This curious application displayed where the plane was in the world, our altitude, time of arrival, miles traveled, miles left to travel, etc. I enjoyed checking on our progress from time to time as we followed the arch of Alaska, crossed the Bering straight, and moved south down the Kamchatka peninsula, until we entered Japan from the west. In addition I had a window seat (thank you mom&mike) and it was just my luck that no one ever came to claim the aisle seat next to me, so I was able to comfortably stretch out between the two seats. The view of the Pacific ocean and northern wildernesses was amazing.

I was extremely tired from the previous days lack of sleep, so I napped until I could nap no more. Once I was rested, I watched "The Forbidden Kingdom" followed by "Indianna Jones and The Crystal Skull", which were fun but I am glad I didn't have to pay for them. United airlines also loved to feed us. We recieved two full meals during our trip, and I swear it felt like every hour or so the stewerts would come around with more snacks and juice.


The flight took about 10 hours as promised, and this is when the time traveling really began. Though the day went by into night, it seemed we chased the sun until we caught up with it again somewhere around the International Date Line. Whenever I opened the window I was met with blazing sunshine, even if my cellphone told me it was 10pm. Of course back in Seattle you all had a proper sunset, while I jumped into tommorow.

When we landed the local time at Narita airport was 3pm on Tuesday September 2nd, But as far as my clock and body were concerned it was close to 11pm the previous night. The flight only took 10 hours and yet I had traveled 26 hours into the future of my departure. This time traveling ordeal will be more awesome when I leave at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon and arrive in Seattle at 9:30am that same morning.

On the decent I was glued to my window, hoping to see uniquly Japanese charecteristics of the ground below. I saw many fishing boats, docks and ports consuming the coastline, houses surrounded by rice patty fields, and lush green forests scattered everywhere. As I stepped off the plane into Narita airport I was accosted with "mushi atsui tenki" or hot, sticky, humid weather at 39 degrees Celsius, and an overcast sky of gray clouds.

I made it through customs without event, though the officer looked nervous when I first stepped up to the podium and he thought he might actually have to use his shaky English. He was pleasantly suprised by my Japanese. I didn't get to see much of Narita airport, but it looked like any North American airport I'd been in, except for all signs written in kanji and much nicer bathrooms.

I literally wandered around the exit area past customes for a while, trying to find a pay customes for a while, trying to find a pay phone to a while, trying to find a pay phone to call Mai, when I heard my name being squealed. Mai had found me and it was quite the happy reunion.

We drove back to Mai's family's home in Yokosuka with Mai's father and adorable, 7-month-old, toy poodle, named Fu. I plan to tell you all more about Mai, her family, their house, and Fu in my next post (keep your eyes out for that one which will include pictures).

My story about my experience with the time space continum ends with finally collapsing into sleep in Japan at about 10pm while my body thought it was at least 4am. It also wasn't fun to wake up at 7am here, and realize that it was 2pm in Seattle and I still hadn't sent out an email letting people know I was okay. Now you all know I survived the wormhole (^-^).