Charles' Excellent Japanese Adventure: Morning in Tokyo

Well I'm here at last, and it was one hell of a trip getting here. I left for Rochester International at about 4AM, got there at about 5. Checked my luggage and got into the security line which was shockingly long for 5AM. Then I got selected for extra screening, which means they take each item out of my carefully packed, travel conscious carry ons out of their bags, swab them, and then throw them back into my bag in any order they please. My crumpled contact boxes are not pleased. After that I spent an hour on a plane to JFK, behind a little girl who was irritating her mother and everyone else in earshot the entire flight, constantly saying "I want my chocolate caaaaaaandy" and "I want to get off." every few seconds without fail. I just watched the animal planet on the fancy in flight satellite TVs that Jet Blue has, and tuned her out.

JFK was a little tricky. Once the plane arrived, I had to go claim my luggage, which came up pretty quickly. But then I had to find the international terminal. I asked around and after 3 conflicting stories from 3 different workers, none of which spoke English well, I mustered that I had to go to terminal 1 via the air train. I found the train before too long, and got on the first one that came along. Jet Blue's terminal is #6, and the train departed for #7. I thought this was good because there were only 8 terminals listed on the airline guide above the door, so it would soon loop around to #1. I was wrong, it stopped after #8 at stations A and B, and finally announced the train's final destination was station C, where I got off and waited for one going in the opposite direction. Fortunately after station A, it went straight to station 1. After arriving there I checked my luggage again, and changed my money into yen, 218 dollars for 40,000 yen. I bought myself some lunch at Pannini Express, and waited for my plane to begin boarding.

The ride to Narita was nothing if not long, but there were plenty of things to do to pass the time. I watched a lot of movies I had already seen in Japanese to see how the dubs were, they were pretty good, for Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, and Forbidden Kingdom at least. The in-flight food was pretty good too, I had Chicken Curry and a pasta dish with shrimp for my two meals.

Upon arriving at Narita I had to go through Quarantine, which meant getting your passport checked, fingerprints taken, claiming your luggage, and going through customs after that. After getting through there, I met Haruka, a girl from the university who had been sent to help me get to TUFS in one piece. She offered to help me carry my luggage, but after seeing how heavy it was, she suggested I send it to the university via a baggage handling service, so I sent my blue bag which only had clothes, and opted to carry my green one which had clothes plus other essentials. After that we bought tickets on the JR from Narita to Shinjuku, and then switched to another train, then switched 2 more times, and finally arrived in Fuchu-shi, the suburb of Tokyo where the University is located. After a short walk from the station Haruka guided me through the essential areas of the university on the way to International hall. There I got a tour of the essentials of the dorms, shower room, mail room, ect. and then returned to my dorm room, #107, which is on the ground floor, right next to the exit. Haruka made one last check of the papers the university had given me, then gave me her contact information, and went on her way. As for me however, I was exhausted and went to bed as soon as I had made it, and contacted my parents to let them know I got in safely.

And then this morning at 7:30, I got up, and finished unpacking, and took some photos of my new room to share: