Japanese is not my Strongpoint...Yet

Well I'd hoped that I'd have time to finish off the description of my final days in Paris and to let you know when I was leaving for Japan, but apparently I ran out of time. I'll try to finish that stuff up this week; I'm sure you're all just ever-so-anxious to know how my trip went.

じゃあ、日本に行きます！
Me being me, I didn't finish my packing until eleven or so the night before my departure, despite the fact that doing so gave me just enough time for about four hours of sleep before heading to the airport. Got up and stumbled through the daze of waking up too early to make it to the airport a little later than intended, just after 5am.

Lucky for me, my baggage allowance is two checked bags up to 50 pounds each and one carry-on (and one "personal item"?). As such, my sleeping bag got stowed separately, because I wasn't allowed to have it loosely attached to my bag like it was. One fairly uneventful flight later, I arrive at Chicago (O'Hare) and find it to be one of the nicest airports I've been through, save the somewhat small waiting areas.

Boarding the flight to Japan, the gate doesn't seem all that crowded--in fact, it seems downright empty. Once on the plane and seated I discover that, well, this is the truth of the matter: the flight must've been half empty. It was at least that empty in my section, which means that I got a full center section of the Boeing 777-300 to myself: three seats to lie down on. Hence, one of the best flights I've had in many years was also the best sleep in an aircraft I've had as well.

At Narita (one of the Tokyo airports), I could've gotten online for about five bucks, but decided (for some reason) not to, so I spent a few hours hanging around waiting for my flight doing...well...nothing. I caught my flight to Sapporo (on which I think I was the only Westerner) and had another three seats to myself, so I managed to sleep a little more.

Arriving at the New Chitose Airport, I clear customs and collect my baggage without any problems and head to the Japan Rail line to get my ticket to Kutchan (where I'm staying) sorted out. Buy the ticket for about 25 bucks and draw some money from an ATM, and I'm on my way.

The train rides were boring, though notably cleaner than France.

That's also a bit of a lie. Not the cleanliness part, but the boring bit. You see, as I climbed onto the third train I was startled by the vision that appeared before me--my far too tired brain absolutely could not believe my eyes: Ashley was sitting on the train in front of me. Smiling like an idiot, I asked her what she was doing there, and she explained that she'd been to the airport to try to find me. I really don't deserve her, do I? ^^

Anyway, we arrived at the station only to find that my host wasn't there. I tried to call, but to no avail. We ended up taking a taxi to her place where I stayed the night as a guest before calling this morning to get a ride to my place. Turns out I should've checked my email at the airport--I would've known how to get to my place by taxi if I had.

Today I got moved in and slept a bunch and tomorrow I'll be meeting my "manager".

So far I'm most disappointed with my Japanese--I've a lot of studying to do!

Oyasumi!