Despite the excitement bubbling within me, I was exhausted waking up early for the flight to Japan. Half-awake, I stumbled from podium to podium, not even sure which company my flight was through. After going to the wrong one, I was able to check myself in and get rid of my (probably too heavy) suitcase. In a state of denial, I hung out in the airport unable to understand that in a few hours I would be departing on an exciting trip with a group of strangers to Japan then China!
If I've learned anything about traveling its this: airports are horrible. The flight wasn't too bad, but after grabbing some fast food for lunch and settling in at the DC airport, we realized some of us had made a terrible mistake. There were two flights to Japan, and we were at the wrong one! While some people could chill, the rest of us had to grab our stuff and LITERALLY RUN to the right terminal. After crossing half the airport, we made it on time. THANK GOODNESS. Luckily we had a long 19 hour plane ride to relax during because we were out of breath. Basically the plane consisted of 3 movies, 3 tv shows, podcast marathon, and sad attempts at taking naps.
When we got to Japan, all the excitement that was overcome by sleep earlier was shining through! Though this was my second trip to Japan, I think this only made me more excited. I had loved Japan the first time, and so I didn't have the same anxiety that accompanies being in a different country for the first time.
After grabbing all our bags, we excited customs, exchanged cash, and bought our very first train ticket! The train took nearly an hour and half to get to our stop, but we enjoyed the time relaxing. When we reached our final stop, one of the girls in the group led the way to the hostel using instructions from the website.
"Blue Bridge, Mercedes Benz, Yellow Sign!" We chanted as if we were on Dora the Explorer. Believe it or not, the instructions were great! We found the hostel in no time on a quiet side street. The girl at the front desk was extremely helpful in getting us all checked in and we decided among ourselves who was going to be roommates. I roomed with the only person I knew before the trip, but it seemed like we were going to get along great!
Still exhausted from the trip, I took a quick shower then joined the group to find dinner. We crossed the bridge back to the livelier part of Asukasa (the area we were staying in) and found all these restaurants. It was hard to pick one, but eventually we settled on a place. My first meal in Japan was fried shrimp, that is more like shrimp tempura in the states, with Japanese bbq sauce and rice. It was absolutely delicious! After the food, we went exploring, hoping to find a place to Karaoke, but we ended up being too tired and returned home.
Tomorrow the real adventures would begin!
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