Leaving Time

I landed in Tokyo at about 5 pm on July 24th, 2011. If you are not familiar with the Utah holiday on July 24th, it commemorates the first Mormon pioneers coming into the Salt Lake Valley. I am sure my mother (who is a 4th grade teacher) could tell you all about it and have some songs to go with it. I have been thinking a lot about what I should name this blog. The obvious choice - Jeff In Japan is just too obvious, so I decided against it. Then, seeing the contract which extends from the 24th to the 24th and the fact that I am venturing into a far land alone, I decided that The Pioneer Year would be a good one. So there ya have it.


I wish I could crystallize the thoughts that I have had over this last week (which has been one of the most tumultuous in my life). It is bizarre to think that I said goodbye to family only a week ago. The time for me has moved so slowly and quickly at the same time. I left early Friday morning to get to the airport in time for my plane to Denver to be delayed for over an hour. After arriving in Denver, we were whisked away to a hotel to get ready for the Pre-Departure Orientation. The PDO was relatively interesting (lots of don't forget your passport and here-is-your-ticket-info). After that we had a big meal and party at the official residence of the consulate general for Denver. At this party there was a whole lot of Japanese food that I ate and had a good time. Don't ask me what the food was because I don't know. I do know that there was something that looked like it should have been a chicken nugget, but it was filled with fish. I feel that this little surprise may be common in Japan.


On to the next day. Fly to Japan day (also known as the day of tears). If you didn't know, flying to Japan is...pretty awful. We flew Japan Airlines which was very accommodating, but sitting in one place for more than 10 hours ever is pretty much torture. Additionally, the sun doesn't set when you fly into it. We arrived in Tokyo like I said at 5 pm. Still sunny. America time it was about 2 am. My love for movies may have ruined me on this flight because I couldn't sleep because I wanted to watch all of the movies that they had. I ended up watching The Adjustment Bureau, Tangled, Limitless, Just Go With It, some of Sucker Punch, and some of Cars.


Arriving in Tokyo wasn't bad except for the bone-crushing exhaustion that comes from travelling for 21 hours. The temperature was abougt 80, but the humidity is like a sticky soup that you swim through. Cleared immigration and customs and I was off...to a bus...for 2 hours. Narita airport is actually pretty far away from the hotel we were staying at in central Tokyo. So it took a LONG time to get there. The Keio Plaza hotel is really quite ritzy. There were something like 650 foreigners there, so it didn't feel much like Japan. It was very comfortable, and my toilet had a bidet (which I didn't use).


I am going to break the next part into another post because I am sure that many of you didn't even keep with me after the fish chicken nugget...