I got blasted with culture shock and everything I knew up to now was irrelevant. Where am I? Is this really a dream?
Day zero started off with me waking up at 5:00 AM to go catch my flight to Vancouver, BC. It only takes about 10-15 minutes by car to get to Sea-Tac airport by car from my house in West Seattle so it was no problem at all getting there on time. My father saw me off from the drop off zone and that is when I took my first individual steps towards Japan on day zero. The flight left at around 7:00 AM and in no time at all I was already in YVR airport Vancouver, BC. After arriving I quickly looked for the nearest Tim Horton's, so I could fill myself up with some delicious Tim Bits (highly recommend if you're in Canada) however since I was on the side of the airport for international flights out of Canada, they blocked off the other half of the airport for domestic flights and flights to the USA. Unfortunately the only Tim Horton's was on the opposite side of me and I quickly became very disappointed that I won't be able to eat any Timmys for a long time (this is a big deal, you would understand once you try Tim Horton's). Anyways, after not getting anything to eat I waited 4 hours until my flight was ready to board. At 1:00 PM, everyone was on the plane and eventually we were off the ground. This flight was 10 hours long, twice the amount of time it takes from Pullman to Seattle by car so I was quite restless the whole time. To pass the time I played some games, Pokemon Moon and Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (holy shit the first trial was way too long). I also ended up watching Kimi no Wa on the airplane seat screen in front of me because I actually never watched it during the fall semester (tbh I think the movie was hyped up a lot because it was just ok imo). I talked a lot in Japanese and English with the person sitting next to me (My seat was just one seat away from the right side window of the plane). His name was Riki and he was from Okinawa heading back to Japan for the winter holidays. He was a college student that was 20 years old like me studying and Grand Canyon University in Arizona. We had a lot to talk about so that made the trip feel a bit shorter! We arrived at Narita Airport once the 10 hour trip expired. A couple minutes after landing my phone service changed over to SoftBank and I was greeted with complimentary data and texting services in Japan through T-Mobile. I quickly made my way through customs grabbed my luggage at baggage claim and I arrived at my first challenge, buying a train ticket. Easily enough I exchanged money at the currency exchange and bought a straight shot train ticket to the place I would be staying at in Arakawa-ku. I took the Keisei Skyliner train (30 mins) to Nippori station, where I would then walk about 15 minutes to my place in Arakawa-ku. The first mistake I made along this trip was not taking the paper ticket from the ticket gate on the opposite side. Doing that charged me a second ticket's worth of money... But nevertheless, being in this new country there were rules that I had to learn, yet it really didn't bother me since I was absorbing in so many things every step I took.
to be continued on part two
(cause I gotta get out and do stuff lol)
At SEA
To YVR
At YVR
No Tim Hortons...
To NRT
To Nippori Station via Keisei Skyliner