wow.
after the painfully long wait i had, i finally find myself in tokyo!

the journey here is a story in and of itself, the stars seemed to align for me because luck was on my side! you see, i was scheduled to fly into "narita airport" which is about an hour and a half to two hours away from where i needed to be. what i had to do from narita airport is get on the bullet train from narita to tokyo station, one of the largest train stations in the city. from there i would have to maneouver my bags totaling almost 90 lbs around the station in order to find the blue line, called the keihin-tohoku line. from there i was going to have to figure out where to get off, and then find a cab, then pay around 50 bucks to get to my residence. problem: i was scheduled to land in narita around 3:20, and my residence building closed at 6. it was going to be a race against time for me to get to my dorm (called Omori).

i had been panicking about how i was going to get around the stations, and understand where i was supposed to go, worried about trying to communicate with people and read signs, and to top it all off i would have three big bags with me. when i borded the plane from victoria to vancouver, this was all i could think about. suddenly i looked up and one of my high school teachers walked onto the tiny plane and sat down right beside me! john allpress is his name, and he was just as shocked as i was to see him on the airline. we got to talking and i told him how i was travelling to tokyo today, to start my epic journey, but that i was very worried about actually finding my way to my dormitory. he was in the middle of giving me some contacts in tokyo when the man sitting infront of us turned around and introduced himself. it turns out he was a Keio graduate (the university i am going to) and spoke fluent japanese. he was also on the same flight as me to tokyo, and said that he could help me figure out some sort of transportation once i got there. you can understand my excitment.

the man i met on the plane, ken carnes, lives in victoria, but goes to japan all the time. he was fairly familiar with all of the train lines and places, but when i told him where i was living he was drawing a blank. once in the vancouver airport, ken took me into the business lounge with me, and he talked to some japanese women and asked them if they knew where omori was. they could help us a little bit, but the journey i had ahead of me was still riddled with obstacles. ken was worried for me, and wanted to help me out (thank god, lord knows i needed the help!)

just before we boarded the plane, i heard my name called over the intercom, "JESS HALL PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELF" nervously i walked to the front of the line only to find a very familiar face smiling at me. one of my familys closest friends Pat Hurlbert was piloting my plane! i was so excited, and to top it all off he handed me a first class ticket, and told me that my seat had been switched. ahhhh. during take off i was feeling on top of the world, sipping champaign in a recliner seat.

i took a gravol and passed out for about 6 hours, and when i woke up i heard pat on the intercom once again. there had been an airplane crash at the narita airport, and the place was now virtually shut down. we had to change where we were headed and started off for Haneda airport, which is right downtown tokyo. i turned around to face ken (who was sitting a mere 4 seats behind me) and smiled. the haneda airport was at most half an hour away from my residence, and instead of battling the crowds in complicated train stations, i could just jump into a cab and direct them to 7-4-27 ormori nishi ota-ku, tokyo japan. i still cannot believe my luck. first of all meeting john allpress on the plane, behing overheard by ken, then having the plane have to land in haneda! it all lined up perfectly.

when i got to my res 5,000 yen later i was exhausted, starving and lonely. i tried to communicate with the building manager, but he hardly spoke any english and it made things very difficult. he showed me to my room, which is very nice, and closed the door after playing charades for quite some time trying to explain the rules of the building. when the door closed, my stomach just dropped. i was actually here, i couldn't speak to anyone, and i didn't know anyone in tokyo. sometimes i question my judgment....

i looked around my room to discover that there was no mattress on my bed, and that i didn't know how to dial out of my room in order to call home. i went back down to the first floor to ask the manager to help me out. he said that futons weren't scheduled to arrive until tomorrow and that i might have to stay in a hotel. this was getting super frusterating for me, becuase i had already spend so much money on a cab, and who knows how much a hotel would cost me in the middle of tokyo. luckily he took pity on me and called the futon suppliers and asked if they could drop some off a bit early. what i recieved looked like a large, flat body pillow to sleep on with a bean bag for a pillow and some blankets. i'm trying to be optomistic about my bed... but its a pretty shitty sleep thats for sure. i woke up with bruises on my hip bones from the wood pressing into me.

when i woke up i had the pleasure of working the toilet. there was an entire remote control instructing me how to flush. everything was in japanese and i was pretty confused, it was quite the little adventure which ended with me soaking wet all over. i learned that button three means water spray.

anyways, this is a long enough post. i have more adventures to share at a latter date.

i miss you all