Curiosity

July 3, 2011 11:00pm (Japan Time)/July 3, 2011 7:00am (California Time)

Curiosity

Noun.

1. A desire to know or learn.

2. A desire to know about people or things that do not concern one; nosiness.

I haven’t slept in 25 hours and I feel like the entire day was just a dream. I spent 11 hours on a plane from LAX to the Tokyo Narita airport during which I watched 5 movies back to back and ate 2 meals. Based on my communication with the flight attendants during my flight, I already knew that the language barrier was going to be difficult for me. I couldn’t really understand the flight attendants, nor could they understand me.

The instant I walked off the plane, the heat and humidity overwhelmed me and I began to sweat. I was probably one out of about fifteen people on my flight whose final destination was Tokyo. Everyone else was continuing on to Korea. So getting through customs and obtaining my suitcase was a breeze.

The Keisei Skyliner train to Ueno Station

 From there, all I had to do was figure out how to take the train and/or subway to get to my hotel. Surprisingly, the transportation did not end up being as difficult as I thought. I bought my ticket, hopped on the correct train line, and was on my way to the Ueno station. The only mistake I made was finding my correct seat on the train. At first, I just took the first seat I could find, assuming that the train was like the Bart in the bay area of Northern California without assigned seating. But it turned out that every passenger’s ticket had an assigned seat, even though the train wasn’t even close to being 50% full. This train was also a lot nicer than the Bart with automatic doors between cars, a lot of space, and nice chairs.

Once I arrived at the Ueno station, I had to figure out how to find my way to the hotel. I ended up walking since it seemed to be the easiest way to find the place and the best way to take in the new environment that I was in. The air here is very muggy, with a weird smell to it—like a tinge of burnt popcorn. The streets are lined with tons of little shops and restaurants with colorful signs written in Japanese characters, making it difficult to find my hotel. I ended up walking around in circles, passing my hotel once or twice. Eventually an old Japanese man stopped to help me and took me to the police box to point me in the right direction. It turned out that my hotel was only about 30 feet away from where I was standing and about 50 feet away from a 24-hour McDonald’s that sells only 5 items. There is even a Starbucks right around the corner.

The view from my hotel room window

The room that I am staying in is pretty nice, with a full-size bed, a desk, fridge, powerful air conditioning, and a nice view of the city lights. The inside of it kind of resembles a room on a cruise ship. After settling down for a bit, I went on a walk to look around and find a grocery store. Surprisingly, there are still people running on the city streets in this hot and humid weather. And for some reason, my mom told me not to run while I’m here because she thinks I am going to die from heat stroke or radiation or something, but I think I will go on a run anyway.

It is now 11:00 pm in Japan and my writing is getting sloppy. I’m looking forward to the all-day student exchange program tomorrow and meeting new people.

Anxiety

Written July 2, 2011 at 10:00 am in the LAX airport

Anxiety

Noun.

1.     a state of uneasiness or tension caused by apprehension of possible future misfortune, danger, etc; worry

2.     intense desire; eagerness

I have always struggled with goodbyes. For some reason, it is always so much harder than I expect it to be. And from my observations, it is even more difficult for my mom, who has texted me three or four times since I got to the airport, asking me if everything is ok.

This morning, I woke up at 6am, said my goodbyes to my sister and my dad and then hit the road for a 2-hour drive with my mom to Los Angeles International Airport. I got to the airport with 3 hours to spare, said goodbye to my mom, and am currently sitting at my gate, waiting to board the plane.

The only word I can think of to describe my feelings right now is anxiety.

In the past 2 hours that I have been sitting in the airport, all I have done is read through all of my papers about things to know for my trip over and over again. But no matter how many times I read through all of the information I have, I will never be able to get rid of this anxiety that I am feeling.

I have been to foreign places before such as Cancun, Tahiti, and the Caribbean, but all of those times, I have been with my family and my parents have taken care of everything. Not only that, but most of those “vacation” spots are geared towards American tourists, making it very easy to communicate and get around.

Japan is different though. I have no idea what to expect. The transportation already looks extremely complicated from all of the information I have. The maps are not very thorough and most of the information is written in Japanese characters. I am kind of regretting not learning some Japanese before diving into this trip.