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Back in Japan. Round 2... FIGHT! :O The flight was godawful, just like I knew it would be. I can't think of anything I've ever done in my life that's quite as grueling and arduous as making that plane ride. I beat my record for time-in-the-air with this one. Here's the scoring, starting with my first flight: And that's just the AIR TIME. Never mind ground travel and layovers. Flying to Europe for fun will be a fucking cinch after this. @___@ I could say a lot about the trip, but I'd rather just summarize: I had to leave CT at 3am to get to JFK on time for my first flight. It left pretty close to on-time. There were not a lot of people on it, so as it turned out, it was me on the aisle, and two empty seats beside me. I put up the arm rests and laid across all three seats for most of the trip. The airport at San Francisco was terrible. The flight got in 20 minutes late, so I only had 20 minutes to get through security and find my gate. Which turned out to be in another building entirely. I ran for the shuttle and found one of the flight attendants and the pilot for that flight, and was safe from that point on because the plane wasn't going to leave without the pilot, obviously. However, when we got to the second building, some guy who barely spoke English told us that the passenger elevator was out, and proceeded to put us in the CARGO elevator, which was incredibly illegal, and which in turn means that we bypassed security entirely, and I spent the rest of the trip being terrified that I was going to get arrested for following the pilot of my plane. The second flight was horrifically long. It was 12 hours in the air and I kept dozing off but every time I woke up, it was to discover that only 15 minutes had passed. The people on either side of me, however, were very nice, and the Japanese-American man on the aisle seat even drew me a map of KIX's train station so that in case I missed my bus to Hirakata, I would have a back-up plan. He was incredibly nice to me and gave me his business card - he's a newspaper photographer from Pennsylvania. The flight landed a full hour after my itinerary had suggested, so I had all of 30 minutes to deplane, get on a tram to the Arrivals area, go through customs (twice; they have this new thing in Japan where you have to get fingerprinted and a photo taken of your ghastly visage after having been traveling for over 20 hours before they'll let you go to regular customs), and then find the bus terminal, buy a ticket, get my luggage checked, and get on the bus to Hirakata. I made it with about two minutes to spare. I was so relieved it's almost sickening. XD Got to Raporu Hirakata Mae (the bus stop), walked three minutes to Hirakata Station, stood in line for a few minutes, and boarded the good old #12 bus to my OLD dormitory, Sem. (Seminar House)4. It was kind of amazing how relieved I was to finally be back in the town that I know. The rest of the trip was completely unknown, so when I got to Hirakata, I just zoned out and went through the motions that I set up last semester: I rode that bus so many freaking times. XD Anyway, after I got to the bus stop, I crossed the park and asked at Sem. 1 where the hell Sem. 2 (my new dorm) was, since I'd never actually been there before. And I found it, and I checked in, although there was some confusion, as I had written on the form that I was due in the 8th, not the 9th (I had forgotten that I lose a day coming here, and gain one going back), but it was easily overcome. This room is SO much nicer than the one at Sem. 4. We have a little sliding door separating the sleeping area from the computer area, so I don't have to bug my roommate if I'm up late online and she's trying to sleep. We also have a balcony, which is awesome both for drying clothes, chilling out, and checking the temp outside before leaving for the day (we're on the 4th floor). The curtains on the window actually block the light, so no more rude awakenings at 6am when the sun rises. It's very cozy and cute. I like it. The distance away from the main road will take a little getting used to, but I think I can hack it. Eliza (new roommate) and I seem to be hitting it off pretty well, for which I am eternally thankful, after my last two wonderful roommate experiences. I had my doubts, since we had kind of thrown the idea to room together around maybe twice before actually signing up for it, but she's been incredibly nice to me since I arrived. She shared her food with me at breakfast this morning. ; . ; After that I sat around being sluggish and lazy (see: jet lag) and finally around 4pm I dragged my ass out to go get groceries so that I don't have to be a mooch. Lesson for today: I need to obtain and re-learn how to ride a bike. Walking TO the grocery store was no big deal, but walking BACK with three bags of groceries kind of really sucked. A lot. Like, I-can't-feel-my-arms-any-more kind of sucked. XD; At least I have food, now. Eliza cooks and is insanely good at it. She can take a bunch of random crap and throw it together, and it turns into like a restaurant-style meal. She made "mystery soup" today, which was part of the aforementioned breakfast. She had tomato soup mix, the kind you make in a mug, but that was too boring, so instead she boiled water with carrots and potatoes and garlic and ramen noodles and then threw the soup mix in. The result was basically a BROTH tomato soup. This is awesome, because I have always loved how tomato soup SMELLS, but the consistency of normal tomato soup grosses me out. I like broth soups. Hence, tomato soup with the consistency of broth = INCREDI-WIN. She offered to teach me how she made it. I weep with joy. T___T Today was a good day; I'm just really tired and really sore (even more so after that grocery run). A friend of Eliza's lent her his external hard drive full of random anime and Japanese movies, and it had, of all things, Returner on it. That's that sci-fi movie that I saw one time when Dad was randomly flipping channels. Main character... so hot. Oh god. So we watched it, laughed at the terrible acting, incorrect subtitles, and general retardation of the film itself, whilst drooling over the lead actor and his leather coat. XD; Soon it shall be off to bed with me, because like I said - SORE. Also, it's kind of 1:40 in the morning. >.>; This second round is off to a nice start, but I still miss everyone back home already. Goddamn homesickness. >P
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