Traveling and Arrival

After spending just a couple days at home in Springfield after finishing finals last week, Kathleen and I headed back to Kansas City Sunday afternoon. Gary and Heather made us a delicious dinner and we headed to bed around 10:00 p.m. We woke up around 4:30 a.m. and left their house before 4:45 to get to the Kansas City Airport. KCI was the busiest that I have ever seen it, and by the time I made it through security and boarded the plane, it was nearly time for take-off. The flight to Detroit was less than two hours, and when I got to the airport it was about 8:30a.m. Eastern time. My flight to Nagoya didn’t board until 2:55p.m., so I explored the airport, exchanged some American money for Yen, and read while I waited.

The flight from Detroit to Nagoya was over 13 hours long. The plane that I flew on was absolutely massive. I took some motion-sickness medicine beforehand, but still didn’t actually sleep that much. There were movies and television shows playing on large screens almost the entire time. Hannah and Patrick should be excited to learn that I watched 30 Rock for the first time ever on this flight. I sat next to the window and next to a man who I think was headed to Manilla. We didn’t actually talk much, but at one point he gave me his pillow to use, which was much nicer than the complimentary airplane pillow. It was really sweet. 

We flew over mountains at one point. It was beautiful. 

When we arrived in Nagoya, I realized that almost all of the people on the plane were actually traveling to Manilla. I was one of only a few people who actually got off in Japan. The workers at the airport in Nagoya were very polite and kind, and it wasn’t too difficult to figure out what I was supposed to do. After I had gone through customs and found my luggage, an incredibly sweet elderly Japanese man who was a “volunteer worker” at the airport helped me find my way to the bus pick-up area. I bought a ticket for the bus to Okazaki that left at 7:40 p.m., which meant that I had about half an hour to waste. I called my contact at the Language Institute to let him know when my bus would be arriving in Okazaki and found the waiting area for the buses.

It was an 80 minute bus ride to Okazaki, and I think I slept for most of it. I felt like I was going to collapse, I was so exhausted. When we arrived at the station, I paid with my ticket, and found the man who was holding a “Yamasa” folder. He only spoke a little bit to me, in Japanese, but he seemed very kind. He drove me to my host-family’s house, which was not very far away.

My host-family seems very nice. On the outside of their house is a big sign that says “MUSIC & DANCE” (in English). The mother teaches piano and other instrument lessons, and the daughter, Mao, is twenty-one and teaches dance. The mother and father clearly do not speak very much English, but they still try to communicate with me and are very accommodating. First note to self: Always remember to take shoes off when going inside.

My host mother and father have two children of their own: a son who is eighteen and a daughter who is twenty-one. There’s also a boy from Singapore and a girl from Taiwan who are staying with them. Both of the students speak English pretty well and have translated some for me. Last night I slept in a bedroom on the third floor with the Taiwanese girl. She has been at Yamasa for two months and will be going home on Friday, and then I will sleep in the room alone. It is a nice little room, and I can get wireless connection, which is wonderful. 

I crashed almost immediately after arriving last night. I was completely exhausted from so much travel. This morning I woke up around 7:30 and ate breakfast with the mother and father and Kelly and Lee (the two other students). We had some type of cake(it was green and quite good) and toast, and I drank grapefruit juice. I must admit, I was kind of disappointed when the mother handed me a fork to eat with this morning… I’m ready to hone my chopstick using skills that I have been practicing for the last couple months.

After breakfast, the host mother (Harumi-sama) showed me how to use the bicycle that I will be using. There is a key that’s needed to make it work. I might be a little terrified that I am going to lose it… I followed Lee and Kelly to Yamasa. It was about a 20 minute bike ride. I don’t think that I have ridden a bike in at least seven or eight years. It went pretty well though. However, wearing my backpack while biking made me rather tired by the time that we arrived here. I am going to have to unload it some before tomorrow.  Now, I have just been sitting in the commons area at the school that I will attend tomorrow. Lee and Kelly have both stopped by a couple times to make sure that I am okay and that I know where I can find lunch. I also met a girl named Bridget whose parents live in the US. She is a student at Yamasa as well, but she lives in the student village, not a homestay. She seemed very nice though. And a Japanese woman approached me while I was typing an e-mail and asked if she could talk to me. She told me that she was applying to become a teacher at Yamasa and that she had spent several years teaching English to Japanese students in the past. She offered me a Japanese bean cake. She told me that although it was very sweet, it was also quite healthy.  It was strange, but good. 

The school does not seem too big. There are only three buildings total, and I have not seen too many people passing through this one. But everyone seems really excited to be here.

Something else I have noticed: Everyone bows a lot. And I mean a lot.

Everything seems like it has happened so quickly since I have gotten here. I am looking forward to going back and being introduced to my host brother and sister. It just started to rain here. If it stops soon, I’ll walk down to a market that Lee showed me on my map and buy lunch. If not, there are vending machines here that I can get food from. I really hope that it lets up before Kelly and I ride back home at 2:30 though.