Finally here, now if only I could find Tommy Lee Jones...

I've been in Japan now for two weeks, and they have been, to say the least, the most hectic two weeks of my life. Not to say they weren't fun, however, they weren't an easy first two weeks.

Anyway, I started my journey out of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport and it started early in the morning. Like the time of morning in which I'm usually just starting to go to sleep. So for me, I already knew this was going to be the worse day out of the whole trip. Luckily, most of this trip was spent on a plane and I only had two stops in between Kentucky and Kansai International. One of them, was O'Hare. Now for those who has already been through the torture of international flying, you know then how horrible it is to stop here. The security guards are rude if you can not make unpack your carry on bag in under thirty seconds. So if you plan on taking your laptop, video games, or whatever with you, practice taking it out of your bag before you get there. Besides that, O'Hare was pretty easy to navigate, I took a train, walked to my gate and sat around waiting for my plane to board.

But awesomeness! A Korea-Air airplane landed while I was waiting.

 
Oh, how Koreans love this online game.
 
My plane was nonstop from O'Hare to Narita Airport in Tokyo which translates into: one big looooooong plane ride for Stephy. Now guys, please remember to move your legs around and keep the blood flowing in them, I met a girl here who actually formed a blood clot from her plane ride. You do want to the the hospital your first day in Japan.
 

Anyway, While I was waiting around in Narita I ran into, stalked, a bunch of foreigners my age whom I assumed were also going to Kansai (based on those qualifications alone.) And I was right. So  we exchanged names, and decided it'd be best to share our burden of getting to the seminar houses alone. All of this went very smoothly, minus one friend having to be pulled and told to stay in a little white room. Very scary. And at the same time a security guard at the duty free or non-duty free lines came up to us to see which of us was her. But at the end of it, everything was find, we guarded her luggage, and we made it to the bus ride to Hirakata. I arrived at Seminar House 2 at around 9:00 PM,  and fell asleep as opposed to playing formalities with the roommates. Sorry guys, jet lag gets to the best of us.

The next morning was our first day of orientation and I ended up missing last night's group and tried to walk there alone. I got lost, so horribly, horribly, in the other side of the city lost. After about an hour of walking around aimlessly, I decided I would just go back to the seminar house and hope for the best. Luckily, along the way I spotted another foreigner of my age and stalked them to the college. From there everything was well. I met up with the girls from last night at one point, went and made some payments, got a phone, and we went out to find dinner for that night. The place we ate we decided on had awesome Okonomoyaki! And by the end of the night, everything was well.

Well...until I realized the damage I had caused my to my feet by wearing super cute shoes. Way to go, me!

 

The next couple of days were basically the same, minus the whole getting lost, we met up--walked to the college--do what we needed to do, and then explored the city.

 

Friday was the next awesome day. We went on a group tour to Kyoto, where we were led around my Japanese girls in order to learn about how the public transportation works. They took us to Kinkokuji, which is amazing, but why anyone should have to pay in order to see a temple is quite beyond me. But, I was okay with it, because the place was, after all, amazing! While we were there, we also went into the shopping district and explored the area. We ate wonderful food, took puricura pictures, and watched as two maiko accompanied a business man. All in all a fun time, and place I'll want to go back to again.

Now on to this week where nothing of great importance has really occurred. My feet are starting to heal, and the walk to campus is becoming more bearable. Really, I've done class, a little of shopping, studying and sleeping as a good college. How long that will last, I don't know. Studying is boring, and you're still tired no matter how much sleep you get, so maybe I'll eventually work out some amazing Stephy schedule for Japan.

Hopefully, from here on out, I'll be able to update more regularly, either every other night, every day, or every three days. Depending on the amount of usefulness, fun things, of whatever else has happen.

Now, back to my search for Tommy Lee Jones.