Good Morning Japan

Well, its almost 6:30am here on the 15th, so almost 3:30pm on the 14th back home. My flight arrived about 30 minutes late yesterday to Tokyo, but I wasn't in a rush anywhere. I slept most of my journey, considering I didn't sleep at all before I let. On the flight from Salt Lake City to Tokyo I sat next to an older Japanese woman, clearly we didn't talk much, but we did kind little gestures toward each other. I offered her a piece of gum during takeoff, she offered me some hard candies after dinner, after breakfast I offered her one of those wisps waterless mini toothbrushes, she offered me more candies, and I offered her more gum during landing. She smiled and waved goodbye to me once we got through customs. The customs official was kind as well. He asked me if I understood Japanese (in Japanese), and I was able to answer back that I understood a little! He smiled, said make sure you leave the country by September 12 since I don't have a visa, then waved me thru. Next stop was to exchange money, I received about 77 yen per dollar. After that I headed over to a package service to pick up the cell phone I ordered. Finally, it was time to find the shuttle to the hotel. I was following the signs toward the shuttle stop. There were some other Americans holding poster carriers, so I asked if they were with the EAPSI program and they were! We all went to the hotel together, got settled in, then went to the hotel restaurant we had been given dinner vouchers for. Today we leave for Hayama where we'll have a week-long orientation. So far it's not so bad, but I am with other Americans. We'll see come next week, when we all set off in different directions.

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