Leaving on a Jet Plane

I finally have internet and a lot of catching up to do.

That was the longest plane ride of my life (24 hours). I spent almost an entire day in the clouds. Window seat every time ( I picked that). I hardly slept (like kids do before Christmas) and then had some sort of adventure each time I was at a new airport. Everything was smooth leaving Minneapolis, and I sat next to a kid who was stuck here for hockey camp. I got the vibe he didn't want to chat with me, bubbling with endorphins but I found out I could watch animal planet on my seat-tv so I was content until Salt Lake City.

When I got to Utah, I set out to find food, then where my plane would be. It was a beautiful landing and maybe one day I'll go back to check out what I saw, but before my plane left for Honolulu, I asked a gentleman to take my photo with the mountains in the background.  

The fingers are for how many stops I have left. His name was Mike and he was being stationed in Hawaii for 9 days, fresh out of his friend's wedding. He wasn't thrilled about it though since Hawaiians (according to Mike) see the army hair cut and have a tendency to mistreat him. We chatted until we got inside the plane and had to go down separate isles. I wish him the best of luck in Hawaii and beyond, he said he could take the heat since he did it in Iraq. GO MIKE!

I never thought I'd see Hawaii unless it was after a certain exchange of wedding rings, but to my wonderful surprise I did and I LOVED my little 3 hours in the airport. It was the craziest set up I could have dreamed. Imagine outdoor-mall meets airport. That's about it. Birds were chilling out in stores while breezes and sun poured in from the outside. It was built in a triangle with a sort of nature center, complete with a mini-Japanese porch. There was also a lot of Japanese at the airport, along with signs. I felt it was a strange transition--Hawaii, not completely American, but the closest to Asia besides a few islands here and there... 

It didn't take long to notice I was the only blond in line for the flight to Osaka. I thought I should get used to it. The plane was huge but this time I was by now, getting exhausted and my "internal" night time was approaching. There was no tv in this plane and I'm not sure how I passed the time. A mix between reading, trying to sleep, and listening to my ipod for a few hours. My plane ran late so I was nervous my host was waiting a long time. I thought I didn't need to ask for directions after I got off the plane but suddenly, nothing looked like the other airports. In fact, I had to take a shuttle from the plane to the rest of the airport? I just followed the masses into the shuttle, down to customs, where I was scared I would get quarantined because of the Swine Flu. I muffled every cough and sneeze while watching workers and passengers wear face masks. I made it down to baggage claim, grabbed the right bag and found Ogawa once I left successfully. He asked if we could wait for his friend who was coming and it actually took two days to figure out the whole story behind meeting her, but apparently he is playing match-maker for her and sometimes she volunteers for him. They were hungry and so, we drove through Osaka (it baffled me for a while that the drivers are on the other side of the car, and road) to Sato, a restaurant. 

The table was set up that you press a button and a server comes to take your order. How nifty. I think I want one for my restaurant. That would totally cut down on pointless empty handed trips to tables. Anyway, after they ate and I drank tea (still haven't even SEEN milk anywhere. Tea is the Japanese milk) we finally dropped her off and went home. By now, it was close to 1 am and I didn't want to wake up anyone. My room is with Ena-chan, a 13 year old middle schooler. Her school uniform hangs off by the door and she has a bunk bed that is as wide as the room pretty much. I feel kind of bad my luggage is too fat to shove under the bed so it eats a lot of floor space... Yikes. The house is also a bit different--for instance there is one room for a toilet and one for a shower, which is like a handicapped sit down shower, no curtain, just one room. You also press a button to flush the HEATED-seat toilet. The sink looked like a urinal at first and I was devastated I would have to endure dirty-bathroom hands but, just kidding! That's why there is soap next to it. 

Although I am a day ahead of Minnesota-time, I'm going to catch the rest of the next days tomorrow hopefully. I finally have internet access on my own computer so I can get started on that. 

P.S. It's also weird to feel illiterate! I know 400 kanji or 'characters' and there is 2,000 that the Japanese use. You really feel that difference in Japan...