My journey started in Madison at 1:30 am Wednesday morning. I walked 20 minutes to catch a bus from Memorial Union. The bus arrived at O'Hare Airport in Chicago at 5:30 am. Plenty of time for my 7:55 flight to Vancouver. Right about then, I had my first "holy crap I'm actually doing this" moment of the young day when I checked in for my flight on a computer screen at the United ticket counter. After swiping my passport, the computer asked me, "Are you traveling to Osaka?" And I thought, "Holy crap. I am. The answer to that question is yes. I am traveling an insane distance today."
The flight took four hours, and landed in Vancouver around 10 am local time. I followed the signs for "International Connections," where I waited on line for an hour and a half, only to spend about 3 seconds at the customs desk (this was USA to Canada customs, after all). I think the rest of the line was largely made up of people going to China, which is a more complicated process.
My flight to Osaka was delayed about an hour, and took off at 2 pm. I was one of maybe three non-Japanese people on the entire plane, and the only one in about a four row radius of my seat. The nice part about it being an Air Canada flight was that I had no problem working my video screen, but the man seated next to me was completely confused by it, and I think ended up breaking it, because he couldn't get it to do anything for a while. So I watched a bunch of movies, and 10 hours later, we landed in Osaka! I was in Japan!
It was about 6 pm local time by the time I got through customs (which was pretty easy, again). I had to take a bus to get into downtown Osaka, and since I somehow ended up on the local bus, which made about 30 stops in between, that took a long time. I had to catch the ferry at 10:30 (Hey! Catch!), so I had some time to walk around and explore Osaka. Which I did. It was a little strange at first, since I was carrying a large duffel bag, and since everyone seemed to be looking at me. Maybe it was the bag, or maybe it was that I was a six-foot gaijin wandering aimlessly around the city, but I got the feeling that I stuck out. It was still fun to see the city though, which was a mix of New York, since it was completely full of people all over the place, and Las Vegas, with all the flashing lights and shops everywhere.
Eventually I made my way to the ferry terminal, which involved getting on the subway. Somehow I got the right ticket, and got on the right train, and it went pretty smoothly. Then I had to somehow tell the woman at the ferry ticket desk a bunch of information that would get me onto the ferry. This was not as easy, but I eventually got it all sorted out. Once on the ferry, everyone seemed to scatter in different directions, and so my technique of "I'm just going to follow other people and do whatever they do" fizzled out early. I guess I looked lost, because one of the workers on the ship showed me to my room, which was a communal sleeping room (second class) with about 25 tatami mats lining the walls, each with a blanket and a pillow. He showed me which bed was mine, and then I fell asleep almost right away.
The ferry got to Toyo, on Shikoku island, at 6:10 am the next morning, at which point I boarded a bus to get to Imabari, where I met Josh! There was much rejoicing. Yasu, Josh's friend who he lives with, drove me back to their house, where I met Yasu's grandparents, who are adorably tiny people. The grandmother made us a HUGE and delicious breakfast, which consisted of miso soup, shrimp, eggs, scallops, fish, potato salad, tomatoes, and a red bean pasted which was inside a layer of mochi, or smashed rice paste, and then wrapped in a leaf. Josh said that most people would buy the red bean paste in a store, but not Oba-chan. She made it herself from the red beans, and it was delicious.
Since then we have been having lots of times all day, including getting lost in the woods, only to find our way to an ancient burial mound. Mostly, I am tired but very happy and excited to see Josh and to finally be here after two whole days of travel. I'm in Japan! JAPAAAAAN!
More updates soon!
