i'm here for real!

So humid my lens fogged up!

After the longest flight of my life (both literally and figuratively), I'm here in Japan... for real. The 14 hour flight gave me a little too much time to think about all the wonderful things and people I left behind and had to say goodbye to and that I'm really going to be in Japan for a whole year and that there was no turning back. Also, there was a 10 minute long period of extreme turbulance to add to my anxiety which was just lovely. We traveled up and over the US, near Alaska which may have been where the turbulance began. At any rate, I didn't sleep well and all the movies and shows kept going on loops so I'd watched the same parts of The Bourne Identity and Disturbia (which was not bad) about a million times over and over.



It was a harrowing (sp?) journey but I'm now in Shinjuku Tokyo at a swanky hotel and enjoying the orientation. I've met some sweet people and my hotelmate is also from NYC (in fact, she lived 5 blocks from me in Park Slope!) and in her 30s and going to be in the same prefecture as me so we're so happy we got matched up. Most of the people I've met are surprised I'm not also 22 or 26 but they've been fun to hang out with and hopefully we'll keep in touch and maybe visit each other's towns. It's nice to meet a variety of people from different backgrounds. There's about 1,000 of us here in this hotel for the orientation and 4,000 total in the program from various countries.




I also got to meet up with my mother's cousin and her daughter who live in Tokyo so that was an added bonus. They said my Japanese has improved much (yeh!) but I still couldn't quite get across "cultural exchange program" when describing my new job. In due time I suppose! It's nice to know that they are here for me though. They are so funny, I don't think I can express it in words but they're great so I'm glad to feel at ease with them.

After another day of training, I'll be off to my new home in Nagasaki. I'm sure the anxiety will strike again on that journey but I'm excited to get settled in and meet my new coworkers and neighbors. I miss you all in NYC and my family on the west coast! Wish me luck on the next part of my journey!