Hey all! I've been having a lot of fun lately with my new friend Chika. As I've mentioned before, we met because she's interested in practicing and improving her English since she wants to finish studying film in the US. We've hung out more recently, since it seems like she has more time on her hands and she's very cool and fun. Since we're both 22, we seem to be into much of the same things: going out with friends, drinking, watching movies, shopping, and lately for me, karaoke and piricura. Which is what we did on Tuesday and today.
Here're the pics from that: Buddies!. Hope you're all well, and that maybe sometime in the future you'll all get to meet my new friend!
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Hell Just Froze Over: Retroactive Post
Why? Because yesterday, I did the UNTHINKABLE. The two things that I wouldn't be caught doing in Seattle, EVER.
Yesterday, I was on the phone with Pat, checking up on him post-birthday-barfage, and waiting for my cousin, the one that doesn't live with me (Eugen-san) to come home with his girlfriend, Yuka-chan, whom I had met once before, since I had to open the door for them because they didnt have a key. They get home, and after getting cut off with Pat, I take the gidensha over to the post office, where I exchange my travelers checks for yen, go for a quick bike-ride around the Mizuho Koen *park, pick up cookies for them, and come back home. But none of that is out of the ordinary...
To my surprise, Yuka-chan had planned on taking me out, so we left soon after, and picked up her friend Miwa-chan in Sakae, braving the traffic. While driving, we decided to go to karaoke, so we headed down there. I'm sorry, are you wondering whether you heard me correctly? Yes, I said, KARAOKE. I, Sarah, went to KARAOKE. Thus begins my official conversion into Japan. So we went, and I had a good time, but unfortunately left my camera at home, so, sorry guys, no pics for you. Maybe some other time.
This was then followed by going to a place where you can play pool, video games and other things, but we did none of those things. Instead, we took PICTURES. The kind of pics that are tiny little stickers that cover every Japanese person's cell-phone. The ones that you take in a tiny little booth with different backgrounds and such. Well, I am now ADDICTED. I love them! But only the ones in Japan, b/c the ones in the US, you can't do as much. The ones here, you can write and draw all over them, stamp them, etc...They're so KAWAI *cute!!! I like them so much that I'm willing to show them, so for you all (but I still wish that you were here with me so that we can take some together):
Today was less adventurous. My cousin Uichi-san had a day off today, so we went with him, his gf Sa-chan, and Riko-chan and Taku-chan to the Villaggio Italia. And since I promised pictures, here are some, though a lot less than I normally take: Little Italy
We had lunch, walked around, did some shopping and then headed back, since I had to meet up with Chika again, near my house. Chika and I studied English and Japanese while everyone else either slept or played video games (Taku-chan), then watched 50 First Dates, since Chika had never seen it. We had dinner, chatted about anime, comics and manga, and then everyone headed home, but not before I made them promise that we'd take pictures together then next time we met. Now, I find myself again staying up late to provide you with pictures and updates about my life here, so oyasumi!
Yesterday, I was on the phone with Pat, checking up on him post-birthday-barfage, and waiting for my cousin, the one that doesn't live with me (Eugen-san) to come home with his girlfriend, Yuka-chan, whom I had met once before, since I had to open the door for them because they didnt have a key. They get home, and after getting cut off with Pat, I take the gidensha over to the post office, where I exchange my travelers checks for yen, go for a quick bike-ride around the Mizuho Koen *park, pick up cookies for them, and come back home. But none of that is out of the ordinary...
To my surprise, Yuka-chan had planned on taking me out, so we left soon after, and picked up her friend Miwa-chan in Sakae, braving the traffic. While driving, we decided to go to karaoke, so we headed down there. I'm sorry, are you wondering whether you heard me correctly? Yes, I said, KARAOKE. I, Sarah, went to KARAOKE. Thus begins my official conversion into Japan. So we went, and I had a good time, but unfortunately left my camera at home, so, sorry guys, no pics for you. Maybe some other time.
This was then followed by going to a place where you can play pool, video games and other things, but we did none of those things. Instead, we took PICTURES. The kind of pics that are tiny little stickers that cover every Japanese person's cell-phone. The ones that you take in a tiny little booth with different backgrounds and such. Well, I am now ADDICTED. I love them! But only the ones in Japan, b/c the ones in the US, you can't do as much. The ones here, you can write and draw all over them, stamp them, etc...They're so KAWAI *cute!!! I like them so much that I'm willing to show them, so for you all (but I still wish that you were here with me so that we can take some together):
Today was less adventurous. My cousin Uichi-san had a day off today, so we went with him, his gf Sa-chan, and Riko-chan and Taku-chan to the Villaggio Italia. And since I promised pictures, here are some, though a lot less than I normally take: Little Italy
We had lunch, walked around, did some shopping and then headed back, since I had to meet up with Chika again, near my house. Chika and I studied English and Japanese while everyone else either slept or played video games (Taku-chan), then watched 50 First Dates, since Chika had never seen it. We had dinner, chatted about anime, comics and manga, and then everyone headed home, but not before I made them promise that we'd take pictures together then next time we met. Now, I find myself again staying up late to provide you with pictures and updates about my life here, so oyasumi!
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Busy Little Bee: Retroactive Post
I've been pretty busy lately. Earlier in the week, I rode the gidensha *bicycle to the Nagoya City Museum. I didn't really take pictures while I was there, but they have a really large regular exhibition. I followed it chronologically from the prehistoric period, to the development of a rice-harvesting society all the way to the development of Nagoya itself, and through World War II. Here are some pics from the outside garden:
Nagoya Castle and its famous Golden Fish symbol:
A couple of days ago, I met with one of the girls that I might be helping with their English while I'm here. Her name's Chika, and she's my age. She's been to the US before, studying film, and wants to go back for her second semester of film school, so that's why she wants to improve her English. We hung around Sakae for the afternoon. While we were in one of the many department stores, we stopped at this little shop with all sorts of useless-seeming knickknacks. What caught our eye was Elmo. But, for some reason, some Japanese person decided that Elmo is better in different colors, so:
Yesterday, I went to the Nagoya Aquarium with my aunt. Check my album to see what it was like: The Aquarium. One of the cool things there, which I unfortunately couldn't take a picture of, were all of these computer graphics displays depicting different things, like how whales evolved from being four-legged land creatures to water-living mammals, and what their skeletons look like. There was even a large-scale animatronic killer whale with a projector screen set behind it, and when they lit it up a certain way, you could see it's skeleton. It was a really long walk through all of the exhibitions in the two buildings.
Following that however, we decided to walk to the nearby Villagio Italia, even though it was raining. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pics of it because my camera had no more memory space and my battery had run out. But I'll definitely go back there again, and I promise pictures in the future. It was very cute and most of it was pretty authentic, though like the rest of Japan, as I'm finding, inundated with tons of shops.
Today, I met Risa, another girl looking for English help. She's 28, and actually lived in Vancouver for about a year, as well as living in Puerto Rico and visiting other places in the US. We met up with her friend John, who has recently moved to Japan from Vancouver, and mostly chatted. They gave me a bunch of tips regarding where to apply for teaching jobs, as well as what to be wary of and more of what to expect while living in Japan. For now, I'm sleepy, so oyasumi nasai! *good night!
Nagoya Castle and its famous Golden Fish symbol:
A couple of days ago, I met with one of the girls that I might be helping with their English while I'm here. Her name's Chika, and she's my age. She's been to the US before, studying film, and wants to go back for her second semester of film school, so that's why she wants to improve her English. We hung around Sakae for the afternoon. While we were in one of the many department stores, we stopped at this little shop with all sorts of useless-seeming knickknacks. What caught our eye was Elmo. But, for some reason, some Japanese person decided that Elmo is better in different colors, so:
Yesterday, I went to the Nagoya Aquarium with my aunt. Check my album to see what it was like: The Aquarium. One of the cool things there, which I unfortunately couldn't take a picture of, were all of these computer graphics displays depicting different things, like how whales evolved from being four-legged land creatures to water-living mammals, and what their skeletons look like. There was even a large-scale animatronic killer whale with a projector screen set behind it, and when they lit it up a certain way, you could see it's skeleton. It was a really long walk through all of the exhibitions in the two buildings.
Following that however, we decided to walk to the nearby Villagio Italia, even though it was raining. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pics of it because my camera had no more memory space and my battery had run out. But I'll definitely go back there again, and I promise pictures in the future. It was very cute and most of it was pretty authentic, though like the rest of Japan, as I'm finding, inundated with tons of shops.
Today, I met Risa, another girl looking for English help. She's 28, and actually lived in Vancouver for about a year, as well as living in Puerto Rico and visiting other places in the US. We met up with her friend John, who has recently moved to Japan from Vancouver, and mostly chatted. They gave me a bunch of tips regarding where to apply for teaching jobs, as well as what to be wary of and more of what to expect while living in Japan. For now, I'm sleepy, so oyasumi nasai! *good night!
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
My Second Week Here: Retroactive Post
I can't believe that I've already been here for a week. More than a week at this point. So far, I've been having a great time. I wake up, check in with friends and then do something new. I've checked downtown Nagoya and some of the big sightseeing spots-I've still yet to go to Nagoya Castle, but I'll do that when it's warmer. Lately however, it's been super windy and super cold, though sunny. Check out some of my new pics, as I walk around the city some more:Walking Around Nagoya. Oh and Pat, Happy Birthday. These are for you:
Only in Japan will you find a package of chocolate chip cookies filled with individually wrapped cookies. Oh, and notice that all of the cookies cannot have any chocolate chips showing through the tops. They just can't. The Emperor said so.
Only in Japan will you find a package of chocolate chip cookies filled with individually wrapped cookies. Oh, and notice that all of the cookies cannot have any chocolate chips showing through the tops. They just can't. The Emperor said so.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
My Aunt is Off the Heezy: Retroactive Post
Ok, let me first preface this by saying that I love my aunt. My dad's side of the family is way more fun and funny than my mom's side and I think that it's because they like to drink. I'm staying with her and her Japanese husband, my Uncle Sam (Isamu), and they're both really awesome people.
My aunt, Tita Elvie, is, despite having lived here in Japan for the past 20 years, still hella Filipino. She was worried when she found out that I wanted to go to Japan and that I would likely be living with them, because she speaks Japanese and Tagolog despite being able to understand English since she had to study it in school, and I only know how to speak English, and have a limited comprehension of Tagalog. Not only was she worried that we wouldn't be able to communicate with one another, but she tells me that she, like her Filipina friends, avoid English speaking people like the plague because they don't want to embarrass themselves by not being able to speak it correctly simply because they never use it. This being the reason that my aunt has told me why none of her friends have come to visit her on their days off. But that's not the point of this little story.
My aunt and uncle Sam, I have found are accustomed to having a fruity alcoholic drink (like beer) or two every day, usually at dinner. And usually by the end of dinner, we will sit around and talk, and exchange stories and my aunt will sometimes joke about the fact that she's already drinking. Well today, i found out just how funny she is when she does. We had already finished dinner and were relaxing in our rooms, and my aunt came into mine to tell me something about tomorrow since it is my
So she gets to my door and says, Sarah Kay, tomorrow...not early...not in the morning...but later...after one...or twelve...after...later...And she seriously couldn't do more that look at me, because she couldn't think of 'afternoon' until I said it, at which point we're both laughing at her, and she says that it's because she's already under the alcohol. Then she tells me that in the afternoon, as we're both still laughing, my uncle Sam will drive me around in the Mercedes (bearing in mind that this is their truck) and that I'll need to wear my party dress, because my Uncle Sam will be driving me around in it. And continues to repeat this to make sure I understand her, but all I can do is laugh, and I'm still not sure if she was serious about me wearing my party dress or not.
Anyway, I guess you just had to be there. I'll post more pics later, but this one goes out to you tita.
My aunt, Tita Elvie, is, despite having lived here in Japan for the past 20 years, still hella Filipino. She was worried when she found out that I wanted to go to Japan and that I would likely be living with them, because she speaks Japanese and Tagolog despite being able to understand English since she had to study it in school, and I only know how to speak English, and have a limited comprehension of Tagalog. Not only was she worried that we wouldn't be able to communicate with one another, but she tells me that she, like her Filipina friends, avoid English speaking people like the plague because they don't want to embarrass themselves by not being able to speak it correctly simply because they never use it. This being the reason that my aunt has told me why none of her friends have come to visit her on their days off. But that's not the point of this little story.
My aunt and uncle Sam, I have found are accustomed to having a fruity alcoholic drink (like beer) or two every day, usually at dinner. And usually by the end of dinner, we will sit around and talk, and exchange stories and my aunt will sometimes joke about the fact that she's already drinking. Well today, i found out just how funny she is when she does. We had already finished dinner and were relaxing in our rooms, and my aunt came into mine to tell me something about tomorrow since it is my
So she gets to my door and says, Sarah Kay, tomorrow...not early...not in the morning...but later...after one...or twelve...after...later...And she seriously couldn't do more that look at me, because she couldn't think of 'afternoon' until I said it, at which point we're both laughing at her, and she says that it's because she's already under the alcohol. Then she tells me that in the afternoon, as we're both still laughing, my uncle Sam will drive me around in the Mercedes (bearing in mind that this is their truck) and that I'll need to wear my party dress, because my Uncle Sam will be driving me around in it. And continues to repeat this to make sure I understand her, but all I can do is laugh, and I'm still not sure if she was serious about me wearing my party dress or not.
Anyway, I guess you just had to be there. I'll post more pics later, but this one goes out to you tita.
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
On Being a Foreigner: Retroactive Post
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been having some technical difficulties with myspace. So, since I left off the last time, I had been held up at both the Tokyo Narita airport and the Nagoya, had to take a bus to catch the plane on the tarmac, was stalled by Tokyo snow, couldn't find my luggage in baggage claim, had to go through customs and finally, found my aunt and uncle.
Now that I've been here a few days, I have to tell you guys that I absolutely love it here. Nagoya is not crowded like Tokyo, even downtown Nagoya (Sakae) is about as crowded as downtown Seattle, and it reminds me a lot of Vancouver. It's very clean: there's no litter on the sidewalks; safe: everyone leaves their bicycles (jidensha) on the sidewalk, not locked up at all; and there's a lot of things in English, so I don't get too confused. I've been working on my nihongo and I hope that by the time I leave here, I'll be fluent in it.
As for what I've been up to, you can check out pics from my first three days here: Japan. They go in chronological order. On my second night here, Sa-chan, my cousin's gf, her daughter Riko-chan, who is eleven and I were trying to exchange languages, so I would try to ask what something was, and she'd tell me in nihongo, and then I would tell her what it was in English. It was hella funny, being 22 years old and having an elementary vocabulary. Also, I have to tell you guys, just how jealous I am of all the Japanese girls and guys here. They're all hella stylish and I need one of you to come and visit me here so that I have a shopping buddy, and then I can be kawai (cute) too! Also, here's a link to some pictures of things that I found entertaining while here in Japan: Interesting... Yesterday, I took the chikatetsu (subway) by myself and I even went to a convenience store and the supermarket and bought stuff alone. I pretty much went, Hai, hai, arigatoo gozaimas! But, hey, it got the job done.
Anyway, I'm gonna work on my Japanese before I attempt trying to travel to another city or town, but I really want to go to Kyoto, and see the geishas. Sometime in the next few weeks we're all gonna go to the Nagoya Castle for the sakura viewings. I'll post pics once I go. As for now, I hope that you're all doing well. Leave me a comment if you want anything from here (Jorge, I've already got you down buddy!). Take care!
Now that I've been here a few days, I have to tell you guys that I absolutely love it here. Nagoya is not crowded like Tokyo, even downtown Nagoya (Sakae) is about as crowded as downtown Seattle, and it reminds me a lot of Vancouver. It's very clean: there's no litter on the sidewalks; safe: everyone leaves their bicycles (jidensha) on the sidewalk, not locked up at all; and there's a lot of things in English, so I don't get too confused. I've been working on my nihongo and I hope that by the time I leave here, I'll be fluent in it.
As for what I've been up to, you can check out pics from my first three days here: Japan. They go in chronological order. On my second night here, Sa-chan, my cousin's gf, her daughter Riko-chan, who is eleven and I were trying to exchange languages, so I would try to ask what something was, and she'd tell me in nihongo, and then I would tell her what it was in English. It was hella funny, being 22 years old and having an elementary vocabulary. Also, I have to tell you guys, just how jealous I am of all the Japanese girls and guys here. They're all hella stylish and I need one of you to come and visit me here so that I have a shopping buddy, and then I can be kawai (cute) too! Also, here's a link to some pictures of things that I found entertaining while here in Japan: Interesting... Yesterday, I took the chikatetsu (subway) by myself and I even went to a convenience store and the supermarket and bought stuff alone. I pretty much went, Hai, hai, arigatoo gozaimas! But, hey, it got the job done.
Anyway, I'm gonna work on my Japanese before I attempt trying to travel to another city or town, but I really want to go to Kyoto, and see the geishas. Sometime in the next few weeks we're all gonna go to the Nagoya Castle for the sakura viewings. I'll post pics once I go. As for now, I hope that you're all doing well. Leave me a comment if you want anything from here (Jorge, I've already got you down buddy!). Take care!
Friday, March 3, 2006
Sayonara Seattle: Retroactive Post
I haven't slept for more than four hours in the last 36, so maybe that might account for my jumbled emotional state right now. As I type this, I am hurtling hundreds of feet per minute towards Japan.
I had stayed up until 2 am last night, getting packed for the next three months and then woke up at 6 to continue preparing while my mom and dad left this morning to go to a doctor's appointment for my dad. My plane was due to depart at 12:55pm this afternoon, and I was starting to worry when Pone and my parents still weren't home by 10:30. They get home at last, and we load the two huge check-in luggage, my carry-on luggage, my laptop case, my niece Kyla who's knocked out in her car seat, and her diaper bag, into our van and get on I-5 to SeaTac.
Unfortunately, after merging onto the freeway from the entrance ramp, traffic just stops moving, we hear emergency signals and spot a truck heading to some point up ahead of us. Luckily we get past the accident that had been slowing everything down, and get to the airport by 11:00. However, I was to find that this was merely the first in a series of occurrences that seemed determined to prevent me from getting to Japan.
We unload everything from the car and go to the curbside baggage check-in. There are several people there, but we eventually get the attention of a friendly baggage handler. He then promptly tells me that the weight limit on check-in baggage was not the 70lbs that it normally is if you go to the Philippines, and which my mom and I had argued over about trying to pack everything and still remain under the limit, but rather 50lbs: which left us with 40lbs to redistribute in my already full carry-on luggage. Fortunately, there was a Filipino man also traveling to Japan right behind us in line, and who had also been unaware of the different weight restrictions, but after talking with the Filipino baggage handler and my parents in a Tagalog conversation which I barely understood, I found out that he'd be willing to take on some of my excess packages.
After getting my boarding pass, I head over to my gate, say rushed good-bye to my family and head through the screening process. I get my stuff through pretty quickly, but they tell me that they've just got to look through my rolling carry-on luggage, which I readily agree to. They take out my things and wipe down the inside of the luggage and scan it for stuff. I think nothing of it, until the machine alerts of her an EDT (no idea what that is) hit, which makes her call someone else.
As he looks through a folder of info, she tells me that she's got to go through the purse I had inside. Again, I agree and it's not until she starts pulling stuff out that is covered in something liquid that I realize that something has gone very wrong: the bottle of prescription cough syrup that my doctor had prescribed for me in case I got sick again in Japan, had broken and leaked all of its contents into my purse, covering my umbrella, lotion and other materials. They didn't make a big deal about it once they found out that it was just cough syrup, but that left me with a huge mess to clean up, aided by the roll of paper towels they gave to me, but my Coach purse is ruined, and it sucks even more because that was the ONLY purse I had brought with me.
I get most of it dealt with and head to my gate with the guy, Leo, who's carrying some of my stuff. We make it to the gate, and after waiting for only a short time, find that they're starting to board. It was going through that boarding ramp that started doing it for me. It was when I realized, there's no going back. I get on the plane, make it to my seat, struggle with getting my luggage into the overhead compartment and take my seat next to a Japanese girl who looks to be about my age (we haven't spoken). From there, as more and more people of Japanese descent get on the plane, I realize just how scared I was about going to another country and that I've left my life and everything that I know behind, but I take some deep breaths and calm down. I sorta dozed as we were preparing to get ready, but had to wait through a half hour delay as they had to do something with the water tank. Finally, our plane pulls away from the terminal and we make our slow, bumpy way down the landing strip.
At one point, there were these loud thudding noises coming from below us and I felt a brief flash of fear as I thought about it being a sign that our plane was going to crash on take-off, further helped along as our plane started to slow and then stop. However I was relieved to find that we were stopping because we were waiting for a plane in front of us to start their take-off and then noticed this line of planes behind us all waiting for their chance to take-off, and all of a sudden, instead of being scared, I was excited as my plane's engines fired up and thrust us into the air and towards Japan.
As we cleared the cloud cover and got into the sunlight, I remembered what it was like when I had gone sky-diving and the extremely unnatural sensation of falling fast through the clouds. The feelings that I felt then mirror a lot of the ones that I'm going through now:; fear about what it's actually going to be like; excitement that this is something I've never done before; sadness that no one is with me; disbelief that I'm actually going through with this; but pride as well, that all of my talk about traveling was not just talk, and that I can actually walk that talk.
So, to everyone at home: I love you all but I'm happy I'm doing this. See you in three months.
I had stayed up until 2 am last night, getting packed for the next three months and then woke up at 6 to continue preparing while my mom and dad left this morning to go to a doctor's appointment for my dad. My plane was due to depart at 12:55pm this afternoon, and I was starting to worry when Pone and my parents still weren't home by 10:30. They get home at last, and we load the two huge check-in luggage, my carry-on luggage, my laptop case, my niece Kyla who's knocked out in her car seat, and her diaper bag, into our van and get on I-5 to SeaTac.
Unfortunately, after merging onto the freeway from the entrance ramp, traffic just stops moving, we hear emergency signals and spot a truck heading to some point up ahead of us. Luckily we get past the accident that had been slowing everything down, and get to the airport by 11:00. However, I was to find that this was merely the first in a series of occurrences that seemed determined to prevent me from getting to Japan.
We unload everything from the car and go to the curbside baggage check-in. There are several people there, but we eventually get the attention of a friendly baggage handler. He then promptly tells me that the weight limit on check-in baggage was not the 70lbs that it normally is if you go to the Philippines, and which my mom and I had argued over about trying to pack everything and still remain under the limit, but rather 50lbs: which left us with 40lbs to redistribute in my already full carry-on luggage. Fortunately, there was a Filipino man also traveling to Japan right behind us in line, and who had also been unaware of the different weight restrictions, but after talking with the Filipino baggage handler and my parents in a Tagalog conversation which I barely understood, I found out that he'd be willing to take on some of my excess packages.
After getting my boarding pass, I head over to my gate, say rushed good-bye to my family and head through the screening process. I get my stuff through pretty quickly, but they tell me that they've just got to look through my rolling carry-on luggage, which I readily agree to. They take out my things and wipe down the inside of the luggage and scan it for stuff. I think nothing of it, until the machine alerts of her an EDT (no idea what that is) hit, which makes her call someone else.
As he looks through a folder of info, she tells me that she's got to go through the purse I had inside. Again, I agree and it's not until she starts pulling stuff out that is covered in something liquid that I realize that something has gone very wrong: the bottle of prescription cough syrup that my doctor had prescribed for me in case I got sick again in Japan, had broken and leaked all of its contents into my purse, covering my umbrella, lotion and other materials. They didn't make a big deal about it once they found out that it was just cough syrup, but that left me with a huge mess to clean up, aided by the roll of paper towels they gave to me, but my Coach purse is ruined, and it sucks even more because that was the ONLY purse I had brought with me.
I get most of it dealt with and head to my gate with the guy, Leo, who's carrying some of my stuff. We make it to the gate, and after waiting for only a short time, find that they're starting to board. It was going through that boarding ramp that started doing it for me. It was when I realized, there's no going back. I get on the plane, make it to my seat, struggle with getting my luggage into the overhead compartment and take my seat next to a Japanese girl who looks to be about my age (we haven't spoken). From there, as more and more people of Japanese descent get on the plane, I realize just how scared I was about going to another country and that I've left my life and everything that I know behind, but I take some deep breaths and calm down. I sorta dozed as we were preparing to get ready, but had to wait through a half hour delay as they had to do something with the water tank. Finally, our plane pulls away from the terminal and we make our slow, bumpy way down the landing strip.
At one point, there were these loud thudding noises coming from below us and I felt a brief flash of fear as I thought about it being a sign that our plane was going to crash on take-off, further helped along as our plane started to slow and then stop. However I was relieved to find that we were stopping because we were waiting for a plane in front of us to start their take-off and then noticed this line of planes behind us all waiting for their chance to take-off, and all of a sudden, instead of being scared, I was excited as my plane's engines fired up and thrust us into the air and towards Japan.
As we cleared the cloud cover and got into the sunlight, I remembered what it was like when I had gone sky-diving and the extremely unnatural sensation of falling fast through the clouds. The feelings that I felt then mirror a lot of the ones that I'm going through now:; fear about what it's actually going to be like; excitement that this is something I've never done before; sadness that no one is with me; disbelief that I'm actually going through with this; but pride as well, that all of my talk about traveling was not just talk, and that I can actually walk that talk.
So, to everyone at home: I love you all but I'm happy I'm doing this. See you in three months.
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