Day 1: Arriving in Narita and first night in Tokyo

With pre-departure orientation complete, it was time to fly to Japan! Before airport check in, we were given special red luggage tags that identified our bags as JET belongings. My family drove 2 hours to come see me off at the airport, which was great because we could say goodbye in person.

Our flight landed in Narita at about 14:20 local time, but we didn't get there without first spending upwards of ten hours stuck in a flying metal tube. It wasn't terrible - we got dinner (chicken and rice with a strange salad) and breakfast (spinach and cheese omelette with potatoes and a sausage), I slept for about 3 hours, and learned the cello part of movements 3 and 4 of Beethoven's ninth symphony as well as one can without an actual instrument.

The aircraft also had these really cool, automatically dimming windows that darkened gradually as you pushed a button. The darkness can be controlled manually or by the flight crew, so nobody's sleep would be disturbed by an inconsiderate passenger keeping his or her window at full brightness.

When we disembarked, the JET group was herded together like sheep towards immigration, but we were asked to wait elsewhere until it cleared up a bit. Apparently, it was very やばい (yabai, meaning "awful, crap, terrible"). We probably waited over 2 hours before groups of about 20 at a time were led downstairs to stand in a special line they set up specifically for us. Upon completion of immigration check-in procedures, we made our way to the baggage claim, which was also very やばい. Because immigration took so long, our bags were long off the carousel, having been sorted into three piles of red-tagged luggage, each in a different area of the baggage claim.

After finding my two bags (in different piles) and proceeding through customs with little trouble, we finally got outside of the airport to hit the awful Japanese wall of summer humidity! surprisingly good weather, actually. It wasn't too hot, and we had a nice breeze blowing as we made our way to the bus and bag drop-off.

The bus ride to Keio Plaza hotel was about an hour long, though I slept for some of it so I'm not exactly sure. There was a lot more green on the road than I was accustomed to at home. We passed a delivery truck that had as its English slogan "Delivery the life by ability and faithful." (That's how you know you're in Japan.)

We got in to Keio at about 19:20 local time, 5 hours after getting off the plane. But it's our first night in Tokyo, so we had to go explore Shinjuku (and get dinner, since we hadn't eaten since disembarking).

We went to a vending machine ramen place, where you put in money and hit the button for the ramen you want, and the machine prints a ticket that you give to the cooks. I had a white miso ramen with egg, and while it wasn't amazing, it was still better than the stuff you get in the states.

With that, we settled in for the night to prep for Day 1 of Tokyo Orientation!