23rd November 2009, 6.40am
I am now sitting in Tokyo-Narita airport’s terminal 1 waiting to check in to my flight to Fukuoka. I am so sad cos here I am, in Tokyo, and all I see is the map/directory of how to get to places around…and that’s all I am going to see of Tokyo. >.<
The flight here was okay I guess, flew by ANA and the plane was relatively small, 2-3-2 seat configuration. Window seat as usual, but unfortunately the view of Mt. Fuji on the way was completely blocked by clouds. Only got to see a little bit of Tokyo when the plane was almost at the airport, which I guess was a misrepresentation cos all I saw were factories. Shinjuku, Harajuku, Asakusa etc will all have to wait until the future when I actually come visit Tokyo I guess.
Some photos along the way…
Said my first proper Japanese sentences at immigrations when the pretty lady at the counter asked me if I could speak Japanese. (I was like, yes I can speak a bit, but its quite bad. There you go, my 1st sentence to a Japanese in Japan!!)
Misrepresentation by the ANA Ground staff in Singapore: They said my luggage was going to be transferred for me to Fukuoka from Tokyo. HAHA. I walked through to the declaration place to where there was this super cute guy (or what looked like a super cute guy from nose up since he had a mask on)standing and with whatever limited japanese I had, I think he was asking me where my luggage case was. I was like oh, I have a connecting flight. He was like, ookay…so where are you from? Have a nice trip! *insert smiles, or I assumed he smiled cos his eyes crinkled up heheh.*
And then I walked through to the domestic connecting flight and the person was like, uh…you actually need to collect your luggage… So I had to go back in again and retrieve the dratted luggage case. Problem was, I DON’T THINK there was a way to get back in to the arrival hall from outside… so I walked in the way I came from, ie the way that had red stop signs plastered all over it to tell people to NOT walk in. This security person stopped me and with much pride, I now announce that I managed to get across to her that my luggage case was still inside. But then after that she went off on a tirade in many many Japanese words which I didn’t really get, but assumed that she just wanted me to fill up the declaration form again and go through the declaration part again. Which I assume should be correct, cos here I am safely sitting in the domestic part of terminal 2 instead of being stuck in some white enclosed area being questioned by scary looking, Japanese speaking security guards.
The weather is freakishly cold, 6 degrees, so technically speaking, similar to Tasmania in winter I guess. But somehow different? I don’t know…it’s cold, cloudy and generally gloomy with a huge hint of cigarette smoke smell.
Haha…after sitting here for about 30mins and having endless Japanese walk by/ sit next to me and talking, I am now starting to find the Japanese accent quite sexxyyy. Lol…who knows? I might end up becoming a japanophile after this!
Okayy…I just figured out why there was that cigarette smoke smell. About 10 metres away from me, is an indoors smoking area. Seriously. Yay for them.
But hmm…seriously. I am so intimidated by all the Japanese language being thrown around me. All of them speak Japanese!! They can’t really speak English!! I can only speak English!! I can’t speak Japanese!! How am I going to walk into shops/restaurants/school/MY HOMESTAY without living in constant fear that my mind is gonna go blank and I am going to go ‘Huh?’ most of the time??? Ahhhh!!!!!
Okay rant over. This is good for me This is good for my Japanese study This is going to improve my Japanese by probably 1000% since now I’m more or less at 0%
Now my next fear: Meeting my host family. I don’t know what they look like, I don’t even know whether they are going to meet me at the airport because my lecturer is freakishly unhelpful in providing such information. Seriously, doesn’t she realise how scary it is to be thrown into a foreign country and not have much idea of what’s gonna happen?
I guess I’ll just sit in Fukuoka International airport later and cry until someone comes and identify me as a lost soul to pick up and take me home. okayyy…maybe not. I’ll be a very sad case if I cry over something like that. I’m just hoping I have enough money to cover cabbing if im really stranded alone in the airport… With a 18.2kg luggage case, I really don’t think I’m up for figuring out how to take the train/subway/bus…
9.40pm, Fukuoka time.
Man, this day has been so so weird. Let’s start from the flight to Fukuoka. Remember how I was sitting at Narita airport doing nothing but typing nonsense? Well, I gave up after awhile and checked my luggage case in, then went off to explore the place.
Went up to the 4th & 5th floor where the airport mall was and omg, the Japanese really are crazy over Hello Kitty. They were everywhere!! After all the exploring, which involved me walking past a lot of food places, I made my first purchase in japan: A super nice looking bento set! 
Sat in the middle of nowhere, which had chairs facing a window ledge thing, to eat and admire whatever view there was to be admired at this angle.
After that, went walking around again and found this outdoors viewing mall. I don’t know, I quite like it, but hmm…considering how other countries have been double/triple proofing their window panes and stuff during to terrorism, I found it quite surprising that they have this here.
Oh...and the awesomeness which i have always heard of, found:
Flight then got delayed, and ended up spending 2 hours trying not to fall asleep (and failing badly) in the domestic terminal, which looks/and kinda really is a bus terminal. 
Finally got to board after 45mins delay, and had to get on the bus parked outside which drove us to the plane. So technically yes, it was a bus terminal I guess.
Finally finally got on the plane and well, kinda slept ¾ of the way there. But, in between naps, this was what I saw.
Kinda made up for the Ayers Rock which I didn’t see because I was stuck in the middle row of the aeroplane when the pilot happily announced that they were gonna make a special detour so that we could see the Ayers Rock.
Fukuoka is actually quite a big place haha. I kept picturing Hobart’s city scene in my head (ie 2 streets only?) and replacing the Tasmanians with Japanese. Apparently not.
Reached Fukuoka Airport, got my stuff and found a middle aged German man holding the Asahi Nihongo plycard looking at me. He turned out to be the guy to pick me up and bring me to my host family. Talked the whole way to the house (in English. finally!! After hours of attempting to speak in japanese…) Reached my host family’s house, which turned out to be in a dingy old apartment building (I won’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed.) and the person who applied for the homestay thing wasn’t in. Instead an old lady answered the door and she spoke kinda weirdly, which even I thought was the case though generally I don’t understand Japanese anyway. She directed me to another apartment 2 doors down, and told the German guy (Alex) that this was where I was supposed to stay.
At this point of time, I was completely lost, having no idea what they were saying and also the slight surprise at being directed to another apartment. I think Alex thought the same and hence didn’t think it was safe to leave me in the apartment alone. Therefore, (and here begins another weird experience), he invited me to go shopping with him and his wife.
For some crazy reason, I agreed. We drove over to his in-laws’ place, where I met his wife, 2 sons, mother in law, father in law – essentially the whole family. >.< I ended up staying in the house playing pokemon card games, mini tennis and watching kids shows with his 6 year old son, whose name I cant remember. But lol, he is sooo cute!!
At about 7, Alex brought me back to my uh, place where I saw Kenji loitering outside and found out that we are gonna be housemates for the next month or so. My host mom also came back around then and well, looks like I’m actually not gonna be living with her. She lives in 1 apartment with her mom and daughter, while me and kenji are gonna be staying in the other apartment with her sister. The apartment is…small. 2 rooms, or rather 1 japanese styled bedroom, and a tv room, then there’s the kitchen/living room/computer area, and the toilet and shower. That’s it.
She set down some ‘rules’, like no showering in the morning, no having the heater on at night when I sleep ( :( , but apparently its like that in japan). And we were more or less left on our own. I don’t know, I get the impression that she doesn’t particularly care about us…oh well.
Her sister was in, so the 3 of us just kinda sat down in my room (originally hers) on the tatami mat (!!) and drank green tea and chatted, kinda awkwardly, since it was our first time getting to know each other. But it was nice though, made me feel more at home.
Alrights, gotta go get some sleep cos tomorrow is orientation. It kinda sucks though, that I don’t get a proper day’s rest before school starts, but oh well, its my own fault I screwed up the dates. City tour as well tomorrow, hope I have enough coins to get to school though, Alex is taking us to school by bus tomorrow at 8 and I have zero idea how buses work here and all…
And anyway, here's my room!!
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jacelyn chua
