okay wow! i'm finally here. i really thought that i would be updating every day as soon as i got here, but turns out i was busy literally every single day from dawn til dusk. my family came to help move me in, so we were busy almost every day, whether it was buying stuff for my apartment, or school orientation, or a little bit of exploring!
i won't talk your ear off or whatever, but i do want to give a run down of everything so far!
i was up ALL NIGHT finishing packing before our flight. i had 3 EXTRA LARGE SUITCASES, one smaller, a large backpack filled to the brim, and i even had to fill up half of my little brother's large luggage. it really wasn't that much stuff, it was mainly just things that took up a lot of space, like clothes (i wanted to make sure i had some basics for every season so i don't have to be buying clothes all the time), my large fancy monitor that i really did not want to part with (it took up an entire side of one of my suitcases, and etc etc idk
anyways so yeah i stayed up the entire night, our flight was at 7ish am and we had to be there at 4 i believe. we were all supposed to be ready to leave at 3:30am but my mom was apparently still asleep and i didn't think anything of it, so we were a bit late. the airline told us to arrive at least 3 hours early so we could check our bags for the international flight, and we were hurrying like crazy to get there at a decent time, but the thing is, no one was even there to check our bags until like an hour later?! it was so silly
my lovely boyfriend came to say goodbye, and that was probably the hardest part. i miss him so much already! but i'll be seeing him over winter break hopefully :D
the flights were nerve wracking. not only was i nervous to finally be in japan (the anticipation was literally building up over an entire year), but i am also kind of terrified of planes and i kept having nightmares before our trip hahaaa...well it was fine obviously. my flight was extremely long and, even though i was able to lay down, i was still so uncomfortable most of the time. i was somehow still alive at this point, running on 100% anxiety. it was very difficult to sleep
while on the plane, we got served a main meal. i had chosen the fish.
do not ever choose the fish.
i felt sick pretty much the entire rest of the flight and by the time we landed, i felt like i had to puke so bad (i absolutely despise throwing up and i refuse to every time i feel like it. i do not care if that's the worst thing to do, i will not throw up unless my body literally forces me to) so uh yeah my very first day in japan felt like absolute doodoo. i didn't throw up though! the next day i felt way better, but i still barely wanted to eat. i still hadn't eaten since the fish like 20+ hours ago
anyways it was fine! we got up and explored the city a little bit, but that day i had a brief meeting with my school during the afternoon, and they were going to take me to my apartment after! so we gathered all of my things, took a cab to the school, did all of that, then went to my apartment!
it was cute! although i will say, i don't think they cleaned it at all for my arrival, but whatever it didn't really bother me. i kind of like cleaning sometimes anyway lol. uh yeah i don't have too much else to say about it! it's small but do-able, the bathroom kind of grosses me out because it's all kind of yellow with a yellow light (i like yellow lighting, but not when the entire bathroom is a shade of piss) and i haven't seen many bugs so far! but let me tell you...i am prepared. i will still be absolutely horrified, but i've got a whole array of bug sprays and catchers
after working on the apartment for a few days, we went to tokyo disneyland! my mom and aunt really love disney world so they knew they needed to go to japan's park at least once. it was extremely cool! we were all dying the entire trip though because of how gosh darn hot it was. it was bad and sooo humid, but it was worth it. they have so many cool attractions and the theming was absolutely amazing. i was the most excited for the arabian coast, but it dissapointed me just a little bit. i wish there was more to explore there! jasmine and aladdin are my favorite and have been since i was little. i do think my favorite place to explore was the fortress explorations. we didn't do the activity that you're supposed to, but still, it was soo interesting. i was also really surprised by the ariel area, and fantasy land-ish area where the belle ride is. i think everything is way better themed than it is at disney world. it really feels like you're stepping into the stories when you're there. i definitely want to go again because we didn't get to do everyting! i really want to explore toon town, ride 'it's a small world' (it was down...so sad), and definitely watch the genie magic show or whatever it was called.
here's a little photo dump!
after we got back from disney, i had to go to orientation! i went by myself, and it was a bit of a disaster. i went the exact way that we had been before, but apparently there was more than one train that stopped at the same platform. i had probably been riding for 30 minutes before i realized i was on a completely different one. i was using google maps, but it still thought i was on the correct train for some reason. i had left so long before my orientation that i thought it would be fine! i was supposed to be there an hour early, but no, i was there 10 minutes late. RIP!!! also, i was so freaked out because someone had passed out in the same car that i was in. it was scary, but i think they were okay. anyways, i toured the school, we did introductions, and we had to fill out paperwork! it turned out to be fine despite me beating myself up over it at first.
i made a pretty big mistake that day though because i gave my apartment keys to my family. they said they were going to go shopping and drop everything off at my apartment, but they ended up shopping in another city and didn't come back until wayyy after i was done with my orientation. i had sooo much time to spare. i spent some of it at the school, then i went to a konbini and got a sandwich, then i ended up talking to another student and we ended up walking to the apartments together and i awkwardly just waited at mine until he went inside his so i could just leave again since i didn't have the key LOL. i ate, i went to a cafe nearby and had some delicious tea while i just sat on my phone messaging friends from the US. i went BACK to the school because my family STILL weren't in the city, and i just waited until they were close by and i finally met up with them at my apartment
i stayed at my apartment that night since i had actual class the next day. class is very interesting! everything is fully in japanese, so you're really having to use your brain 24/7. thankfully i know enough to be able to decipher mostly everything, but it's definitely a brain work out. i'm not sure what else to say! it's just fun and i feel like i'm learning very quickly.
i spent the night with my family on friday night since they were leaving the next day. we had a great dinner! it was so pretty that night.
in the morning, we were going to try to go to this mall that looked sooo cool, but it only opened after they had to leave. so i went by myself when they did muahaha. anyways, it was pretty sad when they left. i'm super excited to be here, but it was still sad to see them all be very sad. but it'll be okay! i think i'm going home during winter break
the mall was sooo cool. it had a pokemon center inside, but it was soo packed so you needed a ticket to get in. i didn't want to wait around that long, so i explored a little more. they had a mofusand store where i got a cute bag and a 'kid' area where i bought a kirby tissue holder (you pull the tissues out of his mouth omg) and miffy chopsticks! i also went to the women's section and HOLY MOLY! it literally felt like i was inside girls mode (a.k.a. style savvy. great freaking game i'm gonna play it right after i post this lolol) there were sooo many themed stores, it's nothing like the US. they had a punk store, lolita shops (gothic and sweet style), kimono, retro, colorful, chic, dude any style you name, they had a seperate store for it. it was amazing. i was in love with everything except the price hahaha
anyways, i could probably talk about a lot more but so much happened in 2 weeks and i'm already forgetting! so i'll leave it at this haha. my entries won't usually be this long, and i definitely plan on posting more often now!
じゃあ、またね！ until next time!
ケネディ ♡