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Liane's Study Abroad in Japan-The Flight and Arrival in Japan

One of our listeners, Liane, came to Japan on a study abroad program last year and she has been nice enough to share her experience with us. I will be posting her stories over the next several weeks. I hope you will enjoy them. If you have any questions and want to see some pictures you can visit Liane's website.

Read her first installment
Read her second installment
Read her third installment

Liane wrote

This week I have a little disclaimer: I’ve asked permission from everyone at JCMU to write in their first name if I mention them. I will not be writing anyone’s name without permission, though I may still tell a story involving them. If this happens, they will remain anonymous.

Flying can be quite a hassle these days, especially with long flights. It’s tiring in itself, and not only that, but you have to deal with whatever life is going to bring you once you get to your destination. This week I’ll tell you a little bit about my experience getting through the hustle and bustle of the airport and what awaited me when I first reached Japan. As always, this is not necessarily how you will find the journey, but it may give you an idea of what you might expect.

The day finally arrived. After a lot of bustling, last minute packing, and not much sleep it was time to head out. In the early afternoon of August 31st, my parents drove me to the airport, giving me last minute advice, asking last minute questions, and telling me last minute reminders all the way. I also managed to change my cell phone message to say I would be in Japan and to leave messages with my mom or find me online since I would be leaving my cell with my mom for the semester.

When we got there it was pretty anti-climatic as it always seems to be. I went to the desk for my airline and checked in with tickets, passport and luggage. After I was done, my parents took a picture of me (on my own camera that I was taking with me…), and then they had to let me go. There was no more reason for them to be there. They watched me walk through the first security metal detector, and as far as I knew they were gone.

Security was really annoying, as always. I had to take off my shoes (something I hadn’t done before going through airport security) and they made me take my laptop out of my backpack and out of the case to go through their baggage scanners. I’m not sure why, but it’s some sort of policy that they have to follow. It doesn’t do any damage to computers or cameras like they used to warn people about, so it wasn’t a big deal. Other than that, I went through without a hitch. Then I looked for my gate, found it, and took a little time to explore the airport before sitting down. After a while the boarding call came for my flight and I got on the plane.

My first flight was just a domestic one to Detroit, where I would be catching the flight to Kansai International Airport in Japan which JCMU had picked as a group flight that they would meet. The only thing I remember about my domestic flight was that someone had brought aboard their small dog in one of those pet carrying cages and it barked almost the entire flight. I was incredibly glad that it was my short flight and I only had to deal with it for a couple hours.

After I got off of the domestic flight I found myself in a crazy huge airport. Of course I knew it was going to be large and before getting there I had been extremely worried that I would get lost and would not be able to find my gate. I did manage to find my gate pretty easily though, so no big deal. There had been no meals served on my domestic flight, so after I found my gate I made my way to a McDonald’s for a quick bite to eat since I knew that people were no longer allowed to take drinks or anything aboard the plane anymore. When I got back to my gate, I sat down in a seat sort of near three other people who looked my age, but far enough away to give them space. I wondered if they were on my program, but didn’t want to be too forward and ask them, since they were all talking with each other and were obviously friends. Soon after, I heard one of them say something about a cut and that his finger was bleeding. I had some band-aids in my backpack, so I took the initiative and tried to tell the guy who had made the comment that I could help. He didn’t hear me though, and ended up walking away with the female friend to try to find something. The third friend had heard me though. He introduced himself as Carl and we soon found out that we were, indeed, on the same program. When the other two came back, Carl explained that I had a band-aid (they hadn’t found anything except paper towels) and I gave it to the guy who was bleeding. He asked me for my name, said something like “Liane, you’re my savior,” and told me that his name was Don. After I was introduced to the female, I was let in to the group of friends. At some point we looked at our tickets to see where we were sitting and it turned out that I would be sitting next to Carl, the first person I had actually talked to in the airport! I had picked my seat randomly on the airline’s website, with only the criteria of wanting a window seat and wanting to be somewhere in the middle of the plane, but trying not to be right next to the wings. Talk about coincidence (guzen)!

The time finally came when we were called onto the flight. I was amazed at how huge the plane was, even though I had been on a reasonably large one the summer before to go to China. The plane was also absolutely packed. My new friends helped me get my stuff into the compartment above our seats, then we all tried to settle into our seats and get ready for our approximately 12 hour flight. It was definitely a long time to be on a plane, and it wasn’t any more fun than the 10 hours or so I had spent on my plane to China. I watched a movie or two, ate the plane meals when they came, slept when I could, played my Gameboy for a while (which apparently you can’t do on flights to Japan anymore?), and chatted a bit with my new friends. The only eventful thing I can remember was my new female friend recognized someone on the flight as a guy who had gone to her high school. He ended up being on our program too, but we didn’t find that out until she caught up with him and asked him what he was doing there.

At some point during the flight I was also given a piece of paper I had to fill out before reaching Japan with my reason for travel and some other information. JCMU had given some directions on how we ought to fill it out for our program, so check with the paperwork your program gives you and remember to bring information like that on the plane with you. This paper was to give to customs or whoever it is at the window in the airport on the way out, so I had to take it with me separately along with my luggage when we got off of the plane.

After leaving the plane, it was pretty straight forward as to what you had to do to get through everything. I mostly just followed the crowd, but even if there hadn’t been a crowd, I think the signs and pathways would have been clear enough. I can’t remember it very well because I had just been on a twelve hour flight, and Chaz could tell you better, but I went through customs with no problem, and we all ended up in a line to go up to a desk where you would showed your passport (with visa inside) and the paper you had filled out on the plane. They just would check it, ask questions if they had any, and let you pass with a bow of the head if there were no problems. I can’t recall if I was brave/awake enough to say “arigatou gozaimasu” or not, but I know I at least nodded my head in return when my turn came and went on. At this point we were home free and could go out into the actual airport. By this time I had found a bunch more people on my program. We went down a flight of stairs and found ourselves at baggage claim. A lot of my group had to wait for their luggage to show and I didn’t want to be the only one to leave, so I stayed with them. One of us had also just realized that they had left something behind on the plane, and went running off back up the stairs to find one of the airport staff to help her. During this time, I remember a girl who I had been standing behind in a line was saying something about how she felt bad for whoever would be staying with her because she had some bad sleeping habits or something and would probably keep them up. I also remember thinking I would have a terrible time with someone like that and felt sorry for whoever would become her roommate.

Once in the actual airport, I quickly found my whole group as it was a huddle of people my age with someone in the middle holding a sign that said “JCMU”. The person holding the sign suggested that we all exchange some money before leaving, which we could do at the windows right next to where we had entered the actual airport. It was pretty easy to do. You just fill out a little piece of paper on which you wrote your name, how much you were giving them in what currency and in what currency you wanted it back in. I exchanged $300 of travelers checks for about 30,000 yen and some change and went back to the huddle. There was also an option of getting our luggage sent to the school, but seeing as I had purposely only packed one suitcase to be able to carry it on the plane so I could keep it with me the whole time, I chose to continue keeping it. This may or may not have been a good idea because I had to lug it with me the whole rest of the journey to the school… I did get some help from one of the guys though lugging my bag up a flight of stairs because they saw me heaving it up one step at a time.

We had arrived at the airport in Osaka at night and it was getting semi-late, so we were all in a tizzy to leave because the last train we needed would be leaving shortly. We all tried to line up to get tickets, but the person who had met us hadn’t quite made it over yet, so we were a little lost. We did manage to figure out what we needed, but must have looked like silly lost little gaijin in our efforts.
The train was much different than I had expected it. When it came in, full of people from some other trip, we had to wait to get on so that they could clean it first. During the cleaning, they turned the seats around to face the other way because they were now heading back in the other direction. I thought this was the coolest thing and got really excited about it. I still think it’s pretty cool, but there are plenty of more exciting things than that to be seen in Japan.

We got on the train and a short while later the guy came around to look at our tickets. Every time he took someone’s ticket to look at it he’d say “arigatou gozaimasu” but the way he said it you could barely hear the whole first part and it just sounded like he was hissing at everyone because he held out the ‘s’. I’m sure the whole thing was a lot funnier than it should have been because I was dead tired and jetlagged. After a little more time, I realized that the train car had suddenly started smelling like cigarette smoke. For a second my heart sunk and I thought I must have made a mistake and gotten into a smoking car. I soon figured out though that I hadn’t made a mistake. I was in a non-smoking car, but some Japanese guy was standing in one corner of our car smoking. That guy eventually stopped, but the smell lingered and also came in from the other cars every time someone opened the door on their way through. I was having a lot of trouble with the smell because I get a headache, a sore throat, and lose my voice when I’m around a lot of cigarette smoke, but there was nothing I could do about it. After some griping and obvious discomfort, the girl who was sitting next to me, also on my program, offered some gum to try to help with the smell. I’d never tried that to make that kind of situation better, but I was glad she was trying to help me and was willing to try anything. It really did end up helping too. The mint smell from the gum completely drowned out the cigarette smell and I felt much better, even if I was actually still breathing in the smell underneath the cover of the gum. Not too much later, I fell dead asleep on the train because I was so incredibly tired from the flight over I couldn’t keep my eyes open a second longer. I was kind of upset because I wanted to watch the new landscape go by outside, but it was night time anyway, so a lot of the time there wasn’t much to see.

By the time we got to our stop I had woken up again. The ride was much longer than I had expected it to be though at a total of probably another 1.5 to 2 hours. We herded off with our luggage and went outside to the taxi area. One of the first things they had mentioned to us was that we shouldn’t open or close our own door when entering or exiting a taxi. This is because, in Japan, the taxi drivers have a device that controls the back door and they will open and close it for you. After that bit of advice we were divided into groups of 3 and 4 and waited our turn for a taxi. I think the group I was originally supposed to be with ended up not working because of luggage, so I squeezed in with another group, which I’m also pretty sure was the last one. Of course being in a taxi in Japan is a little scary because of how people drive, but taxi drivers are also really fair and bring you the shortest way they know how without any side trips to make the fare higher. Again, I can’t remember very well, but I think that even though we had been one of the last taxis to go, we were one of the first to arrive.

When we arrived we were all a little at loss of what to do. We knew we had to pay out of pocket, but we all only had huge bills since we had just exchanged our money. We decided that one of us would pay and the others would pay their share as soon as they had the right amount. Then we all got out and took our luggage, dragging it inside. Of course another dilemma met us right away… indoor shoes! I had brought mine with me, but they were packed tightly somewhere in my backpack. I really can’t remember if I bothered to try to get them out or just borrowed from the pile of guest shoes right inside the door, but I think I ended up actually digging through my bag because the guest shoes didn’t look very comfy.
After a little more confusion, since we only knew we had to get to our rooms but didn’t know which rooms, we finally found the posting on a bulletin board that showed everything we needed to know. From the posting we quickly found out what number room we were in and who we were rooming with. Everyone was crowded around it, so it was easy to figure out who the other person was. Of course you’ve probably guessed it, but my roommate was the girl I had heard in the airport saying how sorry they felt for whomever would be their roommate… Sandy. I figured it was just my luck, but went with it. We got our keys and headed away from the crowd. There were only two floors in the dormitory, but I figured it would be impossible to try to get up the stairs with my luggage, so went with the elevator like most of us who were on the second floor decided to.

Our room was all the way at the end of the hall. We opened up the door, and looked in to see what our new living situation would be like. Right inside the door we found a semi-Japanese style place to put our shoes, which was about two square feet big. Right beyond that was a step up into the kitchen. We left our bags and shoes in the entryway and stepped in further to explore. To our right was a stove and sink. To our left was a small fridge, the door to the bathroom, and also a shelf full of dishes on the wall. Straight ahead was one bedroom with a bed big enough for one person and a desk, and to the left of that was another bedroom furnished similarly. The rooms had sliding doors to them so we could shut ourselves in if we wanted to. We also had a table against the wall between the two bedrooms in the kitchen.

I suddenly felt much better about being roommates with Sandy since we had separate bedrooms. We got to talking and exploring everything and we became fast friends. There had really been no reason at all to worry about being roommates with her. Sandy also became my best friend of the group of 50 who’d come to JCMU that semester.

It was already late by the time we had arrived at JCMU and we were both really tired, but also a little worked up from all of the travel. We also knew we had to be up for a meeting in the morning in the academic building, so knew we couldn’t stay up too much longer. After we finished talking and exploring we finally made our beds with the sheets that were provided, brushed our teeth, and went to sleep.

Next time: The First Few Days

Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji is often hidden behind clouds, mist, or fog. So, when it does appear it is always a breathtaking sight to witness.

Night Ginza

Here's a short video of Ginza at night.


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