Japan Time: 9:00am, June 27
Vancouver Time: 5:00pm, June 26
I finally made it. The trip itself, turned out to be a little more adventurous than I had planned, however.
When the plane landed in Tokyo, I had an hour and fifteen minutes before I was suppose to board the next plane (to Nagoya). However, I was getting conflicting stories about my luggage. In Vancouver, they told me I had to pick up my baggage in Tokyo and check it in all over again. I had to do this so as it went through the Narita customs. So, I’m following this massive crowd of people to the baggage claiming area, and this Japanese airport guy tells us to go down this other hall… in Japanese, of course. I swear he was looking directly at me when telling everyone to go down that hall. Well, that was away from baggage claims, and in the time I figured out I really did have to go pick up my baggage at LEAST one more flight-full of people had lined up to claim baggage. I knew I would not have time to do whatever it is I had to do. I also got confused about International and Domestic flights. Anyways, I lined up at a help-desk (took many tries to get the right one) and explained my situation. They were very nice, spoke very good English, and got me transferred onto the next flight to Nagoya. I took Kato-san’s (the one who was going to pick me up) cell phone number out of my wallet, got someone to assist me making the call with one of Haseeb’s calling cards (arigatou Haseeb!), apologized many times, and had time to spare.
Two highway tolls (totalling 1000yen ~ 12$CDN) and 30 minutes later, we were at the dormitory. The Sanyo Solar Ark is pretty cool – that’s right across the street from the dormitory. First thing I noticed: the smell. Second thing I noticed: it wasn’t pretty. I was sweating profusely by the time we had found my room and hauled the luggage up there (5th floor, no elevator). Kato-san was extremely nice; he asked me if I was hungry and how much I could eat. I said, “a little,” so he took me to a convenience store to get something to eat. I got out my wallet and paid for my stuff (warm lemon tea and Japanese pickle sushi) right away, because I’m sure he was going to. Maybe I just should let him, but he’s already done (and is going to do) so much! He’s taking me out for lunch today, and then there’s a welcoming party for dinner with me and a few other interns and new employees. Anyways, Ben had left a welcome note in my locker so I went and knocked on his door after saying bye and thanking Kato-san. Just then, John stepped out of the door next to Ben’s, and they gave me a guided tour.
After saying goodnight to Ben and John, I spent a long time unpacking until I was satisfied. I really wanted to have a bath, but first, I had to use the toilet. There are three stalls in each bathroom, two bathrooms on each floor. First stall I looked at scared me: squat-toilet. Second stall: squat-toilet. Oh great, I thought, I’m gonna have to learn how to use one of these…. Thankfully, the third stall turned out to be a westernized toilet. If you don’t know what a squat-toilet is, it’s basically a trough in the floor which you squat over and do your thing. It’s got the same flushing function as a regular (western) toilet, but you never touch it. Even with the westernized toilet, there are water soluble paper covers to place on the seat. Yes, it took me a while to figure that out. And there’s nothing to dry your hands with! I will have to get a hand towel or something.
It was somewhere around 2:30am Japan time, and I had not gotten more than 4 hours sleep over the last (couple?) days. But, I forced myself to try out the bath, because I needed it. Badly. The baths are very interesting. You sit (naked) on a small stool with a hole in the centre, facing a mirror. There is a shower head in front of you which you use to get yourself wet and wash yourself with. Surprisingly, I didn’t seem to mind this, at all. However, there was no-one else in there at the time (there is no such thing as a wall in Japanese baths, it seems). There is also a deep, piping-hot bath in the same room as all the stools and mirrors. And I mean HOT! It must have taken me 5 minutes to get in that sucker! No wonder Japanese have no hair, they scold it off! I felt much better after the bath, and went to sleep shortly after.
Waking up this morning, I immediately turned on the air conditioner in my room. Slowly, I got dressed, slipped into my glossy green slippers that were provided, and went to the cafeteria for breakfast. Lucky for me, Ben and John were still there to tell me what to do! I had scrambled egg with bits of ham in it, a bowl of rice, and a bowl of miso soup. That filled me up and cost 200yen (about $2.40 CDN). I’ll probably just get the egg or the rice and soup (unless I’m *really* hungry) in the future.
I *did* end up forgetting something else (I had previously forgotten the AC power adapter for my laptop, but my big brother was kind enough to drop that off at the airport); my CD player’s AC adapter!! Now the 17$ rechargeable batteries are useless. Oh well, I don’t imagine I’ll be using it much. I can just buy regular AA batteries here.
Actually, I can answer the quiotesn about the flushing sound button.From what I understand this was more popular for women, but the flushing sound machine, or in this case addition to the toilet, was added because a lot of women didn’t like people hearing them using the bathroom. They would constantly flush while in the bathroom and because that was a huge waste of water, they instead added little sound machines in the bathroom that simulate the sound.