Hello Japan

Flying for 9 hours was much less fun alone than it was the first time in 2009 when I had friends by my side with whom to share the view and the weirdness of it all. As is turned dark yesterday we were asked by the stewardesses to keep the shutters down and over 'Tron' and 'Black Swan' from the onboard entertainment system, the night fast-forwarded. With us flying east and then south-east into the morning, the sun, when it rose, shone directly into the window, which made looking out pretty much impossible while still over the Asian continent. I was rewarded in another way though.

Flying over Japan the first time it had been hidden from view by a thick blanket of clouds, but this time the sky was clear. Massive, craggy, snowcapped mountainranges beneath, the distance hazy and blue in a picture book imitation of an Asian ink drawing. Breathtakingly beautiful. In addition to that, those high, white peaks which I knew would remain between me and the east of Japan made me feel save. I am sheltered by them now.

Further towards the south, even the high and mighty Fuji presented itself in the background. He is beautiful indeed and just as iconic and unmistakable as one expects him to be from all the pictures.

I just really wish the flight could have gone without this damn backache. It had started already before even entering the machine, but 9 hours of sitting was a perfect way to turn it into something pretty damn painful. I couldn't wait for the landing as they finally announced our approach to Nagoya.

Nagoya's airstrip is quite interesting. It lies on an extremely flat peninsula, which means that while landing, the plane dips so low that it feels as if we should be touching the surface of the water at any moment. There were a lot of ships all around, one of them a huge thing with four big spheres on it, which I think might be for transporting some gas. We were directly next to it, really cool.

I like the airport. Better than Narita. It was open, light and signposted very well. No problem there at all. So it didn't take long until I was finally standing with all my (freakin'damnheavy) luggage before a payphone from which I was supposed to call my university. Which went... not quite as well. I did actually get my call through, but the person on the other end of the line didn't speak English at all and my already only weak Japanese was still hiding somewhere in the back of my skull. Well, I got a friendly Japanese guy to call there again on my behalf, so I could let them know which train I would be taking so they would be able to pick me up from Takaoka station. Getting there wasn't that hard either. Luckily I was moving the the right directions even if I didn't actually know where to go, had enough time on my hands not having to hurry, and fortunately had used the Japanese train system before.

Around 15:30, after sleeping a bit on the four hour trip from Nagoya main station to Takaoka and cursing my lower back and sleeping a bit more, I was picked up at my final destination by two representatives from the school and one of my tutors, Ai Muranaka. She had drawn a sign with ”Welcome, Vikke” and at least a dozen hearts drawn on it, which made me go all 'Awww!'.

I was tired but happy to finally have made it here and we drove off to the city hall to apply for my 'alien registration card' and then to the university. I met both of my teachers shortly already, was shown the place I will stay at for now (Senshinen, a small rooming house usually used for guest teachers) and given a bike, got the possibility to send off a mail to my mum and post an arrival message on facebook. Ai and Chiaki, my second tutor whom I met at the school, still drove me to the nearest shop (10 minutes by bike probably) in the evening so I could get some food. Around seven they dropped me off back at Senshinen so I could finally get some rest.

So, extremely tired, my back hurting, everything new and strange around me and not one other Westerner apart from myself that I had seen since the airport, the first homesickness logically came crashing down pretty heavily immediately. No surprise there. Didn't even need the Lion King or Petra's singing for it this time.

I took a short bath, unpacked a few random things and tried read about how to sort my waste in Takaoka city (obviously extremely important to know as a foreigner here, since they even gave me different colored rubbish bags right there at the city hall) but gave up on it.

Then I tried to sleep. But couldn't. Hello Jetlag.

So right now it's almost half to two in the morning. I will meet with my tutors and my teachers at ten for a tour of the school and to choose the first courses I will take. Afterwards I'll hopefully be able to get myself a phone with the help of the girls. 

Goooooood morning Japan!

P.S.: in the next entry there will hopefully finally be a few pictures, too...