[working title]

So... Now I'm in Tokyo. It was pretty much the longest plane ride...ever. Last time, at least, I had people to talk to and good movies to watch. But, well... this time, I watched a few movies* and looked out the window, did some sudoku, and slept for a bit...
Here are some of the pictures from the 14-hour flight:
Goodbye US:


Flyin'


Sea of Clouds


More Happy Clouds


Here's the flight path we took. It's linear if you look from the Pole:


So, our first pic is of Niagra Falls... from the air
See the falls?


Then there was Northern Canada...
lots and lots of northern canada...


it's still canada
and i bet it's still quite cold... check out the ice, sky... and clouds


Yep... still Canadia... that's the map of the guy next to me. I was watching a movie at the time, so i took a pic of his map. It's in Japanese! and it's blurry!**
note the large amount of ice. no wonder they like ice hockey so much.


oooh, 3D map. spiffy. (north is at the bottom, btw)


New continent! Asia! Whee. Now we're in Northern Russia
It looks exactly the same as northern canada. but i swear, it's Russia.


Check it out! I woke up form a 3 hour mini-nap and we were over Japan.
There's mountains in Hokkiado. Snowy mountains... but at least it's not all ice.... like certian boring places *cough*Canada*cough*


Then I fell asleep again and woke up when we landed.
Yep, it's the rainy season. You can tell by the rain. I checked the weather forecast for the next week. Today: rain, Tmw: partly cloudy, Mon-Sat:Rain, Sun: partly cloudy. Joy.


So, then I went through customs. That was fun.
Ok, actually something incredibly cool happened. I was filling out my customs form and well.. this happened:
Guy across the table: Um.. this might be kind of odd, but do you go to Virginia Tech?
me: *looks to make sure I'm not wearing anything VT, which i'm not* Yeah, I do
Guy: and... were you in Japanese
me: yeah... how'd you know
Guy: I was in Younos-sensei's 1000-level japanese class. I recognized you from taking the final.
me: oh, cool.
Guy: *points to guy next to him* He and I are taking classes in Japan this summer
me: really? [to the guy next to him]do you go to vt too?
Other Guy: No, VMI.
me: oh, so you must know Yamagami-sensei.
Voice from behind me: Erin-san?
me: *turns around* *sees Yamagami-sensei* *and in a very Keanu Reeves-y manner*Woah.

~turns out she's taking abotu 20 kids form tech/vmi/other va schools for a 6 week Japan thing where they learn Japanese intensely and tour Japan a bit. We exchanged information and that was it~

_____
So then i went to buy a cell phone in the airport. and they were sold out. Seriously. who sells out of cell phones. crazy! so, i'll be buying one today after orientation or something. They sell phone cards in the lobby of my dorm, so it'll be ok, just... i'd rather have a cell.

____
Then I bought a bus ticket into tokyo (the ride's about an hour and a half usually, but due to an accident it took a little more than 2 hours)
it rained.

oh, also, the traffic looked alot like US traffic, except there are alot more small cars, like civics and stuff and there are alot more boxy ugly looking vans. Like that Honda/Nissan boxy things. Ugh. There's one called the Mitsubishi TownBox. That's right. TownBox.

Then, from the ANA hotel, where I met with Temple people who gave me a map and info about what to do at orientation tmw and stuff...I went to my Dorm:
Weekly Mansion Akasaka.
Here's my taxi driver. He thought I was nuts. I tried taking pics out the windows, but it was rainy so my camera kept focusing on the windows and not the stuff outside.


And the first building I see as we left the Hotel on the way to my dorm was.... Starbucks. Seriously. You can't see it very well because it's all rainy and unfocused. But yeah... starbucks.



And finally... My Dorm! Wheee... Both balloon things are my dorm. It's both entrances.


so, from outside my window, this is my view. Very odd, don't you think? It feels more like NY then Tokyo. but meh.

Ok, now it's 7:30am sunday morning (6:30pm sat night, for you crazy people) so i'm going to get up, find breakfast, and orient myself.

[fin.]


__________


*Chronicles of Narnia- a so-so movie, Aeon Flux- which must have been an adaptation of a book or comic or something becuase it was very choppy and it seemed like they wanted too much plot than they could handle in a movie, and Memoirs of a Geisha-which was fantastic

**Oh, there's more blurriness to come, just you wait. I'm an amazing photographer.