Taking Off

I am finally on my way to Japan! I had planned on visiting my uncle before I left but packing took a lot longer than I thought it would. But I did have my friends Jaimie (she went with me to Japan last year), Jim, and Joey over to watch the first Death Note movie and that was fun. After they left I didn't get to bed until three because I had to finish packing my suitcases and everything in my room. No one has bought my contract for the summer yet, but I packed up my things just in case.

I usually take the shuttle to the airport but I've never liked doing that. So I asked my friend Jim to take me. Thank you Jim! Not taking the shuttle is so much less stressful. I think that I can say I was successful in actually packing light. I decided in the end to bring both big suitcases, but they are both under 50 lbs. Instead of two big suitcases I could have done a big and a small one, but I wanted to be sure I had room for the things I plan on bringing back from Japan.

I was reminded that in Japan there is a takkyubin (express delivery)service. I can send my luggage from the Narita Airport in Tokyo to my host family's house in Osaka for only about 2200 yen a bag (that is around $22 more or less with the exchange rate). So now I don't have to worry about walking around Japan with tons of luggage!

My roommate Erika (she's from Tokyo) is so nice! She hemmed all of my pants for me and she wrote directions to get from Narita airport all the way Osaka (she also helped me reserve tickets for the night bus that is going to take me to Osaka). I am really hoping that nothing goes wrong because I am on kind of a tight schedule. When I get to LA, I only have an hour to get to my next gate if my plane is on time. I am supposed to arrive in Tokyo around 5pm, then hopefully customs doesn't take me too long so that I can get on the Narita Express to Tokyo Station before 9pm. Before I do that I have to exchange money and send my bags to Osaka. We'll see how that goes.