Japan 日本

I attempted writing a blog post during the summer but instead decided not to. There really aren't any good reasons why, but for the most part I spent my summer being melancholic and unproductive. I don't know if it was that whole reverse culture shock thing, the weather being unbelievably hot for Alaska (85-100 F for weeks is not really normal for us), or financial issues regarding my trip to Japan ... or maybe all three ... but I did almost nothing. No job. Usually with no job I would take advantage of the free time and draw, write, or participate in one of my many hobbies but instead I just kind of moped around. I wrote a little bit. Drew a little bit. Did some research to my bestiary.

But I actually just listened to music and sat on my bed most of the summer. Dying of heat. Which is kind of what I'm doing now except I'm being productive about it. 

So I made it to Japan. I'm sitting on my weird cot-thing that is really uncomfortable to sleep on but I am guessing I'll get used to it. I live in a small apartment next to a bunch of traditional homes, which is slightly disappointing. There is an air conditioner in my room; although, everything is sticky and damp so when it is on I get kind of cold and cuddle in my blankets for a while ... then I turn the air conditioner off and it gets hot and sticky again.

My host family is great so far. They have twenty-five years of host experience and are pretty awesome. My host mom is really nice. She took me on a walk yesterday, showing me the way to the university. We stopped and got ice cream, something that was not cheap in France but Japan knows how to price ice cream. 2.50$ for a nice size ice cream cup? YES. A lot of things that count are expensive though ... like train tickets. Unfortunately I wore shoes that I haven't broken in yet and now have blisters on my first few days in Japan. 

Apparently a typhoon is happening today and tomorrow or within this next week. Right now it's raining pretty hard with lightning and thunder. Still hot and humid.

My plane trip was long ... 24 hours of transport and layovers, but mostly transport. I started in Fairbanks with a 52 min. trip to Anchorage with a two hour layover. From Anchorage I went to Los Angelos, which took about 4 or 5 hours ... stayed there for an hour and thirty minutes. Then for some bizarre reason it was to Seattle next for 3 hours and only stayed there for 50 minutes. Finally, my transit to Osaka took 10 hours.

I guess to end up this segment since I've only been here for two days, here are a few things:

1. Toilet has lots of strange buttons on it ...

2. Cars are super tiny. France has nothing on their tiny cars.

3. They drive on the other side of the road, which I had already been aware of but was weird actually experiencing it. Although I did get a little taste of it when I was in England and Ireland.

4. I have seen more people wear crocs here than in my entire life.

5. Lotus flowers are the coolest things ever.

And for now that is all!