It is miserably, terribly, horribly, disgustingly hot.
Travel story time!
My most awesome roommate Adam drove me to PDX on Wednesday morning (thanks buddy) and right from the get-go is when my travel got retarded.
We tried taking one route to the airport but there was road work with a sign that read "expect long delays" with an emphasis on the long. We managed to get turned around and took the highway instead which was surprisingly clear. Made it to the airport with an 1 hour or so to spare so I meandered through security and leisurely walked the airport, got some coffee and then realized I still needed to exchange my monies. So, I searched and searched for a currency exchange and low and behold, it's on the other side of security (meaning I had to go through it again) because the one on the gate side does not open until noon and my flight leaves at 11:30. By this time it's already 10:15 and I have to board at 10:50 so I run back out and exchange my meager $1,200 which only equated to about $800 worth in yen (that hurt right in the wallet) and ran back to security only to be stopped dead in a line. I managed to get through, though and still have 10 minutes to spare so I went back to the Starbucks where I got my coffee earlier but had to dump it out due to stupid liquid restrictions and thankfully the barista took pity on me and re-filled my cup for free! Yay!
Flight to LAX was uneventful until I got to LAX. Then I had a horrendous time. That place is hell on earth and I wouldn't be sad to see the whole city of LA burn. Just sayin', not a fan. I had an hour and a half between flights and of course since I wasn't flying with the same company (Alaska to LA then Singapore to Narita) they weren't able to print my boarding pass in PDX therefore I had to run to the other side of the airport (literally; it took me 10 minutes) to the international terminal only to have to wait in a huge ass line because Singapore Airlines doesn't have a self-check in for people who don't have bags to check (I was able to check my bags all the way through from PDX, thank god). That took a good half an hour and time was not on my side so I was very antsy. To make my nerves worse, as I was halfway through the line a lady came over the intercom and informed people who were on my flight that we should be heading through security right now. Great. However, after a bit of interrogation of the people around me, it appeared that more than half the people in my line were going on the same flight as me and I figured that the airplane wouldn't leave without half of it's passengers, so I relaxed a bit. I forgot to dump out my water bottle when I went through security so I had to ditch it and of course it was my nice klean kanteen, doh! But I made it and we had to take a bus to the HUGE double decker plane. Of course I was on the bottom level and in coach so it wasn't that awesome, but I did have an aisle seat so it was actually pretty awesome. Singapore has some good service/airplanes. EXCELLENT selection of entertainment. I watched the Hunger games, The Incredible Hulk, the Avengers, Big Bang Theory and Bob's Burger's. The food was meh, but that's not surprising. I only slept for the last hour because I can only really sleep when I'm laying down.
Japan is the only country where I never have to wait in line for Immigration/customs. I love it. Plus they didn't go through my bag so I got to keep the cheese and alcohol that I probably wasn't supposed to have. Score! I underestimated my trains though. I thought I could catch the Yamanote from Narita which would have meant a speedy time home but it turns out Narita is very, very far away from the closest Yamanote station (Nippori) and so I had to ride the Keisei line for about an hour. I had a wild American walk up to me confused and slightly scared and ask me if he was getting on the right train. I helped him figure it out and turns out we were on the same train so we shot the shit for our hour long ride. He's from Boston and it was his first time in Japan and of course doesn't speak a word of Japanese. But he was nice and he had some Japanese friends he was meeting up with so he should be fine.
I am very proud of the fact that I made it all the way to my host family's house solely by memory (I can't even remember how to get to my Dad's house in Bend most days, so this is a pretty incredible feat). I made it there by about 10pm. My host mom met me outside and she was all "you made it, you made it!! Welcome home!! Are you hungry?! I made you food! You made it here all by yourself! Wow, it's been a long time! Welcome home!!", needless to say she was super excited to see me, and I her. She's a lovely woman and I am so lucky to have her as my Japanese mom. She was delighted by the suitcase full of presents I brought (crest toothpaste, ziplock, t-shirts from American Eagle, kettle chips, chocolate, Sarbucks coffee and Portland tumblers). She made me cold soba and we talked for about an hour before I hit the hay. Nothing about the house has changed and I even get to stay in my old room! Apparently the exchange student they had this year left for America a couple hours before I arrived! She goes to PSU but I don't know her...
Today I don't really have any plans other than probably just wondering around my old hangouts. I'll take some pictures today and post them tomorrow.
Also, I was worried my Japanese was going to be next to awful but it all came back to me! Yay!
Here's to hoping I don't start another natural disaster (because i'm convinced I caused the last one, oops).
-Jamie
Travel story time!
My most awesome roommate Adam drove me to PDX on Wednesday morning (thanks buddy) and right from the get-go is when my travel got retarded.
We tried taking one route to the airport but there was road work with a sign that read "expect long delays" with an emphasis on the long. We managed to get turned around and took the highway instead which was surprisingly clear. Made it to the airport with an 1 hour or so to spare so I meandered through security and leisurely walked the airport, got some coffee and then realized I still needed to exchange my monies. So, I searched and searched for a currency exchange and low and behold, it's on the other side of security (meaning I had to go through it again) because the one on the gate side does not open until noon and my flight leaves at 11:30. By this time it's already 10:15 and I have to board at 10:50 so I run back out and exchange my meager $1,200 which only equated to about $800 worth in yen (that hurt right in the wallet) and ran back to security only to be stopped dead in a line. I managed to get through, though and still have 10 minutes to spare so I went back to the Starbucks where I got my coffee earlier but had to dump it out due to stupid liquid restrictions and thankfully the barista took pity on me and re-filled my cup for free! Yay!
Flight to LAX was uneventful until I got to LAX. Then I had a horrendous time. That place is hell on earth and I wouldn't be sad to see the whole city of LA burn. Just sayin', not a fan. I had an hour and a half between flights and of course since I wasn't flying with the same company (Alaska to LA then Singapore to Narita) they weren't able to print my boarding pass in PDX therefore I had to run to the other side of the airport (literally; it took me 10 minutes) to the international terminal only to have to wait in a huge ass line because Singapore Airlines doesn't have a self-check in for people who don't have bags to check (I was able to check my bags all the way through from PDX, thank god). That took a good half an hour and time was not on my side so I was very antsy. To make my nerves worse, as I was halfway through the line a lady came over the intercom and informed people who were on my flight that we should be heading through security right now. Great. However, after a bit of interrogation of the people around me, it appeared that more than half the people in my line were going on the same flight as me and I figured that the airplane wouldn't leave without half of it's passengers, so I relaxed a bit. I forgot to dump out my water bottle when I went through security so I had to ditch it and of course it was my nice klean kanteen, doh! But I made it and we had to take a bus to the HUGE double decker plane. Of course I was on the bottom level and in coach so it wasn't that awesome, but I did have an aisle seat so it was actually pretty awesome. Singapore has some good service/airplanes. EXCELLENT selection of entertainment. I watched the Hunger games, The Incredible Hulk, the Avengers, Big Bang Theory and Bob's Burger's. The food was meh, but that's not surprising. I only slept for the last hour because I can only really sleep when I'm laying down.
Japan is the only country where I never have to wait in line for Immigration/customs. I love it. Plus they didn't go through my bag so I got to keep the cheese and alcohol that I probably wasn't supposed to have. Score! I underestimated my trains though. I thought I could catch the Yamanote from Narita which would have meant a speedy time home but it turns out Narita is very, very far away from the closest Yamanote station (Nippori) and so I had to ride the Keisei line for about an hour. I had a wild American walk up to me confused and slightly scared and ask me if he was getting on the right train. I helped him figure it out and turns out we were on the same train so we shot the shit for our hour long ride. He's from Boston and it was his first time in Japan and of course doesn't speak a word of Japanese. But he was nice and he had some Japanese friends he was meeting up with so he should be fine.
I am very proud of the fact that I made it all the way to my host family's house solely by memory (I can't even remember how to get to my Dad's house in Bend most days, so this is a pretty incredible feat). I made it there by about 10pm. My host mom met me outside and she was all "you made it, you made it!! Welcome home!! Are you hungry?! I made you food! You made it here all by yourself! Wow, it's been a long time! Welcome home!!", needless to say she was super excited to see me, and I her. She's a lovely woman and I am so lucky to have her as my Japanese mom. She was delighted by the suitcase full of presents I brought (crest toothpaste, ziplock, t-shirts from American Eagle, kettle chips, chocolate, Sarbucks coffee and Portland tumblers). She made me cold soba and we talked for about an hour before I hit the hay. Nothing about the house has changed and I even get to stay in my old room! Apparently the exchange student they had this year left for America a couple hours before I arrived! She goes to PSU but I don't know her...
Today I don't really have any plans other than probably just wondering around my old hangouts. I'll take some pictures today and post them tomorrow.
Also, I was worried my Japanese was going to be next to awful but it all came back to me! Yay!
Here's to hoping I don't start another natural disaster (because i'm convinced I caused the last one, oops).
-Jamie
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