Konichiwa from Japan

Wow, so much has happened since we left the states. So let's start at the beginning:

Around 12:20 on the 6th we (being my mother, both Daniel's parents, and Daniel and I) all piled into Wick's (Daniel's dad) car. As usual he tried to get his Garmin to work and as usual it didn't comply (it wanted us to go to San Francisco Oven). We make it to the airport, checked bags, etc. and then had to do the goodbyes. Both mothers were teary eyed and Wick was just standing around kinda rolling his eyes. And then we got into the security check line, which probably took like 15 minutes for us to get all the way through. The entire 15 minutes our parents just stood by the escalators watching us. It was cute and awkward and very sweet.

We got on the first flight around 2pm or so. The flights were fairly uneventful. The best part of the longest lag was the free booze (despite charging $100 for the second bag evidently Delta is kinda awesome?). As we were first saw Japan below us (around 9:30 pm) I wrote this on the back of my ticket:

Lights for as far as the eye can see--lit up freeways connecting the cities and towns-looks like firing neurons with axons extending. Little balls of energy. Continue to fly and no significant break from the lights. Even at night smoke rises from factories below-they look like wispy anemones clinging to Tokyo Bay. Even the sea knows no respite from the lights. They are riddles with pin pricks from ships-letting off a more mellow glow.

Crappy photo of the "neurons"

We got to Haneda airport, went through customs and found a bench to send the night. We slept very little, waking up every thirty minutes or so. Outside it was snowing and we hoped it wouldn't be so cold in Osaka. While there I made this update to my facebook status:

First of what I'm sure will be many Japanese faux pas: the bathroom stalls are huge. They have toilets and their own sinks...or so I thought. No, I did not wash my hands in a bidet (come on, I lived in Italy), but after washing my hands i saw the sign: "sink for ostomate clients only." well, i had no idea what that was but certainly am not one. Fastforward 4 hours. Daniel had been sweet enough to fill up my water bottle for me and i decided to google ostomate: its basically someone who had a surgical hole made in their body to allow them to get rid of waste. Reading this, i started wondering if id washed my hands well enough after touching the strange sink. I felt a little gross but mostly embaressed. So i handed daniel the definition and told him about my bathroom adventure. To which he replied: "oh, thats what that word means...how's that water i got you taste?" ewww.

Around 5am we jumped on a shuttle to the domestic terminal and grabbed our last leg of the journey. So, after three flights in total and less than two hours of sleep each we made it to our final destination, Osaka, around 8am two days later. At this point we've been traveling about 27 hours. And yea, it had snowed last night here as well. Neither of us brought super cold weather gear (we were told Osaka has mild winters) so the great chill started as soon as we stepped out of the airport. We took a bus to a train station where a representative from the apartment agency is supposed to meet us. We couldn't find him. After waiting in the cold for 10 minutes or so we called him back and we eventually meet up. He then took us on one of the most terrifying rides of my life. I remember cab rides in Cairo--the lines on the freeway are considered merely suggestions, not boundaries. And then there was that time on birthright when we were driving through a town that was right by the Gaza strip and gets bombed on the regular...Well, this ride may have been scarier. Half the time he didn't look at the road nor have his hands on the wheel and the other half of the time he was within centimeters of hitting other cars, barriers, and a person or two.

Amazingly we arrived safely at our apartment, signed all the paperwork, and paid for our first partial month's rent. Basically as soon as the guy left we started noticing problems with the apartment. The list of issues is as follows:

-the door to the balcony doesn't really open
-rip in the couch
-couch frame is broken
-holes in the doors of both closets
-tv stand is bent
-kitchen sink drips
-paint peeling in the shower
-cracked tiles in shower and in kitchen
-mold basically everywhere
-bathroom sink leaking (and water damage under)

Basically, we have rented a crap shack, but it is our crap shack and I kinda like it. But that first day here was miserably cold. Our apartment hadn't been used in a while and at first we couldn't figure out the heater. After figuring out the water heater and showering we went out to explore the general area. We got food and went grocery and house shopping. And that's basically what we have been doing since then. Just desperately trying to keep warm, exploring a bit, and trying to make our crap shack more habitable. Daniel's been writing down funny anecdotes and the like and will post them on this blog as well.

So far we've had a lot of trouble communicating but have found everyone to be so nice and accommodating. I'm tired of typing. I'll write more in a few days.