Arriving and Ueno

So I arrived in Japan yesterday after the longest flight of my life. Not kidding, I haven't been outside of Europe before! And try to find a comfortable position to sleep in on an airplane - fantastically impossible. So after just a few hours of sleep I landed at Narita an hour later than planned. Then it was the HUGE queue to get accepted into Japan (because it is only the people with Japanese passports or re-entry permits who get to be accepted without further notice). But I finally got there, got my picture and fingerprints taken and got that stamp in my passport. Then I went to get my luggage, which was easy enough. Then I went through the customs, which is compulsory here, and was asked some questions by the police standing there. How long was I going to stay? Whose address was it that I had written? Did I have any official document of the host family? (Yes, Japanese airports are military states) Then I was free to go, about an hour after the plane had landed I got to the woman holding "my" yellow sign. She made a few quick calls, since the schedule had changed due to the plane being late. Then she paid my bus ticket and put me on the airport bus towards Tokyo.

When I arrived at Tokyo Central Air Terminal I had to wait another 30 minutes before my host mother and my room mate arrived to pick me up. So we got on the tube and I got my school pass and then we finally arrived Sakura-shinmachi and Setagaya, where I'm going to live. I'll take a picture of Sakura-shinmachi later - it's all pink (!), due to its name being Sakura (cherry).

I got my own room and started to unpack, but was then called down for lunch - sushi ^^ For the first time I got to taste inari, nattou and real tamagoyaki - all yummy :) After lunch I was supposed to just take a power nap and then go out with my French room mate Audray and her friends, but I ended up sleeping for 10½ hours. At midnight I woke up and stayed up for an hour then I went back to bed and slept for another eight hours - jet lag is really something xD

So when I got up today I started to unpack and didn't go down to take a shower until I was finished. After shower it was time for breakfast - yoghurt, toast and Japanese sweet potatoes (Satsuma). At breakfast I gave my host mother, Yoshiko, the scrapbook I had prepared as a present for her. It was all about Sweden and she really liked it. All throughout breakfast we had a conversation about Sweden and it was really funny :) After breakfast I spent some time on the internet and waited for Audray to wake up. When she did she asked me if I wanted to go to Ueno park with her later and I said yes. Around 2 we got on the tube and went to Ueno, which is on the other side of Tokyo so it was quite some trip! When we got there we first waited for Audray's friend who was going to meet us there but we couldn't find her so we went to buy some onigiri for lunch. Before lunch we went to the tent where they sell food and china/porcelain and such things, I didn't take a picture since I was too busy watching to remember ^^; Maybe I'll go back there, they had some really cute chopsticks :P Then we had lunch and it was all good, but the last onigiri had some really weird salty/sour taste so we went to buy something sweet and ended up with crêpes :P While eating those crêpes we then went around looking at the temples and taking pictures.

After going round to many temples, we decided to go down on the main street (I think) and ended up looking for shoes. Audray came in December and originally she was only going to stay for three months, but she changed her mind and is now going to stay for three more months, thus she has no spring shoes. Japanese shoes have sizes from S-L and it's gonna be hard finding shoes. Audray is smaller than me and she's having problems finding shoes in size L that fits, the same goes for me. I actually found a pair that I liked and kind of fitted if i removed my socks, too bad I didn't have any cash at that time. I've never felt limited not having cash before, but here hardly anyone accepts a card so if you have no cash you're doomed and most ATMs don't accept foreign issued cards. Tomorrow I'll go to the post office opposite the school and withdraw some money :)