The Adventure Begins

The last few weeks before this trip were a little hectic, to say the least. My social life took a steep uphill climb, as everyone, including people whom I’ve hardly even known before, all seemed to want to say one last farewell. I shouldn’t complain though, I loved every minute of it. But thanks to everyone who cared enough to say goodbye! You know who you are...

September 4^th

After I awoke from a three and a half hour sleep, I began to pack frantically until Erin and Marty came to pick me up. Upon arrival at the airport, Rochelle seemed to get a little lost finding her way out of security... And after an hour or so of trying to locate exactly where she was, we discovered that she was trapped with no escape - no farewell lunch with Marty *tear*.

Then, on the plane, we found out that Air Canada temporarily misplaced a carrier of luggage and we’d get to enjoy an extra half hour of rest before take-off. How lovely…

Finally, we arrived in Japan and began to sweat more than was thought humanly possible. Heavy humidity combined with 30+ degree heat and carrying your weight in luggage is not a good combination. I fell over backwards in the subway because of my backpack weight and created a confusing spectacle for the other passengers. A few people got up to help, and then quickly sat back down when they realized I was foreign (apparently, helping foreigners in such situations isn’t a common practice in Japan). Upon arrival at our final metro station, we found a staircase to lug our baggage up. Oh joy... I thought I’d die – until some nice boy came to my rescue and helped me. I was delighted… until I realized how far our Weekly "Mansion” was from the station. Enduring that hill was probably the most uncomfortable experience I’ve ever had in my entire life (until that point; ...little did I know, I’d be experiencing a whole lot worse in the next two weeks). In the end, it wasn’t really that far and the hill wasn't really that steep, I was just hot and whiney. We got to our mansion, went out to grab some food, and hurried back to our new home to put Rochelle to sleep. We had all been up for over 24 hours, but it was waay past her bedtime - as we would find out in the following weeks, is apparently about 8 pm.

Yokoso Japan!

Maruetsu Petit: The grocery store we visited every night

Akasaka Station