Made it!

It's 4:12 pm here in Okayama and I finally figured out a name for my blog. It'll do. And without further ado, the post I penned last night before falling asleep technology-in-hand:

I just finished eating a tartar sauce/fried fish-product(?)/cheese cube sandwich and some pizza flavored chips from the convenient store and am now back in my home for the next week. We've probably been here for about an hour now and I am reaching deliriousness, so I probably shouldn't take up that offer to go to a bar with some future coworkers (who didn't just arrive from halfway around the world), but I did want to write down some thoughts from the day before I lose them in the death sleep that is about to ensue.

The flight was not bad, I watched a couple of movies a couple of times, slept a bit, ate some airplane food and talked to the 19 year old sitting next to me, all of which passed the time well. Over the course of the flight, I ran the gamut of emotions that I have been feeling about this trip over the past few months twice over. Apprehension, doubt, reassurance, excitement. Add elation. It was strangely cyclical. It's like I've been going through them all on tighter and tighter timelines until the last one that took about half an hour for the whole thing. My first thought when I got off the plane was “it's HUMID”. I had plenty of time to reflect on this in the un-air-conditioned customs line. Got my bags and promptly confused myself and was waved down and hurried out of the baggage claim area by a very short lady wearing a mask. By the time I found the trainer who was waiting for us my back was drenched in sweat and there were huge dark patches of the stuff on the front of my shirt, and I was literally dripping with sweat. Great first impression, I'm sure. Forward my bags to Nagano, have my first taste of how little Japanese I know at the counter. After changing shirts we got on a bus that ended up suspiciously vacant that was to take us to Okayama, where I'll be training for the next week. There are only 4 of us in my training group, which I understand is exceedingly minimal, but we had a good bus ride gleaning information from the trainer, with a 10 minute rest stop break to separate the two halves of the 3 hour ride to get here. I bought fries out of a vending machine. Ate half of them, two of them were cold in the middle. They were just convenient store french fries. It is so humid here. The bus was hot too. Got here, got the spiel, went out for the aforementioned snax, and briefly bonded with the aforementioned coworker (well, same company at least, probably won't see much of him during my year though). I already saw some funny signs, including a truck for some unknown company whose name was abbreviated ASS on its side. I can read Hiragana and Katakana, I just have no idea what any of it means. And thus far my conversation has been strictly limited to “arigato”. Who knows how many people I've already offended. I have the next 2 days to do what I want, and I guess I'll probably just try to explore Okayama, most likely look for sushi. I am holding on to “Wakarimasen” (I don't understand) and “Gomen-nasai” (I'm sorry), and I'm sure I'll be needing them both almost constantly for the next little while. I haven't reset my watch yet, so although it's now 1030pm here, I know that it's 630am in Santa Rosa. Weird. I'll have to post this on my tomorrow when I go to the Seattle's Best a block from here that I have been informed is the nearest free wireless. I've already had the urge to take pictures of half a dozen things, but I'm just trying to be a little patient. There will be unending sources for pictorial examples of what I'm living around. Anyways I'll start tomorrow.