This somewhat foggy photo from Minami Azabu District in Tokyo was taken due to my Jet Lag causing my photography skills to shrink into pretty much nothing...I kept the photo because I feel it was appropriate to see a foggy setting sun as a symbol for Jet Lag!
Konbanwa! (Good evening!)
Brian (codename Richard, as you see here on the blog) and I have finally arrived to officially move into our student apartment in Japan. It is almost a little bit surreal as it took us literally a whole year of planning, paperwork, saving, and logistics to get here. It's definitely a relief to finally be on the ground and running. If I could just put more emphasis on the word RUNNING for a moment... Seriously! Not only is Tokyo a fast paced city (one I have spent quite a bit of time visiting and yet still feel like I could spend years exploring more and more), we also had to do a lot of orientation activities for our university and move into our temporary, transitional apartment that the school has provided us to assist in our transition to Japan.
I have to say that one of the most difficult parts of the travel, for me, is the flying. This is because I get motion sickness and also must suffer severe jet lag during the first week. Although I have read up on some preparation for Jet Lag - drinking lots of water and staying up as long as the sun is up once arriving in Japan - it is still quite difficult for me to recover quickly. Some students here seem as though they recover much faster than I do, so maybe it's just that my body has a hard time with it. Brian seems to be having some difficulty as well but at least by the end of the week it will have passed. Just a tip: If you are flying more than 16 hours to get to Japan (we flew from Logan in Boston and had to endure a lot of layover and flight time) make sure you are ready for possible disorientation and tiredness, and if you don't drink water you will be much worse off! Just remember to drink some juice or something hydrating every time the flight attendants come around and you should be in a lot better shape. Note: stay away from soda, heavy caffeine, or alcohol - these are terrible for you when you are flying long distances and could experience jet lag! I know people who have made this mistake and regretted it very much.
I intend on writing a much longer post when I get the chance, but wanted to give readers a small update about what we've gone through as we move to Japan as students. In my next post I'll get to talking much more about adjusting to daily life in our apartment and surrounding community, and a small bit about buying staple, everyday Japanese food items in our fabulous trip to the local grocery. I also have a fun video blog to post about our apartment, so stay tuned for that as well. I apologize if my grammer is not great in this post as it is very late and I am experiencing Jet Lag! More quality to come soon, I can promise!
Until then,
Oyasuminasai! (Good night!)
Lady Lara Jones
A restaurant entrance in Jiyugaoka District of Tokyo. Jiyugaoka is kind of an upscale shopping area with some seriously pricey cafes and western-style shops. I could only imagine my wallet turning inside out and vanishing at the site of prices in some of these shops. I'll talk more about living on a budget in Japan soon. Brian and I have a lot of help from other students and advisers here at University but I can see how it would be really easy to just watch your money disappear before your eyes if you weren't very careful and good with making budgets!
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