Not quite surreal

I'm here!

We arrived in Japan at around 9 at night, so we stayed the night in the airport and got picked up in the morning. The flight was way too long but still all right; the service was wonderful, and the flight attendants were adorable. I wish I had gotten a picture of their boat hats. Rachel and I had seats next to this guy who was smashed the entire flight and who very nearly got violent when the man in front of him tried to put his seat back.



The only stewardess shot I could get, and no boat hat. =(

I am once again jet-lag-free, so I've been doing a lot of exploring, or at least as much as my pathetic, unexercised feet will allow. We had mini "tours" to a local supermarket and to a store that seemed to be the Japanese equivalent of TJ Maxx. Rachel and I went out today to look around and found a drug store, a Japanese thrift store (where I bought a fantastic Pikachu mini-bento for 10 cents), a 100 Yen store, and several takoyaki stands from which we bought some delightful takoyaki. MMMM. I love you, Kansai.



"Big Size," the only section that seemed to have clothes that would fit me.



My first Engrish!



FRESH TAKOYAKI FINALLY

I've been a little disappointed that I haven't had much of a chance to use Japanese, but I'm patient. I'm sure I'll need it for my host family, so we'll see how that goes.

That's about it for now. So far I've heard at least two bossa nova renditions of Beatle songs. We're staying in the dorms for the next week until we meet our host families. We can't have our shoes on here, and since I don't feel like buying slippers, I get to walk around in socks all the time. Huzzah!



Not sure what kind of flowers these are, but I'm astounded that they're growing this time of year. Japan is a lot greener than Missouri is at the moment; there are oranges and flowers on trees, and I've even seen narcissus growing already. I'm incredibly jealous.