I was wrong though, because after the peanuts came a huge meal including curry, salad, fruit, dessert, bread, and a drink.... any drink. Then, they'd come back and ask if you wanted a refill or coffee. I turned down the offer of alcohol mainly because I wanted to be sure I would be in full control of my mental capacities to achieve the task of finding my way to a warm bed later that "day." This surprised the attendants, and they kept on asking "Are you suure you don't want any beer? We have red wine too!...white?" I was just so happy to have real food! Then came snacks, and another full course meal, and more snacks, and more drinks.... I stuffed myself till I had to tearfully send food back without finishing it all! ToT/ I would have finished it if I could!
Cheap flight? Yes.
Value flight? Hell yes! I struck gold!!
So that was the fun part of the plane trip. The part that I hate is the paper they give you: customs cards and debarkation slips. I always take forever to fill those things out, they just confuse me... and that makes me nervous about going through customs. I'm one of those people that gets freaked out by a cop just being near, even when I'm doing nothing wrong. So customs definitely freaks me out. Last time, I got searched because I didn't declare some flower seeds that my home-stay mother gave me to give to grandpa. (I didn't know they were regulated, ok?!?) But that's my point! I have no friggin' clue as how to navigate the custom regulations! Before leaving this time, I researched it for a few hours... yep. Clear as mud.
Anyway, so the day before I left for Japan I kinda freaked and unpacked some stuff that might not have gotten through (ex. prescription med's not in my name. The mystery is I got that prescription from when I went to the ER--- how did it get prescribed under gma's name!?). I was prepared to meet rigorous regulations, deal with tough custom officers, have my carry-on luggage be scanned, searched, and ..... none of that happened. In fact they barely took more than two seconds to look at my passport before issuing my alien-resident card and send me on my way.
Being a n00b (newbie) doesn't make you stupid, it's just you don't know any better and probably will pay for your ignorance. Two steps out the door of customs and that is exactly what I did, and I paid in cash. I'm not sure which I'd call it: smart or conniving. The ticket booth right outside of customs only sells reserved seat tickets, ( =$$ ) but if you'd go downstairs to the general admissions ticket counter it's about 1/3 cheaper. I got to the reserved ticket counter bought my overpriced ticket and was told very politely to run!! O.O A little shocked I did just that, and barely got in the train before it pulled out of the station. As I thought over my purchase I pouted a little, I hate paying for my n00bishness.
It had been a really long day, quite literally. My day had started at something like 5am EST and now it was near 8pm JST, so about 24 hours in travel. I was finally getting close to bed! I rode the train and made my first solo train transfer and after about an hour I met up with a friend of an old peer of Aliel's. What is that, fourth removed? (I might have been a little pushy with Aliel's peer, but he eventually found me a place to stay for a few nights. Motto of this trip: "Don't take no for an answer.")
Anyway, after some other n00b issues like forgetting to pick up my train ticket after it got punched by the machine (had to pay a small fee) and accidentally crushing another ticket so the machine wouldn't take it.... (I decided early that tickets weren't for me) We finally made it to the Christian student housing. (I think it's something like that...) After heaving all my luggage up the stairs, I relaxed a bit on the internet and then hit the bamboo for some sleep. I slept on a crappy futon in a freezing room, but that wouldn't bother me 'till morning. zzzz...ZZZzzz..z...
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