welcome to tokyo

All the instructions leading up to my being able to publish this blog have been in japanese. i've been here for about 5 hours and am no better at the language yet :)

everything has gone smoothly all day: no flight or luggage issues, i slept a fair amount on the long flight to Narita, i'm safely settled into the hotel, and have about a years worth of reading materials from JET which i'll use to help me fall asleep tonight. i'm incredibly tired but think i should probably wait till a decent bedtime here so i can adjust more quickly to this time zone. probably 9pm will be considered a decent time in my mind. i think my stomach is protesting the inconsistent food of the day-- we got two "meals" and plenty of drinks on the flight, but it wasn't anything hearty and my whole system is just a tiny bit off. hopefully by breakfast tomorrow i'll be ready to rock and roll. many JETS have gone out to explore the town and get some food/ who knows what else. i'm planning to be adventurous tomorrow, but tonight i feel like laying low. i can't imagine there's anything incredibly pressing i might miss...

just a few highlights from the trip today... some will be inside jokes, some are just random kelly nelson trivia...
*for one of my meals i got a cold fish head ;)
*my carry-on was stuffed to the rafters-- i was afraid they were going to make me ship it on the first flight to Newark. somebody asked me what i was thinking, stuffing a dead Yak into the overhead compartment ;)
*there was an adorable fuzzy haired baby sitting two rows ahead of me. she was super chubby and had a great little smile. that made the trip seem a bit shorter!!
*i had some good conversations with the people i sat next to; they both had a tiny bit more experience in Japan, but definitely felt like i would have a great experience regardless of my inability to speak the language.
*i got one last dose of country music on the plane. yee haw
*it's NUTS to see cars driving on the left side of the road. even though i knew that's how it worked, i was still surpised!!

i have already discovered that i am fascinated by the people here... we took a bus from the airport to our hotel and most of the time i was staring out the windows. usually men were driving, with women and children in the back seats. occasionally, i saw a tiny little tot in the front seat, having a blast. no front passenger airbags, huh??

anyway, once i get to my apartment i'll put a bunch of photos on here. my camera cord got sent to Himi in my luggage, so i can't get them published yet!!

LOVE!