Good Morning America!

Quick update. First, I would like to say I am alive. I made it here in one piece. The 12 hour flight was a killer but Tylenol PM pulled me through. God Bless Tylenol PM! Remind me to spend them a quick thank you note when I get back.

I’m on Day #2 of SCT #6. It’s early in the morning here. Fine, it’s 9am. But I woke up at 8. I’m still on America time, and more than likely won’t get on Japanese time until the day I go back home. I guess that’s what you get when you travel international for a short period of time.

Anyway, it’s been quite the adventure. Yesterday I spent most of the day walking up one street. Today, I plan to walk the other direction. When you don’t remember a single word of Japanese, and don’t know the area very well; it’s best to stay close to where you are staying. I hate that I don’t remember Japanese. I spent a month in Japan when I was in college. I guess this time, I assumed when I stepped foot off the plane all the Japanese would come back to me. It was a stupid assumption; because I didn’t know Japanese when I was here the first time. Ask my friend Hub. Everyone laughed at me because I sounded like a redneck trying to speak Japanese. As you can imagine, the Japanese people couldn’t understand what I was trying to say to them. I guess it was funny. But, I probably should have looked over my Japanese language book before I came over here. It would have been something useful to do on the 12-hour flight. Currently, when people start speaking Japanese at me I get this deer in the headlights look. I believe they quickly realize I’m a stupid American that doesn’t know anything about the language. Yea, I’m being one of those Americans.

But besides that minor detail I’m doing great. Yesterday I went shopping at my favorite Japanese store- UniQlo. I bought socks. The first night I was here I was so out of it, and my friends mentioned UniQlo being close, which made me quickly perked up. I only had to hear directions once before I had it memorized how to get to UniQlo. I'm proud to report I was the first customer at UniQlo. They open at 11 and I was there at 10:30 waiting for the doors to open. Good socks are hard to find!

Last night two of my friends and I went to eat dinner with my host family. My host family took care of me for over a month when I was here in college. They were a great host family. They spoke English and my host mom was an amazing cook. Last night she cooked dinner for us and I was able to see pictures and hear stories of my host sisters. It was a great night!

So there you have it…day 1 of this fab trip. But I’m afraid this post must come to an end because I need a shower. I’m totally loving the Japanese showers and toilets. My friend has a heated toilet seat. SOMEONE, please explain to me why we don’t have those in America?