Moving to Japan Part 2
Hello everyone. I have never done this before so any advice or comments please leave them for me so that I may improve on my writing. Thank you
After the paperwork phase I had many issues with the idea of leaving everything that I know behind to start a new life, alone. There were many nights that I would just lay in bed and watch Doug sleep, in the hope that I could memorize every feature of his face. I have never been one to cuddle when sleeping, which Doug is the complete opposite, but in the last month before coming to Japan I held his hand while sleeping as much as possible.
Doug helped me pick out suits for work and get packed up. My dad also helped with packing, between the both of them I had my entire life packed into five suitcases. My family threw a going away party for family members and some of my friends. It was very nice to see many of these people before I left. Doug had also threw a going away party but it was just for our friends that couldn’t make it to my family`s party.
I had so many people there to send me off with smiles and wishes of good luck. I was excited and scared because it felt like everything was going by too fast. I just wanted everything to freeze, but that’s not how life works. I didn’t sleep very well my last night in America, I was nervous, excited, and scared. I still remember the last few hours in America before boarding the plane.
Both of my parents and Doug took me to the airport. I almost started crying before I left my house because of leaving my dog. He doesn’t understand that he won’t see me for a long time after spending so much time together. But I told myself that I needed to be strong for Doug and my parents. My parents took me out for my last American meal, Waffle House. What’s more American than a grease spoon diner.
We ended up getting to the airport several hours early, my flight was one of the first ones to leave that morning. I had three bags to check, my personal bag, and my carry on item; we had to rearrange a couple of things in my bags to make sure that I had the proper sizes for carry on. I was at the maximum size for all of my bags. My parents were kind enough to pay for me to check my third bag; originally I was only allowed two check bags.
Something that broke my husband’s heart was the fact that he couldn’t see me off like how you see in many movies. Instead we had to say our goodbyes very quickly while I was going through security. Our goodbyes were very short and very difficult, I kept telling myself that I would see him again in no time. I told myself that it’s just like me going to work and that I`ll see him in just a few hours, but then I had a couple of minutes to let everything sink in. That was when I started to have my first break down.
I was having a problem with my bags and so I had to go into one of the rooms for a search of myself and bag, I just started to cry and tell the person searching me that I was leaving the country without my husband and how hard it was. She told me that it’s best to leave him. She thought that he were separating or getting a divorce, I then had to explain in more detail what was going on and then she apologized. I wasn’t looking for an apology but it helped me get myself together for the flight.
I had never flown internationally before, in all actuality this was my second trip by plane, I was scared. I had all of my money on hand ready for the first chance on getting it converted into Yen. The flight that took me to Chicago was nice and short, nothing eventful happened.
When I booked my flight I made sure that each of my layovers was several hours long to make sure I could get to my connecting flights without many problems. I also wanted to make sure that I had time to message Doug and my parents that I landed at each location safely. Then I had to get ready for my connecting flight to Shanghai. This flight was the longest one of the three I had to make, and I was not excited, I was very tired.
While waiting for my flight to Shanghai I was able to exchange my money and realize that I forgot my phone charger. Of all of the things to forget, I forgot my phone charger. Luckily my phone charger was easy to buy, but not cheap. When I was done with buying a charger and exchanging money I went to sit at my terminal and waited to board my plane. While waiting I started to eat some of my snacks that I brought for the trip. I was hoping that it would give me the energy to stay awake. It helped a bit but I did end up dozing off several times before it was time to board.
It was another very uneventful plane ride but I was able to get a couple hours of sleep and watch three or four movies before landing in Shanghai. I didn’t like the airport in Shanghai. I had to get all of my bags and go through the airport to recheck my bags because I was changing over to a different airline. So now I have all five of my bags on a trolley and I had to get to my next flight.
First thing I had to do was go and let the people at the desk know what flight I was from and that I was only in China for a few hours at most. At first they were wanting a VISA before I told them I was only there for four hour. They then stamped my passport to show that I would be leaving China soon and that I was not there illegally. If I had to describe China it would be that it is full of very pushy people. When I was trying to get my boarding pass everyone just kept pushing me out of the way and waking right in front of me and blocking me at every turn. I was just tired and exhausted form the flight and just wanted to finish up.
When I finally made it to recheck my bags the lady wanted to charge me again for my extra bag because I didn’t have a receipt. This took almost 15 minutes to sort out because I had just realized that my phone didn’t work in China so I had no access to my emails or anything. I told her that my parents paid for the extra bag and that if there was a receipt that they would have it in America. Finally, I got her to call the airline that I was just on so that they could look up that the bag was already paid for. How did the bag get here if I didn’t already pay for it, is what I was thinking in my head the whole time. She did finally let it go through.
In this airport I got to experience some of the first culture shock, some of the things I only now understand after being in Japan for almost a year. The biggest thing that I could remember was the hot water dispenser. There was not tea or coffee items with it, it only had warm or hot water, and all of the Asian people were getting their water bottles and filling them up. I was very confused but I now I realize that it’s pretty good to drink warm and hot water when it cold outside. I never would have done that in America but now I do it all of the time.
I was very happy to board my last plane that would get me to Japan. I was excited but I was also worried because I couldn’t contact anyone because my phone didn’t work at the time. My flight over was again uneventful but when they decided to feed us on the plane I got another dose of culture shock.
Why didn’t I even think about food and how different each countries food would be. I was staring at a plate of food that I had no idea what any of it was, I knew that could eat anything that looked like it was egg, I have a sensitivity to eggs that would cause me to be in the bathroom for several hours. I ate as much as I could and to my surprise it wasn’t bad. If I could eat the airline`s food and be okay then I should be just fine with the food in Japan, because airline food is supposed to be the worst food.
When I landed in Japan I was ready for sleep mentally but my body was going on its fourth or fifth wind. I went to go through the process that allowed me to leave the airport, I had to fill out several documents to tell them why I was in Japan and where I was staying. This process took a couple of hours because of just the sheer number of people, and I wasn’t even in Tokyo. When I went to go and turn in the paperwork I then had to get finger printed and get a picture done for my residence card.
So after a grand total of 25 hours and a lack of sleep; Japan wanted to take a picture of me for a card to carry around for the entire time I would be in Japan. When I got my card it had the same picture from my passport, who knows why they needed to take a picture in the first place. I was the last person to leave the airport and get my bags, which was when I started to feel even more alone.
I had arrived really late in Japan, it was around 11:30, and my hotel that my company put me in was rather far away. They had supplied a map and directions with landmarks but no one was there to pick you up or even help you know what to do. Granted I got there a couple of days early and had emailed my company my flight information, they did book me a couple extra days at the hotel. For those of you that have never been to Japan, public transportation shuts down around the time I got out of the airport.
I didn’t know what to do, I walked around looking to see if I could find some people to talk to and ask some questions but it was like a ghost town. I found a couple of taxi drivers that helped me. One taxi driver loaded up my bags into the other taxi driver’s car while the driver of the car I would be taking looked up the directions. By the way taxi driver in Japan are very polite and friendly, but like almost all Japanese people they are afraid of using what English they know.
When I got to the hotel and got checked in I was exhausted and ready for bed. The hotel elevator was very tiny and the doors closed very quickly. It took me a while to get all of my bags to my room but I made it. I was so happy to see a bed, I couldn’t wait to lay down and sleep. First I put my bags away in a corner of the room and logged into the internet to contact Doug and my parents to let them know that I was at my hotel and safe.
It was one of the best things to see and hear my husband. It made it feel like I was at home and safe.
