destination saitama

Good morning Saitama!

The past two days have been a bit of a blur. I got about 2 hours of sleep before my departure then headed to the airport for 7am. My Toronto – Vancouver flight was pretty good, I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep thanks to The Cinderella Man. Times have certainly changed with Air Canada, gone are the days of continental breakfasts and hot lunches. Their domestic flights now a small selection of Subway sandwiches and Pringles at a small fee…I tiredly declined.

It was a beautiful day in Vancouver, during my two hour lay over anyways. I found an outlet and powered up my little baby. I would have check my email but unfortunately I’ve had very little luck finding wireless networks to piggy back on. Please bare with me while I try to sort things out.

Vancouver to Tokyo was smooth sailing but I started to get a little antsy by the 7^th hour. I got to a point where I was staring at the video screen in a zombie-like state. The Notwist and Elbow contributed to my journey into the fog, I don’t remember what I was thinking about but I think it was a whole lot of nothing. I couldn’t concentrate.

I landed at Narita airport around 3pm. There, myself and others were greeted by a Nova representative named Deborah. We all got information packages on how to get to our new homes, banking, shopping etc. and a very informative weekly magazine called Metropolis. There are many cool things going on in Tokyo and I’m happy to say that I’m only a 20 minute train ride away!! M.I.A.? The Album Leaf? You wanna sing karaoke in a private pool? Go cosmic-bowling with Hello Kitty? Hire a puppy by the hour?

I was super tired upon my arrival and my heavy carry on bags did not help the situation. Deborah was kind enough to accompany me to my new place and boy am I ever glad she did. By the time she waited for another plane from London to arrive and helped some more Nova instructors with directions it was 6:30pm. We hit the subway stations just after rush hour and got to Yono station around 8:00pm. Everything from Narita airport to Yono station is a blur, I’m just a little frightened about taking the trains by myself. I here I thought New York was bad!

It was bloody cold outside, Tokyo got dumped with snow on the weekend and the cold chill is still kicking up in the wind so Deborah thought it would be nice to take a taxi.

Rule number one, never take a taxi unless you know where you’re going. We had a detailed map of the area but this proved to be useless.

Rule number 2, never get into a cab when the driver’s been drinking.

This guy was psycho, at one point he was headed full speed towards a red light and we both started screaming for him to stop. Admitting defeat he pulled into a local police station where they told him where we needed to go. Deborah told the police she thought our driver was drunk but they claimed they couldn’t smell anything on his breath. Anyways, we got dropped off in front of an apartment building we thought was Prime Court Yono but it wasn’t. So there we were lost on some small street in Saitama freezing our asses off and my shoulders were about to fall off. We circled the area for about 45 minutes on foot, asked two people who kept pointing us in the direction we had just walked from…we eventually found the building just around the corner. I got home all tired and achy, talked to my roommates for about 5 minutes, took a hot shower and hit my new mattress.

Here I am, it’s 9am and my room is sunny and bright. I have no idea where I am, I’m starving, and I have no cloths to wear cuze my luggage will be delivered between 10am and 12pm. Happy? Absolutely. Today I get to walk around in my new neighbourhood, I get to shop in a store where I won’t be able to read what’s what. The next few months are going to be full of risks…something my life has been lacking in quite a while.