Day One-ish... Part ONE!

HELLO FOLKS!

I have survived my flight. First let me say that so far everything has been rather interesting. I have a lot to say abut everything beginning with my flight and up to present day events. That being said, I will have to make this a two or maybe three part post depending on how much time I have.

Alright then, on to the first part of my adventure!

First thing I need to mention, and this is more important than any of my previous rants. You need a visa to enter Canada. No matter what the reason is, even if you are just landing there to change airplanes, you still need a visa. Out of about 15 people who I asked, one of them including my program coordinator, no one told me that I needed a visa to change airplanes at Canada. Also, as it turns out, me being of Mexican Nationality means that I need a visa to land just about anywhere. That was the first problem in my adventure.

After arriving at the ticket counter for Delta Airlines at about oh... 4am in the morning and not having slept the day before because of a combination of nerves and excitement. I was greeted with this rather infuriating piece of news. Now, it is no ones fault but that of the governments involved. Apparently the visa requirement was added some point in the past month. This just goes to show that you should perhaps check, double check, and triple check your information before you hit the airport.

Now, as you can all guess, there is somewhat of an issue with not being able to land at the airport in order to catch your next flight. Believe me, this was not lost on me. So what did I do? Well, I tried to keep my temper in check and called my booking agency, Orbitz, and asked what my options where. After about 40 to 50 minutes of making phone calls to different airlines, I managed to get my ticket cancelled and refunded. That just left me with one problem... How do I get to Japan now? Why, American Airlines of course, they were kind enough to sell me a last minute ticket to Osaka that would let me arrive on time to register into my dormitory... And they all lived happily ever after...

Well, WRONG! The new ticket cost me almost $400 dollars more, all window seats, and it had me flying from Dallas all the way to Tokyo Japan. A nice long 13 hour flight over about half of the United States and the Atlantic Ocean as well. And, for those who know me, I hate flying. I mean, I really hate it. I had prepared myself mentally for it, but that was when I had over an hour of lay over at each airport, which would allow me to pull myself together, and it didn`t have me sitting for 13 hours straight.

That was just the beginning of it too. First flight from Tucson, Arizona, to Dallas, Texas, had me sitting in perhaps the most uncomfortable chair known to man and hardly any leg space. I mean, I`m a 6' tall person and I`m a bit on the wide side. That just the way I was built, tall and wide. I have to wear XL shirts because of the width of my shoulders. But anyway, flying to Dallas from Tucson only took me a little over an hour. Unfortunately, I had to ask the two people sitting next to me to please let me out so that I could use the restroom. They were not happy about that. By the way they looked at me, I might as well have shot the Pope.

After arriving at the Dallas Airport, which by far is the biggest airport I have ever been in, I ran into a new problem. Our airplane arrived at one of the B gates. My connecting flight was all the way over at the D30 gate. Of course, at the time, I didn`t know how big the airport was mainly because I had my window closed on the airplane and didn`t want to see anything outside. It gives me a slight feeling of vertigo that combined with the queasiness in my stomach during flying... well, you can imagine what would happen. Anyways, I got out of the gate and asked the first person I say where the D30 gate was and if I could walk there in 30 minutes. He said yes. I can only hope now that he has suffered some horrible illness or accident for saying that.

After 10 minutes of walking, I quickly realized that I was not going to make it there on foot. Luckily, I figured out the tram system they had there and manged to take it the wrong way which meant I had to go the long way on the tram. I managed to catch my flight though with only 5 minutes left to spare. I never had to run so much in my life to catch something that I had such a dislike for.

I think I will spare you the horrid details of the 13 hours flight. You just need to know that it was a window seat again. Also, the choice of movies on the airplane was rather good. If you get the chance watch *The Proposal,* it was very good and funny. I was however lucky that the person sitting next to me was a rather kind lady from the US that had lived in Japan for years. She gave me a phone card which I used later to call home.

After arriving in Tokyo, I was greeted by a rather perky and cheerful Japanese man who had a sign with my name on it. Apparently, I had about 20 minutes to catch my flight to Osaka. And, as luck would have it, it was at a gate on the other terminal. SO, the perky Japanese man led me and two other people from my same flight across the terminal and through the security check point. It was literally a sprint across the terminal. I have to say that after having sat for 13 hours straight, getting off an airplane only to run is perhaps the most horrible feeling in the world. My body literally felt stagnant. I mean, I thought I was going to drop dead somewhere along the way.

Anyways, after making it onto the airplane I was rather surprised. For the first time I was actually comfortable. I had enough leg space and a whole row to myself. It was awesome and rather relaxing after everything up to that point. Little did I know that it was all just a set up.

After arriving at Osaka, I had to wait in line to get through immigration. Now, I`ve never gone through airport immigration in the US, but I can only imagine how horrible it is. I had to wait in line for what felt an hour thanks to the poor air circulation in the room. After going through immigration, I had to pass to the inspection area where they open the luggage and ask you why your brought this and why you brought that. It took way to long as compared to other people that walked or were literally waved on by. I guess it was my fault too. I brought some tools with my for some of my hobbies. Apparently they had never seen anything like it and that lead to a lot of questions and them asking to see what they were for.

After that, I went outside the arrival area to meet a group of volunteers that were there to help us get to our dorm. I was glad to see other students from other parts of the world that looked just as confused as I did.

I think this is a good place to stop. I have taken some pictures, but until I can purchase a cable for my camera, since I forgot mine back home, I won`t be able to upload them any time soon.

So folks, please join me again for part two of my arrival into Japan!