Tired. And hot. But in Japan! :)

So I definitely didn't write anything for yesterday but that's because I was on my way to LA at 5 in the morning and ended up having a super packed day. I'm impressed I'm even writing anything today because if anything today was longer and even more tiring.

Cutting to the chase...

I'M IN JAPAN! :D Yes, me and my 66 lbs. of stuff made it in one piece... somehow. I left on Wednesday on a flight at 8:30 in the morning. e__e My mother and friend Q took me to the airport and sent me off on the plane, teary-eyed and already missing them. I was on a plane that allowed me to pick my own seat when I got on the plane and I was determined to get a window seat. Surprisingly enough, I did... and I had a lovely view of the plane's wing.

Breathtaking, isn't it? I thought so too.

A 4-hour flight brought me to LA where I actually managed to find the shuttle bus that took me to the hotel that the Japan (and China) group was staying at. There are five girls besides me that came from the US, all around the same age (16-17). Surprisingly, there weren't more of us but because of that I think we became closer much faster than other larger groups.

Cutting to the chase (because I've been awake for almost 24 hours for the second day in a row and I'm tired), this morning our Japan group boarded the plane to Tokyo at 1:30 in the afternoon. 10. Hours. Seriously. Longest flight of my LIFE. For anyone traveling long distances like that, I recommend sleeping through A LOT of it.

The plane also fed us twice... which filled me up very quickly since I had already had breakfast and lunch. How could I resist? They were so adorable!

You can't see the whole thing, but in the lower right-hand corner I had some rice on one side and an egg/beef type... thing. I wasn't really sure, but I was actually able to eat it without my usual gag reflex when I eat egg. The bottom left thing was a bowl of noodles, small strips of ham (I think) and ginger. Pretty good; they gave us a small bottle of noodle sauce that gave it a nice flavor. There was also a piece of cooked salmon that was really delicious. The flight attendant also came around to everyone and gave us miso soup in a paper cup. Definitely not how I'm used to eating it, but it made me feel foreign and cool in an absurdly lame way. We also got some green tea that I sipped at every once in a while.

And then came ice cream...

The fact that it was organic would have made my mom sing for joy. So by then I was pretty full...






A few hours later it was time to eat again! -___-

This tray of food was my opponent. It was something that I had to find the strength inside to defeat. And defeat I... kind of did. I ate the plate of pasta with a tomato sauce (bottom right), the salad and some of the yogurt. After that, I was too full to eat any more.




Overall it was a really nice flight. A little hot at times but for the most part it was really comfortable and relaxing.

As we were flying into Tokyo, I managed to get some shots from the airplane. It's so GREEN and WATERY...


And the MOUNTAINS. AGH. So pretty.

Our group finally made it to our hotel for orientation, where we met people from 18 different countries, played some bonding games and now I'm in bed. Woot. I'm so tired. おやすみなさい！ (Goodnight!)

-Ellie