It was much of a difficult to say the very least. I woke up at 6:30 am and was already panicking. My flight wasn’t until 2 pm, but I was waiting for my JR Pass and based on the tracking history, it was in San Marcos which was a few miles away from home but regardless it would take time for it to deliver. My oldest sister came home at 9 am and told me it was time to go. I was stressing out already for the package and I decided to call and schedule a drop off– Something I should have done it the previous day. I came to the decision that my sister would ship me the pass instead although it will cost more money, I had no other choice.
My sisters and I went to LAX and the traffic there was horrible! Cars are everywhere, people are walking around like crazy, and there really isn’t a time to stop until you get to the terminal.
Luckily, I came an hour early so waiting wasn’t too much of an issue. It was my first ever flight. Heck, it was my first time leaving the country, so I was quite excited. In fact, everyone was excited! My fellow, bound to be, classmates all conversed.
Once we got on the airplane, a few became anxious and scared. Resulting for the hype to die down. Especially when the first hour passed by because from an 11-hour flight, we were impatient. Time went by, and we finally got to Osaka, or at least, hovering above it for more than half an hour. You see, something happened at the runaway, something about a plane being fixed and taking up most of the space. So what the captain decided to do is head to Tokyo, which was an hour long. It was at this point where everyone started to freak out! Not only the group but every passenger. It was 18:42 when all this happened.
We got to Tokyo, stayed inside the plane for a while, and then they had everyone go through the security check. This was the point that we contacted the program manager about this issue and when they gave the option between bus to the apartments or book a hotel in Tokyo, most hoped it was the hotel. Unfortunately, it was not. We all waited at some humid terminal for ~20 minutes and hopped on the airplane once again waiting roughly 30 minutes for taking off. Before getting to Tokyo, nobody was really comfortable to sleep but after departing from Tokyo, most people fell asleep. For me, it felt like it was 8 hours but in fact, it was 40 minutes.
It was 23:58 when we got to the Kansai Airport. We went through immigration, grabbed our luggage, and left with the program manager, Jessica. Driving from Osaka to our dorms in Kyoto, not taking too long of a drive but everyone was anxious to get there. We got to the apartments around 2 in the morning but if we were counting how many hours I was awake, I would have to guess more than 20 hours.
Although the room was a little small, I jumped to bed and rested for a few hours. The next day contained the first excursion for the program, but in all honesty, I prefer sleeping in. Either way, tomorrow might end up as a day to relax especially to get used to the time zone.