Monday, 19 August

10:00 AM

Starting the last leg of my long journey today. Last night, I was awaken shortly after midnight by a phone call from my friend who lives in Tokyo. We were going to try and meet up this weekend, but I didn't see him yesterday and figured he couldn't make it. We'd never made any definite plans for it. We decided to meet at Narita airport today and eat. I have to leave the hotel by 11 and I will ride their bus back to the airport. After I check my luggage, I will meet up with Mohi and then fly home.

Remeber that crap I saw enacted at the potato festival? It was like Power Rangers but not Power Rangers? Well this morning, I saw the real thing on television. And it was not anime at all. It was horryfying. They inserted cards into their plastic (or paper mache) armor to perform different tasks and the bad guys tried to steal them (the cards).

Thursday, 29 August

I've been home for 10 days and have been loving every minute of it. Since this will be the last ever entry in this journal, I'll begin it with the events at Narita.

Monday, 25 November

Well, I didn't quite get that done as soon as I thought I would. I did, however, get a bit closer to finishing this entry. Back at it.

I arrived about a half hour before my ticket gate opened, so I stood in the line that was forming. I began to hear horror stories of people that had been in Narita for days while they waited for a plane to Atlanta because they had "stand by" tickets. I began to feel uneasy after hearing some of the things they said, like how Delta uses the wrong kind of plane for their flights between Tokyo and Atlanta. Apparently, a DC-10 is too small to carry enough fuel for the journey AND a full load of passengers and luggage. One guy said that about 40 seats are never sold on this flight for weight preservation.

I stood in the line for a very long time and by the time I was checked in, it was way past the time I was supposed to meet Mohi. I found him, however, waiting patiently in the designated spot and he was as happy to see me as I was to see him. I'd found out that my flight had been delayed about an hour because a typhoon caused it to be late landing, so Mohi and I wandered about the airport for about 3 hours, and I had a very good time talking to him. He is a native Japanese, but he lived in Atlanta and Athens (GA) for several years, so his English is quite good, and he knows most all of the current English slang. For this reason, I feel silly speaking Japanese to him, because I never get it right. Ironically, he was my conversation partner briefly during his time at UGA and we never had a meeting.

I said goodbye to him about 45 minutes before my flight and proceeded to my gate. There were many irritated people sitting all around and on the floor. I sat in a window and some guy immediately started talking to me. I forget where he was from or going or what he was doing. I was there maybe 10 minutes when they gave the boarding call and was on the plane soon afterwards. I had a window seat next to a Japanese guy from Hokkaido who didn't speak any English. I had to translate for him when the stewardesses came by, because, unlike the flight from Atlanta, there was only one stewardess who could communicate with the Japanese passengers. This guy was a total spaz. He kept muttering to himself "dou shiyou ka na!" ("what am I going to do!") whenever he'd ask me something about the States and my answer scared him, which was basically every time. He said he was 19 but looked much older. He kept talking really fast at me even after I told him I couldn't understand fast speech.

I didn't get sick on the flight home (I didn't get sick going over, but I was too nervous to eat), and I ate everything that came my way. I was still really hungry because they don't feed you much [edible] food and it is a 12 hour flight. Or is it 13? Either way, it's an hour shorter from Tokyo to Atlanta than from Atlanta to Tokyo. I thought this flight would never end. We flew over the dark side of the earth as we went over Alaska. We ended up taking off some time around 4:45 pm and Japan doesn't observe daylight savings time, so it was very close to nightfall when we left.

I arrived in Atlanta around 3 or 4 pm, I forget which, but my ordeal was far from over. I had to check my luggage to have it sent to baggage claim and then get myself to baggage claim. I decided to walk from the concourse and then I had to wait what felt like an eternity for my luggage. Customs turned out to be a breeze. I told the guy I had nothing
to declare, and he said "Welcome home" and that was it. I pushed my cart out towards the atrium where I was picked up and taken home. It felt so good to be home. I had a lot of WWF to catch up on.

As I write the final entry in this journal, the date is November 25, the Monday before Thanksgiving. It has taken this long for me to have generated enough interest to finish it. During the time that has elapsed, I've been playing games, studying just enough to get good grades, and not much else. I finally sent my host family's letter early this month. Most of the other students have already had time to have received replies from their hosts. One student in my current class (a bad one, I might add) is planning a trip back to Hokkaido over Christmas holidays. Out of all the students in HIF, I think this guy had the worst attitude (even worse than me). I can't imagine why he's going back.

Japanese class sucks. I just thought the program was bad. That was before the 3000 level. Rather than test us on things like grammar and kanji, we have extensive questions pertaining to how Jason and Susan interacted with Japanese people during their homestays. Did I mention that most of the [incredibly obnoxious] people from UGA were in my class this semester? They skipped the 2000 level because of their progress at HIF. I didn't get to skip anything because I was in one of the two classes which didn't use our 3000 level textbook. I've been so bored this semester that I've: a) started keeping a journal of extra homework; b) declared a chinese minor; and c) declared a second major in physics/astronomy. That should keep me busy. It also guarantees that I'll be in school for at least 3 more years. Heh heh. SCIENCE!

Friday, 13 December

In the middle of exams now. This will be the last time I work on this entry and I mean it this time. There's not much left to say except that I've gotten a part time job at UGA library to start on Dec 18.

I'm still waiting for the time when I'll look back fondly on my time in Japan but it still hasn't come yet. I am still finding reasons why I should never have gone, but the sting is subsiding now. The only person I've kept in touch with is Sarah, and even that is infrequent. I sent my host family a Christmas card a couple of days ago and today I found that the postman had tried to deliver something from them but I wasn't home to receive it. It says he'll try again tomorrow.

Occasionally I find myself thinking about Hakodate, my family's house, or a store I visited, and I forget that that was in a different country. My mother says she wants to go someday with me as her guide. That would be cool except that I've absolutely no desire to fly ever again. Unfortunately, that is not an option.

I can't really think of a good way to end this whole thing; no sage advice or clever closing remark comes to my poetically challenged brain (not that I care), so this is the end. After 6 months, it finally comes to an end.