Prologue : The calm before the hon

May 25th, the time for departure. I'll cut to the chase and skip the train taking me to the airport because that's not really worth talking about. After a trillion safety checks here I am, boarding my plane and ready to take off.

The flight itself was alright, no real problems here. The problem lies underneath as they say (they do ?), because of jetlag, mostly. Supposedly, the flight would take off at 13:30 in France and land at 8:30 in Japan. Notice a problem ? Well technically, it should land when it's actually time to sleep for me. Shucks ! I say to myself that it's not a big deal or something. I mean, I could always sleep in the plane !


Let's fast forward to one hour before landing. SHIT ! I did not sleep at all. In fact, I knew from the start that I can't sleep to save my life if I'm sitting. This was just the worst. Not only I was very tired (complete with overall weakness feeling, headaches, etc.) but I was also about to land... and it would be morning there. Eventually, I managed to overcome my sleep deprivation even though I could feel it deep inside. Time to land ! Finally at Kansai International Airport, I grab my stuff and let's go. Even though most of the text is in Japanese when you get to leave the airport, it is fairly easy to understand and most of the staff is good at explaining. The railroads are also well explained with big ass maps all over the station. Not to mention the circuit is explained over and over so to get lost you'd have to do it on purpose.

As a small note, I also grabbed an Icoca card, which is an IC Card for JR West (Western Japan Railroads, mostly for the Kansai region). Very cool, and also works on various shops and dispensers, even though I never used there yet. I take the train to Shin-Imamiya station and tadaaa ! Here I am.

If I'm correct, this is the Shin-Sekai area, it's pretty much the Southern part of Osaka. The scenery is interesting : it's mostly a lot of houses and small streets with a lot of junk going around like electrical cables and installations. It's very vast, and there are also lots of shops and dispensers (or many things) but I know this isn't news if you already know what Japan is like. My initial journey almost ends when I finally arrive at the hostel I'll be living in for my first week, brought here by a lovely Japanese old man who kindly offered to guide me around. Though it's much on the cheap side and the room I reside in is small, I'm happy to have a place to stay.

Before I rest today's case, I discovered that the El Dorado of consumerism was waiting for me to notice him 5 minutes from the hotel : a huge Don Quijote store, which is basically Japan's "everything" store. There I bought 3 necessary tools of survival for a filthy gaijin like me : Food, a plug adapter and a damn UMBRELLA ! In addition to the hot and sticky temperature out there (which is pretty much only getting worse) there is a rainy season near June so I took my precautions. Just kidding ! I actually bought it because I almost drowned going there. This is only the beginning, but quite a good one. If I only had to talk about one problem, which is completely my fault, it's my total lack of courage to try and speak Japanese. Though I am aware that going to Japan isn't like taking a test and that I hope it will get better with time, I can't help but blame myself, especially considering the time I spent practicing reading the language.
Anyway, that's it for today. The hon has been planted. The real fun starts tomorrow, because I'll meet my internship supervisor and visit apartments for my "real" stay here. Stay tuned !