Jero

This is Jero. I saw him on TV hanging out on one of those geinojin shows and decided to look him up. Turns out he's from Pittsburgh and came to Japan to sing enka (you know, traditional Japanese pop). Of course, being Japan, they are exploiting his image as much as possible...

Some pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22155945@N02/sets/72157604027845450/

The flight over

Hello, I'm writing this from my new bed. Nobody knows it yet, but I got to my apartment here in Osaka safe and sound and only 3.5 hours late.

So on the way from Pittsburgh to Detroit, we had to valet check one of our carry-ons because the plane was “weight critical.” So then I get to my seat, and who sits next to me? Oh, just THE BIGGEST MAN EVER! He wasn't even fat, just huge! He had to squish down and collapse his hips in order to even get in the seat! Also, our thighs were pressed together the whole time and no, he was not good-looking or else I wouldn't have minded.

So then we get to Detroit and go to get out and they told us that our bags would be sitting in the tunnel and they weren't. So this Japanese lady exit into the gate, shrug, and try to turn around and go back in, and the woman at the counter starts freaking out about how we couldn't go back in there now and we had to give her our checks and she'd go get the bags for us. We were like, alright, chill. So she went and got all of the bags except mine. Literally, she went and got all of them, went back in, and came out with just mine.

So then I had to run and find out what terminal my flight to Osaka was departing from and of course it was a completely different one and of course I had only twenty minutes to get there (according to the clock) because of all of the de-icing BS in Pittsburgh. So I booked it as well as I could with two heavy bags hanging off of my shoulders. By the way, have you ever seen the hallway in Detroit Airport where there are a bunch of moving sidewalks and then the walls change colors and there's hippie music piped everywhere? Yeah, it's pretty gay.

So I got to my gate for Osaka and we weren't boarding yet so I sat for maybe 15 minutes. Then we boarded. I had the window seat, and I gave my neighbors Girl Scout cookies. The guy next to me was a Japanese man named Keiichi, who was just coming back from a year of working in Canada. He was so sweet—he carried my laptop bag at one point, and waited for me when he got off the plane. We got separated at customs, but we exchanged e-mail addresses. The guy in the aisle seat was another Japanese guy in a plaid flannel shirt who spent the whole time sleeping.

So we're sitting on this plane and it doesn't budge. At first they were like, “Oh, ice and snow blah blah blah.” Then suddenly they were talking about some leak somewhere. Finally, after THREE AND A HALF HOURS ON THIS STATIONARY PLANE (okay, they gave us drinks once), they go, “We're going to switch planes, so everybody please get off.” THANKS A LOT, GUYS.

So then I had to go stand in this 400+-person-long line, and by the time I got up to the front and received my “oh crap we're sorry” ticket good for $10 in the airport or anything on the plane, there was only about 20 minutes until we had to board again. I didn't even have time to whip out my laptop, pay the $6.95 for their wireless, and e-mail ECC to let them know I'd be late. So I ran to McDonald's, which was the first thing I saw, and got some Chicken Selects and iced tea with my “oh crap we're sorry” ticket.

Then we boarded, and they're going, “We want to get everyone boarded in under 18 minutes so that we can get moving.” And Keiichi and I were standing there going, “Yeah, right,” but I think they actually did it. Then we took off, and it was a 14.5 hour flight, which was about as fun as it sounds. I felt like they fed us a lot, to the point where when “breakfast” came, I started to feel sick while eating it and stopped. I got up to pee once because Keiichi and the other guy were both asleep most of the time, so I decided to not shove through two sleeping guys.

So then we landed and I stumbled through border patrol (I hope I never have to see the photo they took of me), customs, money exchange, baggage delivery with the wrong company but I don't care, finding the train station, buying a ticket, calling ECC, and finally getting on the train and checking 3 times to see if it was the right one. Then at the station I got off at, I was trying to drag my giant bag down the steps when I heard “Do you need help?” and it was the other girl coming for ECC training, so she helped me carry some stuff because she'd sent all of hers on baggage delivery. Her name's Christina and she's Canadian, and she's only going to be in Osaka for a month, then she'll go to Okayama. While we were waiting for our ride she bought onigiri (rice balls) and tea at a convenience store and we shared it. Then our ride came and got us, and we stopped at my apartment first, and it turned out that the driver was the landlord and we went up to my apartment and he struggled to explain everything about the apartment in English, and after he was done he was trying to make small talk and he said, “Do you speak Japanese?” and I said, “Yeah, kinda” in Japanese and he was like “WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?” in Japanese and I felt kind of bad. That was the first time I'd spoken Japanese all day; it's so much easier to pull the “stupid gaijin” card, but I don't really want to do that so I'll speak Japanese more tomorrow.

So by the time he left it was about 11:45 so I grabbed the little map he told me and set out to find the place on the map that says I can use the internet there, but I couldn't find it, and I was like, “Wait a minute, it's midnight, what the hell am I doing,” and came back, and then I couldn't find my apartment because it's in a maze of backstreets and down an alley, but finally I did. So that's why nobody knows where I am. Tomorrow I'll go and e-mail/livejournal/mixi/facebook this so that people who care know what's going on. I read online before I left that the subway station near me has free Wifi. If that's true, it's awesome. I'll go check that out tomorrow.

So I'll write about my apartment and stuff later (sneak preview: it's tiny), but right now it's apparently 2:30 am and I should probably try to sleep. Tomorrow is shopping and exploration day. Bye bye.