I am writing this, my second blog, from my tiny apartment in Atsugi City, Japan. It's a one room apartment, and I mean one room! I could cook from my bed and do laundry from my bathtub! But I love it. It's brand new, very clean and ultra-modern. Everything talks to me.... even the toilet! I have never enjoyed using the toilet as much as I have these past few days in Japan. The seat is heated, it sprays warm water to clean you when you're done, and has a special, water-saving spout where I think I am supposed to wash my hands. I haven't actually done it yet, first of all because I don't have soap yet, and second of all because washing my hands in toilet water kind of freaks me out. I'm sure it's clean, but it's still coming out of the toilet. And that freaks me out.
But before I get ahead of myself, let me back up a little. My last few days in Pittsburgh were wonderful, except for head, throat and body aches (this is a long running family joke. If you didn't laugh,don't worry, that probably means you are normal.) I caught a bad bug a few days before I was supposed to leave, that wiped out my voice for a day. It was great, people would call to say good-bye to Alaina and talk to Kermit the Frog instead! So, I had to cancel my plans for the last two days and just take it easy, drink lots of AirBourne, swab the Zicam (a miracle drug) and try to sleep a little so that I would be ready to fly on the 29th. It was no longer even a matter of comfort. News was speading of 10-day long quarantines for travelers suspected of carrying the dreaded swine virus into Japan, a country without any incident of the epidemic as of yet. And although I had one of the symptoms, I feared that panic would make health officials a little too "quarantine happy" and that I would end up spending my first 10 days in a sealed room. I wonder if the toilet seats are heated in quarantine...
Needless to say, I made it through the grueling quarantine inspection at Narita Airport, and it only cost me an addition hour and a half of waiting on the plane. Might I remind you that I had already been in seat 43A for over 13 hours! The health officials, dressed in gauze from head to toe, worked their way down the aisles with infrared cameras, checking for feverish passengers, and then took a few suspicious individuals temperatures with a digital thermometer. We all had to fill out a health questionnaire, and sign that it was true by penalty of law. 10 days in a Japanese prison sounded a lot worse that 10 days in some quarantined hotel in Tokyo, so I mentioned that I had been taking a cold remedy. When I handed it to the official, he looked at me twice, set my paper aside and walked away. I kept expecting him to come back to ask more questions, but he never did.
Finally, we were let off the plane and for the first time, I set foot in Japan. But I think I will save that story for another day. I did want to add the first picture I took in Japan, on the train home from the airport. Enjoy!
Miss you all, and hope to hear from you soon!
RSS Feed