Greetings from Tokyo

I’m halfway through my layover in Tokyo and I finally decided to sit down. After 13 ½ hours of mostly sitting, it was nice to stand for a while!

The long flight wasn’t too bad. There were actually a number of children on board, but I did not hear a peep from a single one! (Granted none were sitting immediately around me, but I was still impressed.) I have an aisle seat for all the major flights, which I appreciate. Not having to climb over strangers is a comfort! The gentleman next to me only got up once during the entire flight. I made sure to at least walk to the front of the section and back every few minutes, just to stretch! The airplane food wasn’t too bad…we had three meals over the course of the flight. The last one even included a fruit cup, a nice way to end the flight! I also made sure to drink plenty of water (which seemed to be the common piece of advice everyone wanted to make sure I heard!).

I only slept for a little bit, near the end of the flight. Each seat had individual screens and there were a number of movies and tv shows you could watch on demand. (Well not exactly on demand, but each choice started approximately every 25 minutes. I saw “Kit Kittredge” (the American Girl movie), “Mamma Mia” and “Swing Vote”. I also caught a couple episodes of The Office. I started watching “Henry Poole is Here”, but that’s when I finally felt sleepy, so I gave up! (Sarah- how are you supposed to write movie/tv titles? I have a feeling I’ll forget to look it up before posting this!) There were still one or two movies left on the list that I wanted to see, so I hope that they are still available on my way home! They also had some computer-type games you could play, so that covers my in-flight entertainment needs!

After the first few minutes in Tokyo, I realized how glad I am to be meeting up with the group either tonight or tomorrow morning. This is the first time I have been alone in a country where the primary language is not English and I’m a little intimidated. I believe that if I had to spend the rest of the trip fending for myself, I could, but it is very nice knowing I won’t have to! There is a television tuned to CNN International next to my gate. I might be tired of hearing about the election, but it was comforting to have something so familiar to watch/listen to! I find it funny that even though it is the international version of CNN and they do have some stories from other parts of the world, our election is dominating the stories.

I was able to check my text messages here as well. Thanks to Christy for making sure I knew our football team dominated once again- I don't have the details yet, but it sounds like it was another good game! I also learned from Dan that Obama himself is hosting a rally on campus next week (as opposed to the numerous events hosted by his supporters, like General Wes Clark last week). No matter who you want to win this election, it’s always pretty cool to have a presidential candidate visit your campus! If I was in Jersey, I would be extremely jealous to be missing such an event! Since I’m in Asia, I’m content with the knowledge that I live someplace important enough in this election to warrant such attention, even if I have to experience it vicariously.

I think we begin boarding soon so I should get everything put away. One more three hour flight and I’m done flying…until Tuesday anyways!

Oooo, before I sign off…there’s a global version of the Daily Show! I’m not sure if Jon Stewart films it separately or if they just pull different pieces from his show, but it will be fun to watch while we wait :)