First post!

I'm here in Japan, finally, after months of waiting and frustration, some man-made, others nature-made. Such would not end without a remarkable event either. Due to what was probably a combination of fatigue and stupidity, we took the express train that passed through Chiba New Town Chuo, my station, and went straight to Nippori, which was *gasp* some forty minutes away. I was supposed to meet P, my predecessor so-to-speak, at the station at 9, and by 10 at the latest since he had to go to the school. There was no way in hell that we were gonna be able to make it, what with 2 giant backpacks and 4 pieces of luggage 50lbs each (thanks mom) and all.

And yet somehow we did make it in the end - karma works both ways I guess. We ran into P coincidentally at 10:15 at the station (he had to take a taxi afterward) and managed to get inside what is a ridiculously big apartment (more to that later). But what was the most remarkable about the whole thing was how it helped me realize just how badly I really wanted to be in Japan. We were helped along the way by a family of complete strangers - they let us use their phone, looked up train routes that would get us to Chiba the fastest, and in an amazing act of kindness, helped us carry our luggage up three flights of escalator along with four pieces of their own - and we weren't even going in the same direction. I hate to generalize from one incident, but I'm pretty sure that Japanese (on average - there are nice and mean people everywhere) are just amazingly more kind than any nationality I have met in my life. If I were to be born again, I'd probably wish I were a Japanese cat.