Arriving in Osaka

Greetings to readers both gentle and otherwise! It has been almost a full three years since I last updated this blog and in that time, naturally, a great deal has changed. I have graduated from college, worked for a time and now I make my triumphant return to Japan as a design student at a school in Osaka. At the moment I am sitting in my hotel room sipping some free green tea and listening to the sounds of the large construction project going on outside my window. In a few hours I go apartment hunting (!), wish me luck!

Getting here was about as tiring as usual, though it did have a few extra difficulties thrown in at the last minute, clearly to keep me from growing complacent. Problem One was learning on the Wednesday afternoon before my Thursday flight that United had changed the weight allocations for international flights, so that instead of being allowed two 70lb bags without charge (140lbs of total luggage for those too lazy/tired to do the math) I was allotted only two 50lb bags (100lbs total luggage), which really does make a great deal of difference, especially when one is moving to a foreign country. We made that work out by reconciling ourselves to paying $200 fee for an extra bag and carefully weighing each piece.

The travel itself all went pretty well until I got to customs at Kansai International, at which point I ran into Problem Two. You see, my student visa had not yet come through, so I was going to enter the country on a tourist visa and then change it once I got to Japan. Stupidly thinking that the truth was the right way to go on my landing documents I won myself a trip to the back room at customs. Even after I explained exactly what the situation was they went away with my passport for what seemed like forever but was probably closer to 20 minutes. I filled the time by giving dirty looks to the security camera. In the end they looked a little suspicious but at least they gave me back my passport and let me go out to meet the people that the school had sent to pick me up.

I will admit that soon after arriving in Osaka I started to feel some panic. I mean, what the hell was I playing at? Getting an apartment, a bank account, a cell phone, and all without the help of my family? I started thinking about how easy it would be to just tell the school ‘Thanks but no thanks’ and turn right back around and go home. Luckily I did neither of these things. Instead I bought some dinner, got into bed at a decent hour (8pm) and told myself that I’d find my courage by light of day.

Thankfully, it seems to have worked.