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As you may have deduced from my clever title above. I. AM. EXHAUSTED. haha. I don't know how I am even writing this right now, but seeing as I am making a valiant effort to not fall asleep too early, I decided that this was as good a way as any to occupy myself for a short while.

Today has been the longest day that I never got to live that I have ever been through. Did you follow that ;P All I can say is that this 16 hour time difference may just be the death of me upon my return to the good old USA.

The journey began as all my long trips seem to: me not getting any sleep. Wed night I was blessed enough to be working until 10:30 after which I still had to pack because, typical of my behavior, I left it all until the very last possible moment. My mother, bless her soul, picked me up and drove me down to Salt Lake in the wee hours of the morning, where I got to say hello and goodbye to my dear family and board my 6am flight to LA.

Our plane hadn't even left the gate by the time I fell asleep in my airplane seat.

As I groggily marched out of the gate in LA I glanced sideways at one of the notice boards, laughing inside at how ironic it would be if I were to find a DELAYED notice next to our flight out to Japan. To my delight however our plane was scheduled to leave on time..... in four hours. It was a quick jaunt to track down our gate, where we all quickly collapsed into our seats.

I guess I should mention that I finally did get to meet some of my fellow travelers. There are nine of us total and six of us were on the same United flights. I hadn't been sure how I was going to tell who was who since I'd never met any of them before, but alas someone had done their homework, because when I got to the gate is Salt Lake I was approached by a groggy looking woman who says "You're one of the Tsukuba people right?" When I nodded a little perplexedly, she laughed and responds with, "yeah I may have Facebook stalked you all a little" :)

So anyways back to our main story-line.....

The ride to Japan was every bit as long as I was expecting. Although I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that the plane we were in was one of the ones equipped with a small screen for each seat. Muahahaha.... I thought to myself as I fiddled with the little touch screen. Alas, I was only able to enjoy tapping my foot along with Happy Feet 2 and hiding behind my airplane pillow for Paranormal Activity 3 before I passed out in my seat for pretty much the rest of the flight, only emerging from my slumber when sustenance was necessary.

Walking through the Tokyo terminal and out through immigration and customs was one of the oddest experiences. My mind was whirling through memories of China, that at once seemed to both correspond and conflict with the experience. Perhaps most odd was looking at all of the signs, because one thing I had not expected was to see several familiar Chinese characters mixed in with all the Japanese ones. It really kept throwing me off haha.

After clearing the bureaucratic tape we were please to meet up with the rest of our group and the representatives from the school who led us out to our bus. It was a charming little thing. And I mean little haha, it was short and stout, and well, honestly the only word I can think to describe it as is..... adorable haha. As we all pile in I snagged the very front seat so as to provide myself with the best view. Although I quickly discovered that due to the dark and the rain I wasn't going to be able to see much beyond car headlights. A girl named Nicole sat beside me and we quickly struck up a conversation, during which I learned that her grandma was Japanese and had met her grandfather during the war. That of course led to much discussion that helped pass the time during the hour and a half long ride to the University.

At one point I became curious and turned to our Japanese professor and the following conversation followed:

"How big is the population in Tsukuba city?"

"Oh about 200-300 thousand I think."

"And would you consider that a bigger city or a smaller city?"

"Actually Tsukuba city is in the top three cities as far as the population in our prefecture."

Now when I was in China, our dear Changzhou had a good 3-4 million people, and it was barely considered a blip of a city...... I just love finding these comparisons :)

We stopped at a supermarket just a short distance from the school and my favorite part of the day began: the shopping guessing game :D

As I meandered through aisles full of who knows what I found it extremely hard to keep a perspective on the prices. As I grabbed a bottle of water for 87 JPY and some yogurt for 130 I shuddered just a little, until I reminded myself that the exchange was about 80 JPY for a dollar, and then I didn't feel quite so bad.

As I passed the hot food case I shocked one of the Japanese students in our group when I excitedly grabbed a plate full of little fried fish (I'm talking WHOLE fish) "You like this?" she asked quizzically and I saw a huge smile break across her face when I nodded. "Very good!" she said and gave me a thumbs up. I laughed as I bought my stuff, thinking back at the delicious little fried fish my dear old Tsing Ying would serve us.

When we got to the school they handed out our keys and out internet passes as they talked through all the little formalities with checking into the University. I admit my mind was elsewhere as I zoned out in exhaustion and watched the three rather attractive Japanese guys doing break dancing at the other end of the common room. However my interest did perk up slightly when they began talking about using the showers, and the public bathhouse that was available to us on campus. I looked sideways at Nicole who had a mischievous look in her eye as she whispered, "We're totally going to go use that." I smiled back, "Well duh!"

They showed us up to our rooms after that and after making sure we were all good they all left to their own rooms and I collapsed face first onto my bed for the next 10 minutes until I could will myself to get up and do something so I didn't fall asleep.

Now my dear friends, I have stayed up long enough and shall retire to my slumber until the rising sun brings me new adventures ;)

Oh wait wait! I almost forgot! :O When we were in the airport I went to use the restroom, and in one of the stalls I found........ A SQUATTER!!! :D :D And of course I had no choice but to use it! Ah how sweet the joy :D