5-31-10 to 6-1-10 Heading to Japan

I began my journey to Japan by meeting Charles, Jeff and Cody at the IHOP in Canton, Georgia
for some breakfast at 04:00am on 5-31-2010. We then left to pick up Rie, Eurick and Brian and
then make our way to the Atlanta International Airport. We meet up with all of our fellow
classmates and Dr. Aromoso around 07:30am before proceeded through check-in, security and
began boarding our aircraft around 09:00am with a departure at approximately 10:30am.

While flying coach is never enjoyable, I compounded my discomfort by having an eye infection
on the plane and not having any Visine available. The flight was very smooth and the flight
attendants and crew were very kind. I could not sleep and this only added to what was going to
be a very long day.

Upon arriving to Japan, we cleared all of the necessary customs and immigrations offices,
gathered our entire luggage and then purchased our train passes for the next three weeks. We
then proceeded to the local JR line for a 40 minute train ride to Shinigawa station where we took
the Shinkansen train to Nagoya which about 2 hours away.

After arriving to Nagoya, we had a small briefing from Dr. Aromoso about where to meet for the
following day and check into our hotel which was about a block away. Jeff Perry and I are old
friends and we decided to be roommates during this trip. After check-in to the hotel, we quickly
unpacked, took our respective showers and then meet the rest of our classmates in the lobby to
do a little exploring and catch some dinner. While our room is very small, we are going to share
the space and make it work fairly well. We found a small restaurant about a block away from the
hotel that served small dinners for between 5-700 yen (5-7 dollars). I had boiled pork (bacon)
and some beef with some white rice. While it did not sound or look very appealing, it had a
fantastic favor (maybe I was just hungry?).

I then proceeded back to my hotel around 08:30 pm local (we are 13 hours ahead of EST) and
went to sleep.

Lessons learned: Even though I started packing days in advance, there were still things I forgot
which just is just infuriating. I should have made a more detailed packing list and triple checked
it. Apparently, I am not alone in this. I will look today for the handful of things I need.

I have to ensure arrangements have been made for either a exit row seat or business class for any
flight over 4 hours long. I was miserably uncomfortable during the flight and my back and neck
are killing me this morning. Trying to adjust my sleep did not work also; I just deprived myself
of some sleep prior to leaving.

The Japanese people are a very engaging and welcoming people. Everyone we have spoken with
has been extremely friendly and helpful. While this is not a lesson learned, I have dreamed of
coming to Japan for most of life. Thank you for allowing me to participate in this program.