As most of you know, we were to depart Vancouver to Japan on Tuesday August 22nd at 11:30am. My mom, dad, and little brother took Jame and I to the airport. After a tearful goodbye we went through security with about 1 hour to go before our big departure.
The time actually flew by. I think it was because we met a cool guy from Winnipeg named Luke. He is also going to work for Nova, so it was nice to meet a fellow Canadian teacher beforehand.
Pappas had given us some great advice about the limited carry-on luggage space in the overhead compartments on the plane. So my bad knee came in handy as I was able to pre-board and limp on to the plane to guarantee space for our rather large carry-on luggage. It worked like a charm!! Thanks Pappas!
The plane started moving towards the runway, but stopped. I looked at my watch and it was 11:45am and we weren’t going anywhere. The captain came on saying that they were having engine troubles and would let us know once the problem was rectified. I put that word in quotes because that was the only word he used over and over again. Two and a half hours later the problem was finally rectified and we were good to go.
I popped some good ol’ hubba bubba into my mouth and braced myself as I am not a fan of take-offs. We started our take-off and then the plane started to slow down and then we came to a stop again! Frick I thought, what now?? I was getting really restless. The captain came on saying we had to turn around and start again because a flock of birds were blocking the runway. Tooooooooooooo funny!!! So if anyone is looking for work.
Needless to say we left YVR a little bit after 1pm. The flight was long, but smooth. It was full of junior high students who I think were on an exchange program in Kelowna. I am guessing that because I kept looking at their notebooks and the souvenirs they were playing with. They were so cute and super polite!!
Once we arrived at the Kansai airport we instantly felt the humidity. The people from Nova met us and showed us where to put our luggage. It was going to be delivered the next night----thank god because there was no way we were about to lug around our things in the heat. We took a bus to the Namba OCAT station where we were met by another Nova employee named Karen. She then took us from Namba to the Uehonmachi station which is conveniently located about 1 minute from our new home. We arrived there at about 8:30pm Japan time and we were BAGGED!!!! She was showing us around and telling us a little bit about Osaka and our upcoming orientation. Because we were so fatigued everything went in one ear and out the other. Once she left, Jame and I needed something to eat and some toilet paper!! I didn’t feel too adventurous in terms of trying something new to eat, so we went to KFC! After that we came home and crashed.
So that was our first night in Japan of course there will be much more to follow!!!August 23, 2006
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