First post from Japan, including Skymall faves

Finally! My first post from Japan. I have been unbelievably busy and exhausted the past days so I was unable to do any posting or uploading or anything. Luckily I got home somewhat early today (9:30 pm) so I actually have some time to do this now.

Arrived in Japan on April 1st, got to the airport and everyone was transported via van to the Yokohama dorms, about a 1.5 hour drive from the Narita airport in Tokyo. There are only about 20 people in the program (all in the same van), so everyone in the program already met eachother by the time we got the dorms. Since then it has been non-stop busy-ness, traveling all over the place and doing all sorts of orientations. Anyways, enough with the boring stuff, on with the pictures!

I'll start out with the best piece of literature on our planet: SkyMall inflight magazine. Here was the first amazing product I ran into, portable virtual reality visor thing that make you look like Levar Burton from Star Trek




I definitely want to buy this product thanks to these pictures.








Don't you love incorrect usages of the word "literally"?

I had a lot more of these, but I decided to move on to the more interesting and less pointless things. Click on the picture if you can't read it.















View from early on in the ride to the dorm, just leaving the airport.














One of THREE huge ferris wheels between Tokyo and Yokohama as seen while driving on the highway. Each one of these had an awesome light show going on. I have more of this later on.














Still the same night we got in, we decided to head out and explore. Picture taken at a random corner while walking around.














2nd Day: unpacked all my stuff and took some pictures of the room. The rooms are all single-occupancy and in the traditional Japanese format, meaning the floor is made of tatami mats and we get this futon type thing (which is unbelievably comfortable, surprisingly) which you had to assemble yourself.














Even more surprisingly, every room has its very own balcony. Luckily I am on the top floor (4th) so I see over the entire town














I had to sport my Sharks appreciation somehow. I don't anyone in the program is a big NHL fan though.




A stitched together shot of the view from my balcony with the sun rising. Pretty cool. (Click on the picture for the full effect)













Cherry blossoms were in full bloom when we got there. Apparently they're only like this for 2 weeks out of the year so we got really lucky. These are also everywhere. This is in the park right outside of the dorm.














Hey, it's me! This river type thing is also right outside of the dorm and it is lined with cherry blossoms going as far as the eye can see.















Just in case you didn't believe me.














The first McDonald's I see in Japan. Unfortunately we were moving and I wasn't able to actually go in, but it's one of my goals while I am here, so it will happen.














Group shot taken before our first of many train rides. We were going into the actual city of Yokohama (not everyone in the program is in this picture by the way).


















After the short train ride, this is what we arrived to. Very crowded, but got some awesome shopping done...

















...meaning the discovery of one of the most awesome items of clothing I have ever come across. In case you can't fully make it out, the hat most definitely does say "Black History Month." Unfortunately I did not buy it on this trip, but I am almost set on going back and buying it now, I just hope they haven't sold out yet.














Which leads me to my last photo for tonight. A bar with an awesome name located in a random back alley that was completely full of people. We decided to move past it and try our luck elsewhere, but I hope one day I may find this place again and experience it.

So that was the first two days here in Japan. This took a really long time to do, so I doubt I am going to be as thorough next time. Sorry, I hope you enjoyed this one! Next time I'll be show my excursion from today to Japan's largest Chinatown, which is in Yokohama, and my first visit to Minato Mirai (also in Yokohama), where they have one of those gigantic ferris wheels I was talking about as well as the tallest building in Japan, all by the water, making for a great view.