The Trip

Here I am in Atsugi!
I woke up at 3:15am in Buffalo on the 8th, and arrived at my apartment at 8:45pm the 9th.
For those of you who are counting, that is well in access of 24 hours. Here's how the trip went:

• Arrive at airport requisite two hours early only to learn that my airline's check-in stand doesn't open until 5:30.
  
• Sit and wait for 45 minutes
• Get bags checked and signed in, then go through security
• Wait some more until flight is supposed to leave at 7:05
• 7:15 are informed that something is wrong with the tire plane
• Awesome clerk-guy changes my flight over to another airline's really quick, then I run to that gate and catch the plane. Am informed that my bags might not come to Japan on the same day I do. Oh, well; it's only a 2 1/2 hour trip back to Narita airport...
  
• Arrive at Chicago around 8:30
• Learn that my luggage did in fact get put on the plane to Japan.
• 10:30 Get on plane.
• 11:45 Plane actually leaves...yay, ice.
• ....traveling on planes makes me ill and I don't sleep. I do watch a few movies and How I Met Your Mother, thanks to the little TVs in front of every seat. The seat next to me is empty so I have both to loll around in., It's incredibly nice. We get fed three times in 13 hours.
• Arrive at Narita in Terminal 2 and have issues with customs because I don't have a military ID and can't say 'internship' in Japanese. (note: it's こうじょうじっしゅう, Koujsshyuu)
• Am allowed to stay in country after confusing poor customs-guy.
• Get baggage and find my mentor. Yay!
• Sign in and wait for shuttle to base, since the trains would actually take longer.
• Learn that I need to carry two pieces of paper and my passport in order to: get on and off base, use the commissary (read: glorified grocery store), use the NEX, exchange money...etc...
• 6:15 Get on shuttle and regret having two large suitcases.
• Fail at not falling asleep and figuring out where we are (I think we passed Odaiba, but I'm not all that sure)
• Late 8pm Get on base and sign into my lodging. My lodging is temporary, so I'm actually living in what doubles as the base's hotel (Dad had claimed this to be true earlier but I thought he had looked up the wrong thing. Ooops).
• Sleep.

Now it's midday on the 10th (a Sunday). Luckily, my mentor gave me some granola bars, chips, and coffee last night, so I had breakfast. I've exchanged money (after being directed to two different locations that in fact did not exchange money), shopped at the comissary and took the long walk to the town's grocery store where I relived my old experiences at the OK Supaa when the cashier asked my whether I was sure I didn't need to buy bags to put my food in, complete with gestures. I had to show her my bags to convince her I was ok. I grabbed lunch at the local Lawson's (a combini/convenience store), where a little girl swinging on the door handles held it open for me and looked far too excited when I told her 'thank you.' It, by the way, is about 50 degrees out and I got away with wearing a sweater, although most of the people are wearing light to heavy coats.

My packet of sandwiches informed me that "We hope you can choose the best one for yourself," hinting that I wasn't supposed to eat all three.

I've unpacked and will go searching for a cup (strangely not provided although all the rest of my cooking materials and silverwear was) and some chopsticks before visiting the library since neither grocery store saw the need to carry these items. I start work at 9 tomorrow and am far too excited by this process. I've included pictures of my rooms at the bottom, if you wish to see them.
The view outside my room. Don't let the bare trees fool you--it's rather warm out, although it apparently snowed in Tokyo Christmas week.
My bedroom. There's a closet off to the other side, and all the plugs are US-standard.
The living room, already a mess. The counter-thing is actually a bar, with a few stools underneath; it separates the kitchen area from the living room.
The kitchen. Unlike my old Japanese microwave, this one only makes things warm, but I think I can deal ^_^. It came with a pot, pan, silverwear, knives and cooking tools, two plates, two bowls, and a packet of instant ramen. No cups, though...

The bathroom, a nice combination of Japanese and American styles; it came complete with towels and toiletries. The sink nozzle folds in and the sink itself doubles as a wash basin.