At last, I am here in Japan, fat, happy, and with internet access! As it turns out, I can borrow a laptop indefinitely from the dorm I'm staying in at no cost to me. It also turns out that the internet access is an ultra-fast LAN connection, so life if just great.
THE FLIGHT
The flight was great, put simply. I had doubts when I saw the incredibly small window seat that I was going to be squeezed into for nine hours, but by the grace of God it was no big deal. I spent the whole time reading Niven books, courtesy of Ethan, so I was hardly aware of my surroundings most of the time. Japanese flights are strange, though - they come around with scalding hot towels rolled into a tight tube that you are supposed to rub all over your face and hands. Being burned is relaxing! The service is of course excellent, and they give you snacks and meals and drinks non-stop.
Speaking of drinks, Japanese Coke is fairly different from its American counterpart. Not only is it covered in Engrish (see here), it also tastes something like a cross between diet and regular coke. More importantly, though, it gives me a monster headache - number one Japanese surprise! I repeated the coke experiment at the end of the flight and presto! another whopping headache made to order. Oh boy!
There were some tense moments on the flight from Tokyo to Hiroshima when I realized that I had no idea if anyone was actually going to pick me up or not. By the time I got my luggage and still couldn't see anyone, I had resigned myself to a dismal and expensive night in a hotel, but soon enough I found the group who had come to get me, and all quickly became well.
NEXT DAY
I was so exhausted the first night, and had been up for so long (I didn't sleep on the plane but for one hour) that I didn't get jet lag at all. Aside from a tendency to wake up at 7:30 and toss and turn for about half an hour before falling back asleep, I've been totally free of it.
Did all sorts of crazy things that day, but mostly went shopping. I am beginning to understand the crowds of little Japanese tourists who go running around in malls and grocery stores - even prosaic little nothings like grocery stores are suddenly extremely fun and novel. Actually, grocercy shopping is a bit of a pain. I realized that all of my impulse-buy urges had been totally thrown off by the different selection and semi-incomprehensible language of Japanese advertising. Furthermore, the Japanese clearly have a lot to learn about college student food. This entire country is a wasteland devoid of frozen burritos, sausages, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, or cheap lunch meat - in short, everything a normal college student eats. I now know why people joke about Japanese students eat a lot of ramen - that's about all there is.
I had my first almost-homesick moment when the grocery store radio started playing a clearly Japanese instrumental version of Simon and Garfunkel's "America".
Here and here are photos of my apartment-dorm thing.