It’s a 15-hour plane trip. You tell this to someone and invariably receive a response of pity and mild awe. However, I found that I actually enjoyed the lengthy flight from Chicago to Tokyo. I had space to stretch out and time to spread out. I read, drew, watched, listened, slept, and thought. They fed us in plenty, but I couldn’t help eating with a slight feeling of having the last meal of the condemned. Leaving your friends and family to go to Japan for a year will get you showered with attention. I got so much attention in fact, it felt like they were saying goodbye forever to me, as though a year away meant never seeing me again. So I ate the neatly arranged airline meal as though it were perhaps my last as I headed to an unknown destination. I did not know the place where I would be staying nor when I would eat next. The fact that we were traveling west with the sun and so it was midday, all day, lent a certain feeling of unreality to the whole experience. We took off around noon and landed 15 hours later at 3 in the afternoon. Throw in an International Date Line along with that and you end up confused for a while.

Now, I had a very strong idea about the existence of Japan but had hitherto taken the truth of it on faith in maps, texts, and the news. As we landed, I was presented with nigh undeniable proof that it was indeed all true. Japan did exist and I was there.

The flight actually came in a bit early and I somehow managed to get to customs before a huge wave of people. So I spent only half an hour in line as opposed to the usual hour that can be counted upon. Another bit of luck that I navigated the most complicated (but least expensive) route from the airport to the ICU campus without losing my way. Impressive, but the credit must go to the helpful ticket office attendants to whom I owe my life. Surely I would be lost still if not for them. All went smoothly and was a good  thing too for I had left myself only 3 hours from landing to make it to the campus for a mandatory check-in orientation. As it was, I was half an hour late. This may easily have been only 15 minutes late had I brought with me a map of the campus. Or not late at all had I opted for the friendly pick-up service provided by ICU where a student meets you at the airport and helps you get to ICU. I staggered through the campus, the largest in Tokyo, led by little more than my intuition. It was full dusk but the day’s heat was still heavy in air. The campus seemed to be more forest than school. Was this Tokyo? The abundance of green was at once beautiful and refreshing but also somewhat intimidating. The sound of Japanese cicadas filled the air oppressively. Large black crows flew here and there in great numbers, yet few people could be seen. 

In any event, when I finally found my way to my new home at the Global House dormitory, they took my bags and, exhausted though I was from the trip, immediately turned me around and marched me off to the orientation. I then had to introduce my travel-weary, unwashed self to a cafeteria full of students. It was a special time.

So please, if you are thinking of coming to ICU, take heed:

1)      Take only what you need or can’t live without, luggage becomes an excessive burden for even the heartiest of travelers when you have to lug it through an intricate series of crowded trains across Tokyo in the late summer heat and humidity. You can and in all likelihood will be buying toiletries, clothes, food, and more when you’re in Japan. So not only did you not need to bring half of that stuff, but now you’ll have double to take back.

2)      Leave yourself at least 4 hours to get to campus, not three. Oh, and take a map of the campus.

3)      Don’t forget to order the bedding or you may be sleeping on a bare mattress the first couple nights.