ただいま！！！！

Wow, it’s good to be back. Sitting in mah shinkansen, enjoying the view of the Jusco department stores, the pachinko parlours, Japanese cars and houses, the smell, the HEAT, the… everything. Driving to the airport my mummy told me about her first experience in Japan – she flew to Osaka as well and the first thing she saw was the train cleaners. That has got to be the most awesome first impression of Japan: it has it all! The uniforms, the methodicness (yes I just made up a word), the cleanliness of Japan and that never ending unwavering politeness: they bow and wave as they see you off when they’re done and you sit there in your nicely cleaned comfortable seat. It’s still like that mum, and it doesn’t cease to amaze me either!


But I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t mean to write an essay here, but I have an hour in this train so I thought I’d tell you about how I got here, because that was quite an experience too! First of all a big thank you to everyone who came to see me off and I was also lucky enough to see Sayuri and Nana, two friends from Nagasaki who decided to come to Holland the day I left for Nagasaki. Well I got to see them anyway which was nice! And thanks Chun for the no water chai with milk and a dozen espresso shots or something? XD

I flew Finnair this time after some very good reviews from my beloved friends. This means flying to Helsinki first where I had a 5 hour layover. But the awesome part was that first plane! Apparently Finnair is celebrating their 85th anniversary or something, and to celebrate they have redecorated this one plane to make it look like it would have done in the 50s.

The plane was called the ‘ Silver Bird’, the stewardesses had 1950s style uniforms and all, we had Paul Anka crooning in the background, Charlie Chaplin up to his antics on tv and best of all: chicken nuggets for lunch. Haha. That made me laugh it was so strange, to me anyway. The coolest part though was they apparently had a camera underneath the plane, and as we were approaching Helsinki they turned it on. This meant we could see the land shooting past underneath us and then the landing lane (what on earth do you call that?) approaching and go through the whole landing process! I’d never seen that before.

Anyway, time warped straight back to the 21st century when I got to Helsinki airport, checking out the mooming shop, the marimekko shop etc etc. Most of the time I just sat and watched the planes come in and read my book. I have to admit though, by the end I was getting pretty bored, I guess you do need a bit of company. So I spent some time running away from noisy little old Korean ladies and then decided to get something to eat before getting on my Moomin airplane (yes!).

I have to say it was all together quite an easy going experience. I got the feeling they were a lot easier with all the checking back at Schiphol and in Helsinki, they didn’t even ask for my little see-through plastic bag of goodies, I didn’t get searched, didn’t have to take my shoes off or anything, just walked on through. New experience: Getting fingerprinted and photographed at the Japanese immigratrion! Lol. I had no trouble getting in without having filled in my return flight, fooled them into thinking I was just here on vacation and staying in a hotel for 3 months, har har. I’ll show them. I’ll take over the country with my little internship! Muahahahahha

まもなく、新大阪です。

X Jenn

ps: add on: I had a wild animal print kamome train from fukuoka to nagasaki:


And Yuki, Erika, Miho, Yuria and Andries were at the station to pick me, take me to kaiten zushi, and then we're going to Sachi's tomorrow all together. Woo Woo!!