I'm Here

1/14/06
I am typing this entry from the Omyia Seminar House – the training center for Aeon. I’m picking up a WiFi signal from somewhere, but it looks like it has to be reset, as I cannot open any sites. Well, yesterday’s travels went off without a hitch – I took an early flight out of Minneapolis (at 6:50 instead of 8:00 am) and had some time to kill in Chicago. Ate a Cinnabon with some horrible coffee, made a few last minute calls and then boarded the flight to Narita airport in Tokyo. Note to American Airlines: Please include more films in your in-flight movie selection, or change things out in mid flight so that I don’t have to watch “Bruce Almighty,” a single episode of “Joey,” or “In Her Shoes” [yes, Jess, I had to sit through that movie once again – but it was way more entertaining with you there the first time] over and over (granted, you did show “Beautiful Mind” and some silly horse flick with Kurt Russell, but let’s try and get some better titles – the sorts of movies you can watch and say, that was so awesome, I don’t mind watching that three more times on this trip!).

On the flight I fidgeted a lot – I do that on plane rides of over four hours. I had the mixed blessing of being seated closest to the lavs in the middle of the plane – good because, if you know me, you know I have a micro-bladder – bad because a) people standing around waiting to use the commode are sometimes gassy and b) every time someone came out of the john, I got a whiff of the smelly toilet. Mostly I sat reading, working an impossible book of Sudoku (Jean, I have yet to successfully finish a puzzle from the book you gave me – the easiest ones are impossible!), or watching the progress on the flight in both Japanese and English.

I got to the airport without any problem, got my luggage and made it past customs (even with their sniffing dog) and met Shannon – one of the trainers. I sat and got acquainted with five other future Aeon teachers – all super friendly and fun to talk to. We sent our luggage off to our schools, grabbed our carry-on and headed out on the trains to get to the training center. Some things I observed:

- Really cool landscape and trees – the afternoon was really foggy so this heightened the beauty of them.
- The vending machines all sell cans of tea with milk and sugar (lots!) – and they come out of the machine nice and piping hot.
- It is weird to be in a country where you do not speak the language, or recognize the written characters.
- The awesome train seat pairs flip around so you can sit facing or away from your traveling companions.

From the train station, we jumped into four cabs (we’d picked up another trainer and three other teachers whom we’d met at the train stop) and came to the Seminar House. We were greeted by two members of the staff who gave us slippers in exchange for our shoes, showed us round the place, and then showed us our rooms – I’m rooming with another fellow named Matt who is from Chicago. A bunch of us headed down to Lawson’s (kind of like SA or 7/11) and – Oh, my gosh! I just snuck downstairs to use the bathroom. The toilet down their had a heated seat! This training center is pretty cold, so toilet seat, my buns thank you. – bought some bento boxes (boxed lunch things) for tomorrow and I got one of these triangular snack things that is basically a hunk of rice with something in the middle – mine was a soy tasting thing – and wrapped in seaweed – it was an awesome snack – hit the spot. I then ironed my business clothes for the first day of training and got ready for bed. I was super exhausted and it was only 9pm. It is now 5am and I’ve been up since 3:45 unable to sleep. That’s why I came out here to type this. I’m the only one up at present – Oh, and the other big news is that during training everyone for some unknown reason, must be cleanly shaved – No facial hair whatsoever – so my trim beard no longer exists and I can’t help but do a double take every time I walk by a mirror. That’s all for now; I’ll let you know how the first day of training goes.