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After a very short night from the 31.12.2015 to the 01.01.2016 (I slept about 4 hours. NOT because I went to bed late, but because I just couldn't sleep.) I finally travelled to Japan! My sister and I both spent the night at our parents house, so in the morning we could drive to the airport easily. We got up, waited for my friend to arrive at my parents house (she went out the night before and basically came straight from there, only having made a quick change of clothes) and then drove to the airport. As is normal for my family, we arrived way too early, but went to Starbucks and drank something. During the drive and also during our time at Starbucks my friend fell asleep over and over again, which was extremely funny.
I then said goodbye and went through security check and to the gate. I only had to waste about an hour before boarding. My seat 38J was great (it didn't have the mediabox I heard so much about under the seat, but the seat beside had it). My neighbour was a youngish Japanese woman who instantly fell asleep and only woke up to get food or alcohol (not excessively). The two men in front and over the aisle in front of me were Italians and either talked too much/loud, played on their Nintendo 3ds or tried to get some of my space in front of me (under the seat), so they were basically pretty annoying... Also I thought that them or someone else who was close to me, sometimes let huge farts go, as it sometimes stank horribly As expected, I wasn't able to sleep, just doze a little. I watched two movies, "Mr. Holmes", with Sir Ian McKellen, and "The Pearls of the Stone Man", a Japanese movie, drank a lot of water and ate the food provided (it was quite alright). About 1 hour before landing, my neighbour started to make herself pretty (taking off glasses, putting in contact lenses, putting on cream an make-up, etc.). She was almost unrecognisable afterwards.
We landed at 9.40 a.m. Japanese time and I got through passport control, baggage claim and customs so quickly, I didn't even use the free WiFi, except for quickly updating my Facebook. After I left the customs, I instantly saw a man holding a sign with my name on it and went on to greet him. We walked to the train and on the way there he bought our tickets at a counter. We took the Keisei Skyliner that departed at 10.38 a.m. Although he sadly never even told me his name, we basically talked the whole time from Narita to Kita-Senju, even though his English wasn't so good (but still better than my Japanese). He told me that he was a Trumpet-player in a band and that he had travelled to play internationaly. He had even been to Bern twice. We had to transfer at Nippori station and arrived at Kita- Senju station at about 11.30 a.m. There, my hostsister Kay waited for me, the man brought me to her and left. One of the first ting she said to me was"I like your hair colour.", which was awesome. We got along quite well from the beginning and walked to my new home. There, her mother Heidi greeted us and surprised me with her very good English. They showed me my room so I could put my things in. I then took a shower and afterwards joined them at lunch, which they offered me as well but I declined since I had eaten breakfast in the airplane and wasn't yet hungry again. Kay and I then went shopping in two nearby shopping centers and each bought several lucky bags (Kay got 3, I got 2). At home we opened them and I was really quite lucky: in the socks lucky bag for about 2'200¥ (worth 250'000¥!) there were several cool or simple and good socks, one of them I gave to Kay, as well as several beautiful tights. In the second bag for 5'000¥ (worth about 15'000¥, although I'm not sure about this number) there were two cardigans in black and purple (yay!) a blue Sweatjacket, a pink combination (shirt an jacket) and a white stepjacket. Except maybe the pink stuff, I really can't wear pink, and the colour of the jacket, white gets dirty very easily, I love it! And I now even have a winter jacket, something I didn't bring to Japan on purpose, as I planned to buy something here. Now I don't have to buy another jacket I then gave them my hostpresents (chocolate from "Läderach", 2 Berner Mandelbärli, selfmade christmas cookies and a little booklet with pictures of me, my family and "my" Switzerland).
After that, we went out with Heidi. They took me to 3 shrines, all in one place, where they showed me how to pray (clean both hands and mouth at the entrance take some coins with the fingers still wet, go to the shrine and ring the bell (once or more), bow twice, clap twice and keep the hands together after the second clap, pray silently with the hands together and then bow once more). In front of one of the shrines there was a big circle gate, made out of rope, through which we had to go in a very special way: Bow in front of the gate, go through it, then left around the gate back to the starting side, go throu it again and then right around the gate back to the starting side, bow again from the other side (towards the gate) and then go on. Kay said, that one is supposed to do it 8 times, but they always only do it once. At the shrine we took a selfie and then went on to go grocery shopping. They let me choose breakfast (I took cereals I know) and suggested that I ate with them that night, since a lot of the restaurants were closed due to New Years celebration.
After we came home (I had to open all the doors to get to used to the keys and everythin), I went to my room and wanted to write my blog, but since I almost fell asleep sitting on the chair, I laid down on the bed and somehow fell asleep. At around 7 p.m. Kay knocked at my door and told me that dinner was ready. I got up and ate dinner with them. Heidi cooked delicious food: Rice; broccoli, green beans and tomatoes with some kind of dressing (cold); some sort of mashed potatoes (I guess); chinese soup with (very slippery) dumplings and steramed chicked pieces. As a dessert, they tried some of the chocolate I brought them and I tried Imoyouka, a very sticky dessert made out of sweet potatoes. It was delicious! Then Kay went over the family rules with me, showed me the kitchen, explained the bath and the washing machine and gave me their contact on LINE. I took some picture from their balcony - you could see Fujisan,- and after i managed to get into the WiFi, I quickly contacted my family and postet the pictures on Facebook. I then sat down in the living room and wrote my blog until about 11p.m., then went to bed and fell asleep instantly.
Edit: I just saw that the familyname of my hostfamily got censored, because it contains a certain word... Great, way to go, offexploring!
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