Please put your chairs and tray tables in their upright positions, we are preparing to land in Tokyo.

When the plane landed I grabbed my backpack and slowly shuffled my way down the aisle to the entrance. I had just noticed, while reviewing my printed instructions on "When you arrive to Japan," that I needed to fill out a customs card, as well as a foreign visitors card. I asked a stewardess for them and she handled them to me, but was out of pencils.

Suuuuuper.

Oh well, I'll just fill it out somewhere in the airport.

Lucky for me the foreigners entrance gate had a bunch of tables set up in which to fill out these cards. There were about 8 tables, and only 3 of us that were foreign (the other two were a couple on vacation).
Unluckily for me it hindered my plan of following everyone else on my plane to our luggage carousel.
I filled out my cards and walked through the massive cattle-herd rope system to the foreigner entrance. Was it really necessary to make it that elaborate when there are only 3 of us?
The friendly Japanese girl at the counter took my passport, ripped some papers out of it that the Japanese embassy had stapled to it, stamped it a couple times, and put a sticker on it. Then she gave me a smile and said something I completely didn't understand.
I nervously just walked through the gate towards luggage wondering A)If I was cleared to go through and B)Where the hell luggage would be.

I was quick to realize, and extremely thankful, that all of the Japanese signs were subtitled with English. Wow! Hell. This might not be so bad!
And as if that wasn't spelled out enough for us dumb Americans, there were pictures on almost every sign as well, the one being of most interest to me was of a suitcase.
I got down to the luggage carousel and everyone was just standing around.

O.k. The English seems to have ended here.

All of the signs were complete Japanese, and the only indication that I was at the right carousel was that it had our flight number on it. Thank Jebus our number system is basically global.
I stood there waiting, nervous that all the straps of my enormous army-issue backpack had gotten caught in machines and torn apart, or that liquids were found in both bags and all of my stuff would be crammed and shoved back into the bags.
Much to my excitement my bags were fine, and the items they contained completely untouched. Go figure the only time my bags haven't been inspected were on an international flight...

Next mission: get through customs.

I was waved over to an empty customs lane by what I suppose would be considered your standard stereotypically Japanese female. She was full of smiles, wearing some cute little airport outfit, and nodded her head a million times per minute, eyes wide open, as she tried to comprehend my reason for visit "Biz-iniz-u?"
"Yes, business."
"Bizinizu?"
"Yes. Business."
"Ahhhh, hi!"
'nervous smile at her'
'she waves at me'

Um...oooooookay........I guess she doesn't want to look through my stuff or ask me any questions? I handed her my customs card, declaring...nothing.
"Hi!"
'nervous smile at her'
'she waves at me again'

So....I guess I'm good to go...huh...well I'm going to walk away, and hopefully I won't get jumped and beaten by security. "Arigato gozimus," I say to her, as I nervously walk away.
"Hi, arigato gozimus!"

So I wander around the airport a little bit before I find a section with a onyx column with a classy sign that reads "Group Meeting." I mean, the instructions I were given said to look for the group meeting area, but damn...I didn't think it was literal.
After receiving information packets and apartment keys, dropping off our luggage to a shipping company within the airport and a lot of small talk with the other new arrivers and teachers (whom were there to corral us), we made our way to our respective train lines with instructions on when to get off. When we got to our destination there would be a teacher waiting for us on the platform ready to show us to our apartments.

The train ride was pretty...pretty. It started with a lot of countryside, woods and rice patties and then slowly worked into more suburban areas, then eventually becoming full fledged city. It would have been neat to set up a video camera on the train and tape the whole progression happening outside the windows. Hmmm...sounds like a music video idea...

I was traveling with 2 other newbies who's stops were a little before mine. See we all kind of laughed together the whole ride at the strange advertisements hanging all over the train. It was similar to NYC's subway trains, in that the walls on both sides were covered, but they also have ad banners hanging every couple feet from the ceiling. I'm assuming it's there purposely so people of my height have to duck down the entire time!
The ads ranged from screaming Japanese men with joint pains, to pictures of gorgeous asian women with phone numbers next to their pictures...whatever that would be ;)

After about an hour the other two had gotten off at the their stops and I arrived at mine. I noticed when the other two stopped they had instructors right on the platform ready to greet them, I assume it was planned that we would be on the last car on the train. Yet, when I got off there was no instructor in sight. I figured something like this would happen though, why would it go smooth for me?
So I just wandered up and down the platform (about 50 yards or so) until eventually a guy nearby yelled "Derek!?" Hooray! They didn't forget!
It was a regional manager of some sorts named Kenny. He was a pretty cool guy, I asked him a million billion questions as we took another train to get closer to my apartment, and he gave me a million billion answers.

I noticed that we passed through Akihabara along the way, also known as "Electric Town," essentially- the video game/anime district. Kenny pointed out that it would only be 3 trains stop from where I'd be living.

Huzzah!

We got off the train at the Kameido station, and following a map with vague directions found my apartment after about 10 minutes of walking. MAN! It was humid! Like...90 percent humidity if I had to guess! It was definitely worse than anything NY ever had.
I noticed along the way that we passed about 10 vending machines, all of which distributed either juice/soda/water or cigarettes. Now, it doesn't sound that great, like, woo. Vending machines. But it is REALLY strange when you keep seeing them over and over...and over. But hey, if it's going to be this humid I'll probably be sweating off a bottle of water every 10 feet anyways.

We got to my apartment building, which was strangely located next to a man-made, elevated baseball field, found the apartment I'd be in and knocked.
No answer.
"Huh," says Kenny. "I guess we'll just use your key? Hey it's your place now anyways!" So unlocking the door and stepping in, Kenny found a light switch and turned it on. The place...reminded me of some of the dorm rooms I've seen in college. The kind where the 3 guys, that live in one room, have complete disregard for any time of cleanliness or organization.
Grrrrrrrrrrreeeeaaaatttt..........I think to myself.
Kenny doesn't really say anything. Sees a mirror on the wall and comments, "That's a big mirror."
Yeah....yeah.
"Alright Derek, well I'll let you unpack and settle in. I'm sure I'll see you around mate!"
"Heh. Yeah....well thanks for the help Kenny. I'll see ya when I see ya."
He left, closing the door gently behind himself.

Silence.

I tip toe around the place, which appeared to be evenly gross throughout, and eventually found the bedroom that I assumed would be mine. The other two bedrooms had the traditional sliding doors and tatami mat floors. Mine had a regular western-style door with a knob, and hardwood floors. Why does my room smell...greasy?
There was a large package in the middle of the bedroom floor, wrapped with a blue tarp. Upon further investigation it was a futon delivered just for me. Neat! I opened it up and it was a futon mattress, basically a rectangular foam-like substance, harder than typical foam, that would fold three times into a neat little pile. A futon "mattress," basically a rectangular thick blanket that would lay on top of the foam. A blanket, of the same dimensions as the other two, and a pillow...about the size of a shoe box.

Curious, I started opening the many cabinets, cupboards and doors within my room. A feature that the other rooms definitely didn't have. Most of it was just shelving and hanging space, but one door actually folded down to reveal a fold-out bed! Oh man! I always wanted one of these! Sweeeeeeeeet....
Basically it was just a fold out frame with a plank on it, but hey! No sleepin on the ground for this guy!
See, my whole life I've always liked to just put my box spring and mattress directly on the floor anyways, but the futon was only about an inch and a half thick...a little TOO close to the floor, especially for something the size of a twin bed, I'd probably end up rolling off it into the middle of the room every night!

So I set the futon up on the fold-out bed. I ended up finding some extra pillows and blankets in my cupboards and stacked them up against the wall, blankets on top, to form a giant pillow-blanket mound.
This I shall call. REAL pillow!

I unpacked the backpack I was carrying, the other two huge bags I brought would be delivered in the morning.

Now what.

It's too humid, and I'm too tired, to go explore. Meh, guess I'll just try and get some rest even though it's only 10:30. I left a note on the kitchen table saying hi to my roommates and letting them know I was going to sleep but would see them in the morning.
It still seemed strange to me that neither of them had went out of their way to be home. (I understand that people have lives, but still...if someone is coming from across the world to a very very strange place, wouldn't it be proper to at least be there to greet them? Answer some questions they might have? And possibly even take them out to eat? Surely they had been in my situation when they first arrived here.)

I read a book until I fell asleep, sometime around midnight. What seemed like an eternity later, I woke up well rested, ready to start exploring! I looked at my cell phone (who's purpose was absolutely useless except for as an alarm clock)...it was 1:00 am.
UGH! That was only an HOUR!?

I read my book some more, falling asleep again.

At around 3:00 am I heard people coming home, but I was too tired to try and get up to say hi. Fell back asleep after a few minutes.

What the!?!...I wake up and my bed is slightly shaking from side-to-side, as if someone was holding the far two legs and sliding them back and forth a few inches in each direction.
I heard some voices and noises in the apartments around me.
Huh...wonder if our building does that often...
Must have something to do with a parking garage or someone having a party or something. Though I found it peculiar that when I grabbed the sides of my bed frame and purposely tried to shake it, it wouldn't budge. Hell, the fold-up frame was attached to the walls. Huh. Weird.

Fell back asleep a couple minutes after my bed stopped moving.

Around 5:00 am I wake up again. Man, I wish I could sleep for more than an hour at a time. I guess the 9 hour nap on the plane didn't help the cause.
Not able to fall back asleep, I flicked on my bedroom light at it's lowest brightness setting and began to read. After about 5 minutes I heard someone get up in our apartment and make their way towards my room. The bathroom is right across the hall from me, that must be what they're heading towards.
My door pops open a few inches and a Japanese girl pops her head in.
I cock my head and look at her, "Yo."
She closes the door.
Huh.
I hear the bathroom door open, and then the door to the toilet (our bathroom has a sliding door, which leads to the sink/washing machine area. then there are two other doors within that space, one that leads to the toilet, another that leads to the showering space).
Man! Now I have to pee!
I wait a few minutes and don't hear any more sounds, alright bladder, here we go. I opened up my bedroom door and straight ahead of me is a naked Japanese girl standing at the sink in our bathroom.
She looks at me.
I look at her.
'long pause'
I nod at her, turn around into my room, close my door.

SCOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!!!!! Within 12 hours of landing I've seen a naked Japanese girl.