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Written 2/8/2010 – 8.10 AM

We arrived safely in Tokyo at 6pm Japan time last night. Immigration and customs was very smooth, but up until that point we had to wait in line for what felt like forever, as there was no aircon.

The journey started on Saturday, when we had a pre-departure orientation in Christchurch, before flying to Auckland for the night. Auckland was a really nice temperature. It was really mild, especially after spending the last week in Christchurch. After the orientation we boarded buses to the airport, said our final goodbyes to friends and whanau, and flew to Auckland. In Auckland five of my wonderful friends from Hamilton decided to surprise me by showing up at the hotel. Caleb, Ellen, Toby, Lyndal and Glen – you guys rock!

We then enjoyed a 5 am wake-up call, before boarding our flight to Christchurch. Our flight to Tokyo was good. About 2 hours into the flight I discovered my seat didn’t recline, as it was broken, so the friendly Flight Attendant moved me to an aisle seat with no one in front of me. I later discovered my new TV was fuzzy, so discussed it with the Flight Attendant, and he and I agreed that I could just use both seats – one to fly in, and the other to watch movies and chat in. I believe he would have found me a new seat otherwise. Air New Zealand’s service cannot be faulted! On a side note -there was a situation which displayed Air NZs dedication to the safety and well being of the customers. I don’t wish to divulge any more here, except to say that I now have even more faith in Air NZ, especially if something goes wrong with your health whilst flying. Blatant advertising for AirNZ over. Well not quite over – you do know they are the international Airline of the year for the awards that are equivelant to the airline oscars. They are that amazing.

Anyway, back to the story. The flight was quite fun, as there were a lot of JETs, and we hasd the chance to wander around and chat a bit, except when the seatbelt sign was on, which was about half of the flight, as there was a fair amount of Turbulance.

We arrived in Tokyo last night, had glorious, glorious showers and dressed in our very limited best, ready to go and find food, as we are staying in Shinjuku. The hotel is flash. FLASH. Keio Plaza – look it up. Our room even has one fo those space age toilets – it runs water automatically when you sit on it to mask the sound of your ablutions! I am sharing my room with two others from the Christchurch consulate, which is nice, as it means I already knew them.

We then went out for dinner in a group, seven of us from the South Island/ Christchurch consulate. We went to this restaurant underground, and tried a whole range of Japanese food, especially as a couple of members of our group had lived in Japan before, and everyone, except me and one other guy, had been to Japan before. It was really yummy. I even tried salmon roe!

We are about to go to our first meeting. We have been up from five, as our bodies are still on New Zealand time, and we are sleeping with the window open, as our view is so spectacular, especially from the 33rd floor!

Anyway, I will write more later.

Laura

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