The Jouney

So now I've arrived in Japan, and already survived my first day. The entire trip, from the airport in Frankfurt to my new apartment in Osaka was one of the smoothest I've ever had.

There was virtually no waiting time at the check-in because I had to use the bulky baggage counter due to the bike trunk I was checking in. So there was about an hour left to say goodbye to my mom and sister over a cup of coffee (err... actually two cups of chai and one hot chocolate) at Starbucks. I went through security about ten minutes before boarding time (they wondered about the hard drive and the bag of cables I was carrying...), and boarding was already on its way when I arrived at the gate.

I was positively surprised by the entertainment program on the plane, because they were showing both Salt and Inception, which I had wanted to see for some time but didn't catch at the cinema. Inception really is a great movie - and there are many details you really only get when you watch it for the second time (which I did over breakfast in the plane...)

After landing, there were only about five minutes waiting time at the immigration counter - there were three open counters for foreigners, and about five or six for Japanese people, but only a handful of foreigners on the plane :-) I was curious about how my bike trunk would be delivered at the baggage claim, but of course they didn't put it on the belt, but wheeled it in manually instead. The customs officer wondered about the huge trunk, of course, and wanted to know how long I would stay in Japan.

And then... that was it! On the way out, I made a short stop at an ATM in the terminal, and then proceeded to the bus which would take me from Kansai International airport to Osaka Itami airport, where I would be picked up later. The ticket machine was easy enough to use (with an english menu available...), and the loading of my suitcases into the bus was handled by some guys in uniforms. They even put tags on the suitcases and gave out pick-up numbers.

The bus traveled on an elevated expressway almost the entire time, so I got to see only the top half of the city on the way. In several places, there were three or four levels of road and train tracks stacked over each other - you rarely see that in Germany. At the bus stop in front of Osaka Itami airport, I was picked up by Indika, a member of the lab where I will spend the next six months. I was suprised how easily my two suitcases fit into his car because it looked quite small from the outside.

The drive to Toyonaka Campus International House was very short, and after I completed short the check-in procedure, I could already enter my apartment. I received no keys - the apartment door can be opened and locked using a four-digit code on a pin pad, and the mailbox has a single-dial combination lock. So I don't have to worry about losing keys or locking myself out :-)

The apartment is really nice and has recently been refurbished. It is furnished, so all the important stuff is there, including (most importantly) a LAN port. Apparently, Internet usage is free and no set-up of any kind is required. So, all in all, it took less than three hours from landing to Internet usage at my new apartment. Very smooth!