Japan

My trip began on October 14th where I was scheduled to fly out of Bozeman to Seattle and into Tokyo. I was a nervous wreck for my first international flight. Did I have enough snacks? Did I have enough entertainment? Did I forget anything? Those were just a few of the thousands of thoughts that ran through my head as I checked into the airport. For a queen to be gone 10 days would require a lot of luggage! I had 2 very large, heavy bags, my hat can, purse and a medium sized bag. Looking back on that I wish I had packed a bit differently because we would be changing airports and hotels many, many times; packing all those bags around got old, fast. Anyway, as I checked in the counter at the Bozeman airport they immediately told me there were no planes landing or going out of Seattle. I thought it was going to be the beginning of a very long trip to Japan. It turned out the cause was fog which burned off within 20 minutes and our plane left without arriving too late. I made my connection and I was on my way to Tokyo!

The flight to Tokyo was about 9 hours and wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined it would be. I entertained myself by reading, playing games and watching movies. Before I knew it we were in Tokyo. I met up with Marty Earnheart from the MT Dept. of Ag. She had just returned from another beef promotion trip in Russia. Marty and I spent the night in Tokyo and transferred airports to fly into Kumamoto City in the morning. There is a 15 hour difference from Montana to Japan. So Monday morning in Japan was Sunday night in Montana. The jet lag hit me as soon as I arrived in Japan. I wasn’t able to sleep so the mornings came pretty early. After breakfast Marty and I were on a plane to Kumamoto City where we met up with Mako. Mako is a Japanese lady that works for the Montana Dept of Commerce. She is the coolest lady!

I didn’t have to be in Japan long before I noticed the cultural difference. You must bow as a courtesy when you greet someone. The Japanese are very gracious people so there is generally quite a bit of bowing! I kept noticing things about the Japanese that seemed so strange to me but was very normal to them. Things like, the colors they wear are usually limited to greys and blacks, everything is smaller, people drive on the "wrong" side of the road, clocks on the walls and trash cans on the sidewalk are few and far between. I had to learn quickly to look right first before crossing the street or you will get flattened! The language barrier was more difficult to deal with than I imagined it would be. Not only because I can’t understand the spoken word but I can’t even sound out the written word. The Japanese characters used to spell are impossible to understand. As I walked down the sidewalk I would not know a bank from a restaurant. These are all things I learned to adapt to quickly. I soon realized I just had to be patient and my translator would tell me if she thought it was important otherwise, I asked questions when I saw something really outrageous!

Marty and I spent Tuesday with Mako and trying to get past our jet lag. I have never seen the ocean before and this was something the Japanese thought was pretty strange about me mainly because regardless of where you are in Japan it was 45 minutes at the most to the ocean. Mako was very excited to take us to the ocean where went for a hike in a national park that overlooked a city called Amaksa with a beautiful shoreline view. The ocean was everything I expected it to be!

By this time in my trip, Tuesday evening, I started getting pretty hungry; because the food was so different I hadn’t eaten a lot. The first thing they asked me when I got to Japan was “Are you a picky eater?” I refused to think I was but after my trip to Japan I can easily embrace the term! I don’t like a lot of fish and I don’t like a lot of pork; beef is not a common dish! The combination of the jet lag, which makes you feel like you have the flu, the lack of food, and just the adjustment of a new country resulted in me getting kind of sick, and it wouldn't be the last time during my trip that I didn't feel well. I was able to eat some of the snacks I brought with me and went to bed. In the morning I felt much better although I was still pretty tired. I had first wondered why Marty and I arrived a day earlier than the rest of the Montana delegation and I was informed that it is really nice to have that extra day to adjust to everything. Since I had such an intense schedule, I am really glad that it was scheduled that way! I will continue my trip, be sure to check back later!