Uuno in Kyoto

It’s 7:00am here. I’m sitting in my incredible apartment now, having a lovely iced coffee and trying to recollect all the events of the past two days. 

The 13-and-a-half hour plane flight wasn’t nearly as grueling as I had anticipated. My biggest concern was not adjusting to the change of pressure and suffering a 13 hour earache, but that fear was quickly put to rest (though the jump from Narita to Itami is a different story, but I’ll get to that). The food on the plane was fantastic, and every seat had a television screen on the back, with a remote that allowed you to choose from a selection of films (both from Hollywood, Japan and elsewhere), television, games, and my favorite: the view from a camera on the belly of the plane. I had it on this for nearly the whole flight (flying over Alaska was incredible!). The other main use I got from the television was a screen of flight information. It rotated through a map, showing where the plane was, information regarding altitude, temperature, speed, and time to destination. The Airline attendants were really nice, and most importantly, the coffee was outstanding. Well, that’s enough gushing over ANA. 

As I alluded to earlier, the flight from Narita to Itami was less pleasant. The plane itself was much nicer. The seats were fantastic, with enough foot-room to stretch out completely. The problem was, my skull was being crushed by the pressure which was so painful, I was concerned my ears would burst. I was half-deaf for the rest of the night, and was a bit shocked that, when my ears finally did pop, blood didn’t start pouring out.

Next, we took a shuttle from Itami to our Hotel in Kyoto, Hotel Chrysantheme. It contained two other people on their way to Ritsumeikan, which was awesome. One of them, a really nice guy named Chris too, actually stayed at our hotel as well. It was his 6th(!) time in Japan, and so he helped us communicate with the hotel attendant. 

The next day I moved into my apartment. It is really fantastic. I have Mt. Daimon-ji right out my window, a grocery store to one side of the apartment and a coffee shop to the other. I will post pictures soon.