sleep deprivation's delight: travel day and first morning
I'm (was) very sleepy
The following excerpts were my attempt at taking a time-stamped log of my travels:
travel day: monkey goes international
3:05am: solid 3 hours of zzzs. zac cooked me up a tasty brekkie sandwich.
4:03am: bye floofy!
4:43am: said my goodbyes to zac. gonna miss that guy. hit the chad face after checking my bag. things are smooth.
4:47am: momma came to say bye. went over travel plans one more time. TSA was good. i think my chain is fake metal. or something.
5:36am: s/o to the lady at tuk tuk go for a pretty solid latte.
6:21am: s/o to the lady at tuk tuk go for the latte. now i have to... erm… know what i mean... yup. 30 minute flight to dallas. Lady sitting next to me is super nice. first class for this little leg. planes are so cool. i love oklahoma sunrises.
7:one9m: lnded in dlls. side note: my key for the first letter of the lphbet is not woorking on my lptop.
8:00m: we do little mss
8:45m: how do i fix my keybord. shll i just chnge how i type? no letter ? lets try. currently sitting beside the flight desk. munching on fig foodstuff given to me on the previous flight.
this is working. okay!!!! i reset my computer and pushed down really hard on it and its working again!!! yippie!!1 wasn't looking forward to not using "a" for the next 5 months
8:56am: hunger has set in. the fig bar was of little measure against the vast cave system that is my hungry tummy. feeling cool. also, earlier when i took the skylink to my terminal i heard a mom and daughter speaking japanese then we went the same path. they were looking at the arrivals/departures, but the flight to narita isn't up yet. so i asked ”成田に行きますか？” (are you going to Narita?) ”はい！”（yes!)” ああ. Gate D29. 私も” (ah, me too). they told me they went to disneyland. i told them i'm studying abroad. making friends :)
_________
I took some more notes here and there, but overll once we got a good ways into the flight I went downhill. Could not sleep, no skyrim -
Okay.
So I tried writing that last line before I slept and I quite literally could not keep my eyes open. It was sorta funny. BUT, 10.5 hours of sleep later, and I’m back to write.
SO, the flight itself was just long as hell. 13 hours. I was in the middle row in economy between a dude named Kevin and an old man. Kevin and I said like two words to each other during the flight. Actually talked AFTER we landed. Which is funny. What really got me was that throughout the whole flight, Kevin didn’t do anything. He would check his phone from time to time, but he didn’t watch anything, he didn’t read, he didn’t sleep, man just existed for 13 hours. I NEED to get like him.
Other happenings during the flight:
American airlines simulated a night cycle on the plane by dimming all the lights and windows after our first meal then filling the cabin with a tender orange light 9 hours later. two solid meals, two snacks, a few drink cart runs. if not for that supply of grub I may have died. but AA stewardesses kept the Jakey heart beating.
I tweeted at American Airlines after the second meal (breakfast) about how incredible their grapes were. They tweeted back.
I watched 3000 years of longing, cheaper by the dozen, a few episodes of impractical jokers, and started but didn’t finish a few other things.
Once we landed, I was in fight or flight (ironic) mode. Took me a hot second to get my new SIM card, eventually found my way to the ticket counter for my train ticket, then took a 41 minute ride from Narita to Ueno station.
Nothing was registering in my mind. Too sleepy. I made it to Ueno with the plan of getting on two different trains to get to my Airbnb but quickly realized I was in over my head. I called a taxi through Uber. Nice ride. Finally made it to the place I’m staying, at which I failed to open the door. Fun Fact: Japan has much more sliding doors than the US. A fellas smoking a cig let me in and I got my stuff down. Moseyed on over to a small restaurant where I had some super buttery ramen and a little brewski. Started dissociating then one of the other customers rang a bell to tell the people I should get my check. Lel. Walked to 7-11 to get water, came back, showered, then tried to write this.
Then, I slept.
This morning, I woke up and decided to get my run of the day in. I’m a morning workout person, high school XC conditioned me that way. I’ve quickly realized that given I have no frame of reference for pretty much any of the city layouts in Tokyo, I cannot tell how far away anything is. I looked on my map and decided I wanted to run to the shore. Nope. 40 minutes later I was at a wharf. Silly Jacob.
Found a small chain restaurant, Sukiya, and had a cheap, but filling breakfast. The water tasted like it had gone through a coffee machine with no grounds in it.
After the fact is when I encountered a problem with the ole Bank of America.
Before I left, I visited the bank to pick up some Yen and I told the dude I was going to Japan and asked if I needed to do anything in preparation for that. He said I would probably just get a text confirming a suspicious-looking purchase made in Japan.
That was probably true. But I have a Japanese phone number now.
After I ate, I tried loading a transit card with some money using Apple Pay, connected to my debit card. Wouldn’t go through. Opened my app and it said “call us.” Had to find an different number to call since I’m overseas. While on hold, I walked around a sports complex passed by some kids who looked a little younger than me at the baseball fields. Further around and I got to the skateparks. A dude was skating and gave a bright smile to me. I smiled back. I told him to do a kickflip. He couldn’t. The universal line.
When I finally got through to the BofA rep, she said she would push a text to me to confirm my identity. But again, I don’t have that number. I tried getting my roommate in the US (s/o Max) to see if he could see the text on my computer at home. But my number is connected to my iCloud, and it already updated.
In light of all that, I’ll figure out how to get my card cleared again. I have cash and a travel credit card (I didn’t have those on hand during my run) that I can use.
So then, however many miles (I should probably start thinking in kilometers) from my Airbnb, I just ran back. Prettier path than my run there before.
Now, I’m back in my little bed writing this. Things on the agenda.
Get a power adapter (phone almost dead)
Eat
Coffee
That about wraps it up for this one. I honestly may start updating this more than weekly if I encounter such wacky things. Clipper Mist, out.