Chapter 1: The Arrival

Hello! How should I start?? hum.. Once upon a time...
September 27, 1999

whatever! After 16+ excruciating hours in a flying can of metal with some kind of wings (all right, dad, an airbus 340), I finally landed at Kansai airport, Osaka at 4:02pm local time (which was in fact 5am for ME, argh argh). And no sleep on top of that. Fortunately, our body produces adrenalin when we are excited, so I did not fall dead as soon as I got out of the plane. First impression of Japan: very VERY hot and humid!! It's the end of September, and it's 30C outside!!! As I write this (October 12) it is still 25C+ outside, and sunny on top of that! My summer got extended by a couple of months, tada!!

Anyways, we got out of the plane ("we" being Rosanna, Lan, myself, Craig and Kevin, the five Canadians at Oussep), we were greeted by Mukai-san, the coordinator of the oussep program. We met some of the Oussep students that got there on the same day, and we waited half an hour for the Russian student who was coming with us. Some Japanese students were there as well to greet us and help us getting around (yeah, 130+ pounds of luggage is difficult to carry, especially when the wheels underneath are not working!!). We then took the bus shuttle to Itami airport, Osaka, because it was closer to our dorm. The damn bus cost 1700 yen!! pouf! for 1 hour!

The ride through Osaka was pretty impressive! I will always remember the feeling... Sunset in background, tons of ads written in kanji and katakana, lights, cars, people, bats... yeah, they got dozens of bats flying around... talk about culture shock... ;)

At Itami airport, we then took takushii (taxi in Japanese) to our respective dorm (yeah, oussep guys and girls are separated, although in MY dorm there are guys... don't ask). Fortunately, the drivers were kind enough to give us a FREE ride (thanks, guys!). After getting the key to my room, I opened the door, kicked my luggage (well, "kicked" may not be the right word... maybe "throwing" is better) and virtually fell dead in my bed, no questions asked. End of chapter!!

Chapter 2