Flying Pains

Before I begin on my time in Japan, there is one important step in the process that I feel should not go overlooked, and that is incredibly important. The absolutely horrific amount of time spent flying to and from Japan, especially from Maine, the most northeastern state in the country and effectively almost dead-center on the other side of the world.

Normally, I love to fly. I love the way my stomach drops as the plane starts to get off the ground and climb into the skies, I love how the world begins to melt into a blur of tarmac and grass just outside the window as the plane achieves a speed even the fastest cars can’t match, I love watching the cities and buildings below become dots in the distance before being swallowed by clouds. Usually my only problem with flying is the other people on board, but I can usually sleep once the plane is in the air, and remain asleep until I reach my next destination.

I say this to make it clear that I am not averse to flying, and to make it clear that I am only somewhat exaggerating when I say that flying to Japan from Maine was an experience I can only describe as torture. If I am ever to go to Japan again, which I would admittedly love to do, and hopefully even live there one day and make it my permanent place of residence, I pray that I am rich enough to afford first class on my flights to Japan. The flights, through no fault of the staff and crew, were absolutely wretched. The worst part was the sleep-deprivation. I couldn’t sleep between flights, as I just barely had enough time between flights to navigate my way through the massive airports in New York and San Francisco, and my time spent on board my flights was no better.

There were a few difficulties with trying to sleep on my flights. The first was that I sat down for so long my legs and back actually began to hurt, and, being the shy little fool I was, I didn’t want to bother anyone so I could stand up and move around unless I needed to use the bathroom. My next problem was that for some ungodly reason, my earbuds would refuse to stay in my ears. I imagine for most people this is not a problem, however I have become so used to listening to soothing sounds for sleep (I have been particularly fond of clay and wax cracking recently), that I have effectively ended up leaving myself unable to sleep without them. On the off chance that I was able to sleep, I would usually wake up about an hour or two later with one of my earbuds missing from my ear. If I was lucky, it would have just fallen into my hoodie and I could place it back in, or it could be dead and I would just need to put it back into its case. In the worst cases however (which thankfully only happened twice) I would wake up, and it would tumble right out of my ear and onto the floor where I would have to wait however long it would take for my neighbor to wake up so I could ask them to move their 

legs so I could begin searching in the leg space for my earbuds. Speaking of leg space…

By far the worst part of the flights I took Japan was the amount of leg space I had…well that and being unable to shower, but no-one could control that, the people sitting next to me however, very much had control of how much leg space they were taking up, and with one exception, none of them cared at all about leaving me with enough room for me to sit with my legs in a comfortable position. I effectively spent fifteen of my seventeen hours flying sat like I was trying to sit in a broom closet, with my legs squeezed so tightly together I felt like an old victorian noble lady, and my entire body turned sideways so that I wouldn’t have to touch the other person’s legs…which were constantly encroaching on my territory. By the end of my flights to Japan I had begun to think about just digging my knees into neighbors thighs so I could finally have some room to breathe.

Thankfully, the one flight I had in Japan from Tokyo to Akita wasn’t bad, but the sleep deprivation, shower deprivation, lack of food and time to eat what I did have, and the fact Tokyo was going through a heatwave when I landed, left me feeling like a zombie by the time I was finally done being processed at Akita International University. The first thing I did after getting into my dorm room at AIU was close the blinds in my bedroom, haphazardly throw the pillows, blankets, mattress and comforter onto the tatami bed, and pass out until the next day. It was only about three in the afternoon in Japan.

To whoever is reading this, if you want to go to Japan, and you have a long flight or series of them ahead of you like I did, learn from my mistake, and splurge on the flights themselves. You will regret not doing so.