i made it

after a long haul - i made it to kyoto!

on saturday morning (us time), i woke up at 6am to catch a cab to the train station in philly to newark (new jersey).  i then took a 14 hour flight from newark to tokyo.  i landed on sunday afternoon in tokyo and then met up with my friend, kristen, for our flight from tokyo to osaka.  once we landed in osaka, we took a bus, not sure how long as i passed out on the bus, to out hotel and got in around 10pm sunday night.  long day, but excited for the week to come.  i skipped the wharton welcome party and decided to catch up on sleep - thank you jet lag.

random sidenotes from my flight:
1. i watched 5 movies on the plane: argo, crazy stupid love, the bodyguard, hope springs and the descendants
2. the guy next to me claimed to be 40, had quit his high paying job at a hedge fund 9 months ago as he wanted to enjoy life and had enough money to retire but thought he was too young to retire so he is trying to figure out what to do next.  he was also flying to tokyo for a friends birthday party.  i kept thinking why the heck are you sitting in the middle seat of the economy (coach) section if you are a millionaire?  shouldnt you at least pony up for economy plus?
3. apparently vegetarian meals on planes to japan = indian food.  we all know my thoughts on indian food.  i thought vegetarian meal would be safer than airplane meat.
4. your legs really really hurt after that many hours in a seat
5. definitely worth paying the $100 to upgrade to economyplus on the way back.
6. i flew japan airlines from tokyo to osaka. coach class was like flying business class. amazing and comfortable seats with great leg room.  also, no fees for checked bags = much more efficient boarding process.  also, the japanese line up so nicely when boarding the plane. simply amazing.