The journey to Tokyo was nothing to what I had expected:
See now, I had a certain picture painted in my head how my move was going to be like:
I expected chaos.
I expected weird people.
I expected to feel like a mule after all would be over. But…life never happens the way you expect it to happen, right? ;) I should have known!

I mean, don’t get me wrong. It all started out great!

- I was greeted as “Tanjams” on my tickets
- On my first flight to Vienna I was in the lovely company of a whole soccer team, who had to give interviews & give out signatures at the airport. Well, hello there :)

- On my second flight I found myself to be accompanied by two young athletes training to be in the olympics in rhythmic gymnastics. What’s with all the sports fanatics flying around with me today,mmh?

But up to here, it had all went way too smoothly for me. Of cause. And so, silly me needed to inject some chaos! Like literally.
On the flight I suddenly thought I realized that I had lost 500 euro worth of medicine out of my hand luggage and freaked. The steward was super sweet but oooh well.. me thinking that I must have lost it somewhere at one of the airports made me go absolute crazy. They set out a search call from the cockpit for the airport staff to keep looking for my medicine. I was absolutely ready to tear out every single hair on my head and the couscous in front  of me witnessed my  emotions.

……

And then..hours later…a memory came up. Hadn’t my mother mentioned to me earlier that it would be much wiser to pack the medicine into my little suitcase?! 1-2-3 quick switches were done and the medicine had been stored in a different location..while I had stood beside her, me being the typical daughter (probably texting on my phone, not paying attention, saying “Mmmh..”). Looking back I have the urge to shake me!
Ugh…regrets! Please learn from my mistakes and always pay attention to your mother’s words and actions..♪

Arriving in Tokyo itself was less eventful. I collected all my luggage on a trolly, exchanged my cash and bought a bus ticket to downtown Tokyo. While waiting for the bus to arrive I hung around the airport lounge and got to take in some of the peoples fashion. One conclusion I quickly came by was : It’s okay to show as much leg as you want, as long as your upper body is covered. Well now..!

Just when I was about to make my way over to the bus stop outside & pretty much carried luggage that could have been a 4-person family’s  luggage.. I turned around and had a TV camera pointed at me & a  microphone in my face.
“Hello! こんにちは”, the interviewer said.
After being completely startled..I answered in Japanese with a “hello”.
Their immediate response was:
“Wow, you can speak Japanese!!!”
“where did you learn Japanese? Why did you come to Japan today?”
Etc.

The mere fact that I was standing there, giving an interview on Japanese TV after a 13 hour flight with no sleep and chaos..plus me, holding 2 suitcases in my hand, one  handbag and having a huge backpack on my back..just made that day the most random travel experience of all! :)

The bus ride however turned out to be a blissful pleasure. It really was. The sun was out, warming my tired face and while I was enjoying my first onigiri (triangular rice cake, filled with salmon or other ingredients your choice) I could see the skyline of Tokyo coming closer, approaching my new period of life with every kilometer. I can’t wait to see what the next 6 months hold for me!