three days later...

Well I/we finally made it to China. I really do wish that I could put down every thought, detail and memory into writing but I simply can only try my best. We (me, my cousin Kevin who is working for my father, my sister Laura, and my brother in-law Andy) left Chicago O'Hare at 10:50AM Wednesday morning on a flight headed to Tokyo Japan, more specifically Narita (just outside Tokyo). We ran into some traffic going through Chicago, which made for a little bit of a stressful time making our flight. 14 hours later we arrived in Narita at 1:45PM local time Thursday. We had a 20hr layover there before our flight to Xiamen so we had booked a room at a Hostel in town. After dropping our stuff off at the Hostel we headed into town in to grab a bit to eat at the grocery store and see a few sights, namely a massive temple with a stop at the thrift store by our hostel (yes thrift shopping even in Japan). Narita was surprisingly clean, modern and very quiet, something that would change in the early hours enroute to our flight the next day. It was very surreal, it almost seemed fake, a very indescribable feeling. While at the grocery store we found it hilarious that the shelves in the isle came up to my cousin's shoulders (he is 6'6''), as well as all the people in Japan. The grocery store was actually very similar to any other grocery store you would find in the states, apart from the weird cuisine and short shelves. The temple was amazing, very much what you would envision an Asian temple to be like. It was closed so none of the buildings were open but it was still great to walk around and see the outsides of them. The main street around the temple was definitely a tourist spot because everything was expensive, and there were a handful of white people. On our way back to the hostel my Kevin spotted a young white girl who looked lost and it turned out she was headed to the same hostel. She is from England and was on a several week trip including Japan, New Zeeland, Australia, Singapore, and San Francisco. We stopped at the store and got some more snacks for dinner and ate back at the Hostel, while it was a good time to mingle I was extremely tired from the trip and went to bed around 8PM, and proceeded to wake up at midnight thinking that it was time to go, jet lag can be so inconvenient. I must take a little time and express how much I love ANA (all nippon airlines), they are the best airline, so hospitable, we got 2 generous portion meals on the flight and snacks and drinks. The stewardesses would come around almost every 10min asking if we wanted more drinks, and the food was amazing! I am so spoiled now, all American carrier's seem so crappy now.
Our flight to Xiamen was at 10AM the next morning and we arrive at the Airport around 8AM.
On our way through the airport walking by the shops we spotted women women holding what appeared to be cologne samples. When we got closer we realized that they were drinks in little cups, and not knowing what they were and wanting to be adventurous I drank it and it was definitely whiskey, nothing like a shot of whiskey at 8AM, only in Japan! That is all for tonight, I do not have the stamina to write about the arrival in Xiamen just now, until next time...

I have started a posting of my pictures on picasa, link to follow when I can get all of them uploaded, internet is kinda slow here, more to come...