Pre-Departure
When they’re actually on time (or within an hour of on time) and aren’t freezing cold in the middle of the winter due to electric malfunctions, I really do enjoy riding on Amtrak trains. It’s relaxing. It was also surprisingly easy to transport my large bag and my big-ass unicycle on the train. I sat up at the front of the car and had plenty of room for all of my stuff, despite me having more than the official baggage limitations.

I went up to Chicago a few days before my actual departure, as I wanted to hang out with Tim and enjoy Chicago for a bit before I left the country. Once I arrived in Chicago Tim was still in class and couldn’t pick me up, so I manuvered my luggage through Union Station, down the street to the El station, up the stairs (no elevator), through the gates, on to the train, off of the train, through the gates, and back down the stairs. It wasn’t too terribly fun.

The situation was made worse, as it seems that my bag was cheaply made, and as such the roller wheels were completely shredded away by the time I got off of the El. My bag was far too bulky and heavy to carry, so I now was literally dragging my heavy suitcase with one hand and my unicycle in the other, through the Chicago streets.

Once I got to our pre-determined rendezvous point, I sat down to take a rest, took out the laptop, and decided to eat the WiFi connection fee from the nearby Border’s so I could have some internetainment. Apparently Tim was online while in his class, so after some chatting we decided that I could head over to the school and park myself in the computer lab next to his class. It was a welcome idea, as I definitely wished to get out of the heat.

The bad part was, I now had to drag my heavy-ass bag for around a mile or so to campus. Grr. What should have been a nice, pleasant walk was turned into an exercise in frustration and exhaustion.

Anyway, I arrived and all was good. I hung out with Tim for a bit, and the night before I had to show up to the hotel to check-in with the rest of the JETs, he took me to eat out at some restaurant with a name I don’t remember. What I do remember, though, is that that dinner was the last true all-American food I ate. Damn, I want to go back there and eat another meal. I found a restaurant in Akihabara that came close, but nothing in Japan has matched that big greasy Chicago meal.

The next day I showed up on time for the check-in for the hotel, but the lobby was crowded with a large swarm of peopple trying to check in. Chicago is the biggest American Japanese consulate, with 218 JETs departing in that group, and many of them stayed in the hotel.

I hate waiting in line, so I just sat my luggage down in a corner and sat in a chair, talking to whoever I happened to come across. I also met up with a guy from my old World of Warcraft guild that I hadn’t met, but we really had nothing to talk about, so the conversation lasted only a few minutes, if that.

After sufficient waiting, they told everyone to go into a conference room for a big… conference. This ended up being the first conference of very many. In it they had a former JEt talk about his experiences, gave out some info, and blah blah blah. I don’t remember a lot of went on.

One cool thing about all of this was that it was like freshman year of college all over again. No one knew anyone else, so everyone talked to everyone, and throughout departure and Tokyo orientation I met lots of people and rarely went out to go do things with the same person twice. This all started on the last night in America. I was sitting outside on the bench in front of the hotel, waiting for the shuttle bus that took you to the airport, and thus, the nearest El stop. I was planning on just hopping aboard a random train, getting off at some random stop, and seeing what happened.

There ended up being a few people just sitting outside for the shuttle bus, and we ended up all merging together into one group. One of the groups already had a plan– that is to meet up with someone else in the city and go out for dinner. Hey, it sounded good to me, so we all went out and ate our last real dinner in the country. For the record, the restaurant Tim took me to was better, but this one was the last.

Afterwards it was back to the hotel, which for some reason was a double but only had me. Excellent use of funds there.

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