First blog post, yay! I'm Zoey Peterson, and this is my travel blog about my trip to Japan on the Light Fellowship. Prepare for feelings, struggles, and triumphs; they've already been happening and it's barely been 6 hours since I arrived.

So we're finally here! After a full two days of traveling, I've arrived here in Osaka, Japan.

I flew on Lufthansa airlines, and had an 8-hour layover in Germany. Let me first say that if you have the opportunity to fly on Lufthansa, take it. Those were the most incredible flights I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing: 7 hours from New York to Germany, and 11 hours from Germany to Japan. On each flight I was served two meals, could choose from a crazy wide selection of movies and television shows, and was given a blanket, pillow, and as many beverages as I wanted. Truly, I felt like a princess (heh).

Not to mention the opportunity to hang out at the airport in Frankfurt, even if only for a little bit. They were selling the most incredible things there-- caviar, foie gras, duck liver, all sorts of things.

I bought chocolate for myself and my host family, and some cookies in this beautiful pink tin (I couldn't help myself). There was so much chocolate too! They had several aisles in each store dedicated to it.

I was super tired on the flight from Germany to Japan, though, so I slept for more of that flight and read for the rest. The rest of the time, to be perfectly honest, I cried from happiness haha. I've wanted to go to Japan for almost half my life now, and never thought I'd have this opportunity. The last time I was this happy was probably when I got into Yale, to be perfectly honest.

Upon arriving at Kansai International Airport, I waited for a friend to arrive, after successfully communicating with the customs officers, to my excitement. That was when the struggles started--we're staying in a hotel for the night, and finding it was quite the adventure. We wandered around a lot of subway stations and blinked in horror at all the kanji we don't know. But somehow, we made it to the Osaka Dai-ichi Hotel, outside of Umeda Station. It took us like an hour and a half or so, and we were hot and tired but thrilled to pieces when we could finally check in. We also had an obnoxious amount of luggage, because well, gotta look cute. 

My friend (Melia) and I got lunch before we checked into the hotel, at this pretty random udon place underneath the hotels in the area. We had been exploring a ridiculously extensive underground labyrinth of restaurants and convenience stores, and looking for a place to eat, when we happened on this little place.

My first time eating udon! It was incredible, although that might have been helped by how hungry we were, haha. It was also stupidly cheap for such a large amount. I think I'm in love.

So we're finally here at the hotel and resting up until we go out again! Here's the view from the window:

I am happier than I've been in a long time, and can't wait to start this new journey! I've never been outside of North America before, so I can't wait to see what I'll learn from this amazing experience :)