A Plethora of Japanese Natural Disasters

Well today was a little more exciting. I managed to stay up till 1am last night, which is more akin to my normal sleeping habits. Just before I went to sleep I experienced my first earthquake. All of a sudden my bed just started moving back and forth on its own. It took me a second to realize what was happening and it was a little scary even though I know small ones are nothing to be afraid of. It only lasted about a minute.

There's also apparently a typhoon coming. It's been raining cats and dogs today. On the day I had to walk all over campus of course. My pants were perpetually soaked. Japan's rain seems to have homing capabilities or something, I feel as though I was getting considerably more wet than I do in America. I had to go and sign up for my Japanese placement test this morning. I picked Friday of course, more time to "study." Tori and I went to eat after that, and we actually met some other international students there, which was nice. There were a bunch from Uzbekistan, and one from Kazakhstan. It's sad that I know absolutely nothing about the culture of those countries, and of countless others as well. I can't even remember the names of all those countries. Oh, I met a girl from China on the bus from the airport on the first day, as well as two girls from Egypt. It's pretty cool to meet people from so many different places.

After lunch Tori and I met our tutors at another orientation for our specific college (International Studies). It was all in Japanese for some reason. Stuff about paperwork and course registration. Then we went to the bank to open accounts, where once again I wondered how I'd get anything done without my tutor talking to everyone for me. I had to rewrite the forms 3 times though, cause first I didn't write my middle name and then I didn't write my last name first. Next we went to the cell phone shop to get phones. I barely understood what my tutor and the nice cell phone lady were saying and my poor tutor had to explain everything to me in much more simple terms with lots of charts and numbers before I understood what was going on. Then the cell phone lady realized that my middle name was written on one of the official documents necessary for a foreigner to get a cell, but not on the other. See Mom, my middle name is evil. So I have to wait for my student ID card to be sent to me before I can get a phone. The phone was free though, and with the plan I picked it's only $25 per month, assuming I don't use more than 55min or 245 texts.

We went to the supermarket after that, cause I was getting sick of cafeteria food and dessert bread. Normal, plain bread seems to be a surprisingly rare commodity here. They seem to like to put everything under the sun in the bread in Japan and the stores mostly have this dessert bread. They have melon bread, chocolate bread, margarine flavored bread, bean paste bread, and lots of other weird looking ones I can't understand. I'm personally obsessed with bread, but I like it plain and simple, it tastes best that way. So I was quite elated to buy normal sandwich bread (hallelujah) and a french baguette at the market. I got the bread, gum, Apollo chocolates (those chocolates you love Jill), laundry detergent, a small ready-made dinner, a piece of yakitori (meat on a stick), and a box of crackers (Maria cookies actually, they have them here too, except they're called "Marie" instead?) all for $15. Food doesn't seem to be too expensive here. Although apples are $6 EACH here D: I nearly cried. So much for my daily apple fix.

After we got back, Tori and I headed to the showers. Oh, the showers opened at last, but to be honest they're kinda gross and creepy anyway, so I like the bathhouse better (guess I got over that quick). Anyway, as we're walking I felt a leaf on my foot, so I tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't come off and felt like it was moving, so I looked down... there's a giant cicada grabbing onto my toes. They're about 2.5in long. I proceeded to scream and shook it off. I nearly puked after that, and scrubbed my foot raw in the shower. At least they don't bite. I hate bugs, I really do. And yet I just had to come study abroad in the Land of Giant Bugs.

Wow, this post is really long today, sorry. I finally took pictures today! Well, two... but it's a start. The first is just of the soaking wet campus and one of the many crazy people who were riding around on bikes on the wet ground while trying to hold umbrellas with one hand, and the second is of some pond so covered with lily pads, it doesn't even look like a pond. I neglected to take a picture of the nasty cicada.

Classes start tomorrow bleh...

Blah Day #2

It rained today. That's about as interesting as my day gets. Tomorrow I actually have stuff to do and school starts Tuesday so at least I won't feel like a mindless vegetable anymore.

I woke up around 8 today, which is finally semi-normal. Then I sat in bed till 12:30 cause there's nothing to do. My life this weekend has consisted of two buildings. My room, and the other building where I go when I want food, a shower, or a normal toilet. I went through the giant mountain of paperwork today, and attempted to make sense of it all. I picked out the classes I want to attend too. Since I've resigned myself to the fact that they will be of absolutely no use to me as far as my degree requirements at OSU goes, it's rather nice to be able to pick whatever class interests me and nothing more. My choices consist of International Relations of Medieval Europe, Outline of Japanese Education, and two other classes that are sort of a broad overview of different aspects of Japanese society and the like. And of course the language classes, which will be decided after the placement test. Most of them are 5 days a week at 8:30 in the morning... >_> Apparently it doesn't matter where I go (or I'm cursed or something), it seems I will always be destined to have class everyday at ridiculous hours of the morning.

I don't like mornings...

Tori and I watched funny internet videos for about 2 hours after the paperwork nonsense (Tori is my friend from OSU that came here too by the way. I guess I never really explained that). Then we watched more DVDs after getting dinner. You know, I really like Japanese food, but honestly the thought of eating it everyday for the next year is a rather depressing one. I used to consider myself someone who could eat the same thing everyday and never get bored of it. That's a lie. I ate pasta and chicken almost everyday last year in my apartment out of cooking laziness and lack of skill and it always tasted good, and as my friends from work know I can eat turkey and cheese sandwiches endlessly. The truth is, I can eat the same thing everyday and be fine with it so long as I have a steady supply of normal bread, apples, and cereal to go with it. I miss American breakfast. The cafeteria here isn't even open for breakfast, only for a few hours for lunch and dinner. And my choices are rice, noodles, soup, and some meat. I'm already sick of it.

Tori and I were planning to actually leave our rooms and go shopping, but then it rained :( The shopping mall is about 20-30min by bike. We can take the bus, but they're evil cause we keep getting lost. There's this shop called Jusco at the mall which is like a smaller version of Walmart without the evilness. You can buy everything from home appliances and bikes to food there. It's where I bought my bike and I need to go back and buy a lot more stuff. I need to buy a denshiijisho (electronic dictionary) too. They're very useful.

I almost stepped on a cockroach in the community center today when I was leaving the bathhouse. That was rather nasty. There's too many bugs here. I can't wait till winter when they all DIE.

AC is not overrated

Today was pretty boring. The nice denkiya-san (the electrician; for those who don't know Japanese that's not his name, denki=electricity, ya=store, and -san is the honorific. So it basically means the person who works at the electronic store. Lesson of the day ^_^) who speaks English came to install my air conditioning today. Finally salvation. I don't have to sweat everywhere I go anymore.

I realized that I have no idea what to do for fun here yet. And there's no one but Tori around me that I know. I don't think ambushing some random person walking and asking them to be your friend is any less creepy here in Japan. It doesn't help that the Japanese students avoid me. The girl who lives across the hall from me was going into her room at the same time as me today and she just did a polite bow and scrambled into her room without saying anything. I can't wait to start classes so I can meet people. Of course I got put in the dorm in the boonies, so I'll have to bike 10min to see anyone. Today I just talked to people in America for a few hours after denkiya-san left, then Tori and me watched DVDs on the computer. Mostly cause we didn't want to leave our nice cold rooms and jetlag is still tormenting me. I ate just rice and miso soup for dinner, then went to the bathhouse again. I guess I'm used to it now.

$2/shower x 300 days = $600 to shower o_O

The course registration system here makes no sense. And requires even more paperwork. Basically I got a book of all the different classes they offer in English or basic Japanese. On Tuesday I pick whatever classes I want to go to and just go to them. Then, if I like the course, I have to get the teacher to sign it and submit this paper somewhere. I believe I also have to acquire permission from each specific college to enter a class. The Japanese language courses however, start about 2 weeks after the regular classes because we have to take a placement test. Then they'll place us into a language class which may or may not interfere with the classes we have chosen... I guess we're supposed to drop and add classes at that point, but we'll have missed 2 weeks of the classes we add. I don't understand it and I was never meant to.

Tomorrow I must do paperwork. And figure out what classes to take. Still no pictures, sorry. I'm still too lazy to use the camera apparently.

Beginning

It's the third day here already, and I just finally got internet access in my room. I've been going through culture shock up till now, so I haven't really even felt up to taking pictures yet. For those of you who haven't experienced culture shock, it sucks. A lot. I've waited my whole life to come to Japan, and I wanted nothing more than to turn around and go home as soon as I got here. That's normal though I guess. Things will hopefully get better.

Living conditions here aren't the best. My dorm is basically a prison cell with a window, and about as gross as one. It comes with a bed, desk, and sink. No closet or dresser or anything like that. The furnishings are all rusty and don't look like they've been touched since 1970. I attempted to wipe the floor up and then bought a rug cause it was still gross. Still just living out of my suitcase. They also decided to separate all the international students for some reason, so we live with the Japanese students. Would've been nice to make friends with people going through the same ordeal as me.

It's extremely humid outside, but I can't open my window or the spiders get in. And many of you know how I hate spiders. The spiders here are huge and disgusting. Since my room is like an oven, I rented an AC for the year, it's getting installed tomorrow. Also, the cicadas and ravens have a 24hr symphony going on outside. They're incredibly loud and annoying. If you're right under a tree with them you have to shout to talk to someone.

I definitely wasn't ready for the bathing and toilet situation here. First of all, most of the toilets are the holes in the ground, which are awkward and don't flush very well >_< Thankfully there's one western toilet in the community building. But the bathrooms don't have soap or towels. So you have to come back to your room to wash your hands. Also, the shower rooms are closed till Monday, so the only place to bath is in the bathhouse. It costs about $2 each time you use it. For those that don't know, everyone walks around naked in Japanese bathhouses and there's one room where you can bath and shower. I was a little shocked the first time and just left without using it. I just used the sink in my room. I got over it today in desperation for a real shower. It wasn't so bad I guess. You just can't think about modesty.

We had orientation today. It was helpful and at the same time not. We have mountains of paperwork to fill out and if it weren't for our tutors (the Japanese students who help us) I don't know how I'd manage. We have to go to all these government offices and fill out forms and I don't know what anyone's talking about. I just fill out what my tutor tells me to. She speaks a little English, but I'm doing alright communicating in Japanese. The bureaucracy here makes no sense. I'll explain more later on how stupid it is. I'm getting pretty tired now.

I also bought a bike today. It was about $170. This campus is so huge though, it's a necessity. And we need it to get around town, cause using the bus everyday gets expensive, and I haven't figured the bus system out yet. The last three times Tori and I got on we went too far and ended up walking. The buses hit the end of line at random times too, it makes no sense.

That's it for now. I'm getting tired and since the sun rises at 5am here and wakes me up I should get to bed soon. More tomorrow.