The Trials and Woes of Garbage

Had my first class today. Although he just went over the syllabus so not much to say about that. We met some other Americans from California, and the two girls from Egypt I met the first day were there as well.

After class I found out I can use my debit card here to withdraw money. Yay money. For this day and age, it's surprisingly hard to transfer money internationally. Greedy banks and their exorbitant fees. We (I usually mean Tori and I when I say 'we' by the way), decided to go back to Tsukuba Center, the giant mall, by bike. I bought more necessary stuff: notebooks, hair dryer, dinner, and a furoshiki for Rachel :) The mall is full of wonderful clothing shops and I want to invade them D: Sadly though, Tori hates clothes shopping. Rachel I need you here now!

We got lost on our bikes for a bit on the way back. Whoops. All the people here must have really strong legs from biking everywhere. The mall is about a 30min bike ride from my dorm. We're planning to go back tomorrow by bus so we can buy big storage things. So I don't have to live out of a suitcase forever :/

I attempted to tackle the Japanese garbage system today. It's very complicated. You have to sort your trash into different categories (burnable, non-burnable, bottles, paper, etc.) and some categories have special bags you have to get. Apparently the Japanese are very strict about it too. The hardest part is deciphering the vague listings of what stuff goes under what category. It's rather stressful, as messing it up is social taboo. There are two New York Times articles that explain more here and here. They're pretty interesting.

It was really humid today. I do now dub Japan the Land of Humidity and Giant Bugs. My two least favorite things :'(

Somebody comment please D: Only 1 comment so far. Just click on comments and click name/url on the drop down list if you don't have gmail. It's easy. And it makes me happy :)

This post is filled with emoticons today.

Also, for those curious, this site was made by another student who studied abroad here, and has lots of pictures and concise explanations for what I'm suffering through, if you can't deal with my habit to ramble.

More pictures today :D First is of Tori and the hundreds of bikes. Then one of me and one of the girls from Egypt. One of me and a giant koi and then of the campus pond and library. Lastly, long awaited pictures of my room. They're rather scary. You can click on the pictures to make them larger.