Wednesday, July 29, 2009

"No remedy for latecomers"

Japanese word of the day: mushimushi

Yes, you must say it twice. mushi = bug, mushimushi = humid. Which is what it was today! So I woke up at this morning, sun in my room, loud bugs, and was like "oh goodmorning sunshine" and looked at the time...... 4:30 am. >.< Sun rises early here. I'll shut my curtains tonight. I tried closing my eyes but never got back to sleep. Eventually I went downstairs to ask about exchanging money and found out they could do it at the front desk up to 300$. So I took that. Then I went for walk.

I walked one way down a hill and found a konbini (convenient store)about 5 minutes away. I thought "cool, found a konbini" but returning back I realized that the hill I walked down... I now gotta walk up. It's pretty steep. So I kept walking the other direction pass the hotel to the main road and turned to one direction and eventually found another konbini a little more than 5 minutes. Not knowing there was one 2 minutes away the opposite direction, I claimed it as my konbini because I didn't have to walk up that stupid hill.

I came back to the hotel and did stuff online then ate breakfast with Vanessa. I had eggs, toast, and rice (complain if you want but yes I had plain rice for breakfast). The eggs looked questionable but they were actually good. After freshening up we decided to head to the school early just in case we have problems. Too early. And we had no issues. The school is 2 trains, one stop each away (Take one station, switch lines, one stop). We look at the map when we get out of the station which says the school is the white building. Well, which one? The one with the school name of course! Ok, they shoulda said which direction to look too. We saw it eventually.

The school is awesome. It's like a mini city. So we walk to the building we meet, bored because we have an hour. There's a whole group of people sitting outside but we stay inside. They eventually slowly start coming inside and talking to us. It's a large group from Mississippi (wow, that's a long word. I forgot how to spell it up til now) majoring in Public Policy. We eventually go to our rooms to get our welcome packet with ID cards, computer access info, and just extra info on events then go to orientation. If we had known they were gonna start late, we woulda bought our books first. The orientation was just an hour (and the say while going over activities that there is "no remedy for latecomers" so if you are a latecomer don't be sick because they have no medicine HAHA) and then EVERYONE went to the book line. It moved decently fast.

In the line we met this Canadian guy who seemed kinda strange. He was going to Akihabara to get his prepaid cell phone. I thought I'd use him for a bit and figure out where he's going and if I can manage to get back. I decided against because of his strangeness and I didn't want to travel so far. So after buying books, Vanessa and I head to the station. She's planning on meeting her brother and I'm going to head to the hotel. We meet a Japanese student who is enrolled in Canada (I think he might know Mr. Strange guy maybe?) and doing Sophia... so like an exchange student exchanging in his own country LOL! We talked about Mr. Strange going to Akihabara for the cell phone and asked Mr. Jap guy if he knew where Softbank store because I wanted to get my phone. He assisted Vanessa on how to meet with her brother using the JR maybe... then together we went walking to Softbank.

He's a nice guy. We found out at Softbank that I need this card which I'm guessing is my Alien Registration card. I'm getting that in Osaka >.< So we walking to au phone store and was told the same thing. He said he can use his information to register the phone and then I can use it. That was nice of him. We're going to use Softbank though. Unfortunately he had to return home so we couldn't do it today. So hopefully tomorrow...

After that, we departed at the computer lab at school and I sat there thinking "I wonder if I sit here long enough if one of my friends will want to hang out and pick me up so I don't have to go back to the hotel alone". Yeah right. So I eventually gave in and left. I had no trouble with the trains! I did have trouble with finding my exit. There's basically 4- North, East, South, and West- and by process of elimination I knew it was North or South. For some reason I exit north... I should go south. I walked awhile before realizing this then went back down to the station and looked at the map. I took a south exit and walked, having a bit of trouble. I didn't recognize anything UNTIL I saw the post office. I recognized that. I stood there deciding what to do- cross or turn. The I recognize the bank where Shota pulled off so Jun and I can see if the bank was still open after 5 (NOT). So I turned and past one konbini, then another, then recognized the store across from the corner with "naka" on the sign. BINGO.

I was hungry so I hit up a konbini for french fries and continued to the hotel. My feet hurt. I think that was the most walking I've done since Disney World.

Class tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday. I have my Tokyo Tour Saturday also. They said these trips if required will have some sort of assignment. This is required for Japanese... I'm guessing the assignment is dump us on the other side of Tokyo Bay and see if we can get back on our own. Yes, they are doing that. The tour ends at Odaiba where me and my friends went to Joypolis. So luckily I know that area. But I was suppose to hang out with them again after class. I think we are all just gonna meet there so we can see the fireworks.

There is a Noh play tonight. I decided against it. I'm sleepy.

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