First of all i’d like to apologise for the lack of posting this week.  Spent this entire week getting on my feet and used to wtf is going on around me.  But all is well, i nearly have my laptop up and running (Borrowing my mates adapter) and things, as far as this blog goes, should be back to normal.

Found this whilst scavenging – ¥500

Ok so the first thing that all the new students had a hard-ish time coming to terms with was food.  why? because we couldnt cook! As in literally was not allowed to cook.  This was because we hadn’t technically “checked in” or something in the first week, plus there were temporary room mates (homestay students) and apparently that complicated things – UGH i dunno.  so we had to SCAVENGE!!! … ok not quite, but we started checkin out the local restaurants etc. to find some good eats.  It was kinda hard at first, i found myself going to sleep hungry because the shops were closed or one thing or another.  But now i’m starting to get the hang of trading hours, whats good, whats not, and things are coming a long smoothly atm.  In fact, i have a couple croissants out in the common area calling my name… i can hear them.. they need to be eaten.  Will do that soon.

It’s finally cooling down!  The majority of the first week was disgustingly hot and humid.  This week however felt like the winter I just had in Brisbane: blue skies and warm weather lol  It actually did remind me of Brisbane too.

Ange, Mitch, Charlie and Jesse

The people here are fantastic.  My living arrangements are: 1 big building full of apartments, each apartment has a lounge, kitchen, bathroom and dining area AND 4 dorm rooms in it.  Each dorm room accommodates 2 people.  And all my room mates rock, and we’ve met so many other people who now just hang out in our apartment etc. etc.  We are on the 5th floor and our apartment has somewhat turned itself into the party apartment.  It’s really cool, and everyone is really nice.  I’m gonna make a page dedicated to my mates so that if u ever hear (read) me talkin about them, ull know who they are.  But for the most part everyone is pretty chilled and wants to just enjoy themselves, whether its drinking in the park, going to karaoke or just chilling in the apartment watching insane-o Japanese television.

:’( Chris, Annie and Jamie! They left us for homestay!

Some of our good mates, who lived in the Seminar Houses for the first week were moved into their homestay this week too.  kinda sucked because we dont see them at much, and if we do they have to leave at like 6pm so they make it home at a decent hour.  I know they are getting a experience us dorm-stayers arent, not to mention the BEST form of practice in the Japanese language, and it’s probably just selfish of me to say i wish they stayed with us in the dorms – coz they rock.

My expectations of Japan were… lets say… a complete miss.  NOT what I had expected to be honest.  Hmm… now… is Japan BETTER or WORSE than my expectation? Neither, its just different.  It literally feels like i’ve stepped BACK in time, despite my expectation of Japan being this insane-o technologically advanced place with people teleporting all over the shop. (slight exaggeration) Also its not as clean as i thought – however it is by no means dirty! But the buildings all look old and scungy and the place looks a bit run down at first, but then on closer inspection i would challenge you to find an empty can of coke or a beer on the ground.  A plastic bag even! Or an empty packet of chips!  You won’t, because people don’t litter here.  There’s like a quarter of the amount of bins in public, but still this place is spotless.

But overall I like this place. Its small. Its cramped. Its cosy.

Another thing which immediately apparent is the sense of safety here.  Walking the streets you see people parking their favourite mode of transport (bike) just on the side of the road.  And that’s where they keep it! Overnight, all day etc.  They just park it there and anyone could just walk up and take it.  Mind you there are locks on the bikes but only to like stop the wheel from spinning or something, you could still just grab it and go.  But no one does.  Also the fact you have to register your bike in your name (much like a car back home) may also contribute.  But you still feel safe.

For example: I went to the park the other night and saw a middle aged man with his kids (no older than 8 or 9), he was playing soccer and stuff with them, it was nice to see.  But then the young boy told his dad that he wanted his dad to time how long it took him to run around the park.  And just like that! The kid was off!  Now he ran pretty far away from his dad, this was 9pm or so, and his dad was just counting away and everything as ok.  But… like, if i was a father, back at home, i wouldnt have let my child run that far away (despite the fact that i hate children lolz).  And Charlie and Jesse were with me and they were both amazed by it too.  But you see it everywhere! 11 year old kids riding a train on their own, switching trains at station after station just to get to school! NO supervision.  But they always get to school, and always get home.  It’s great, and makes me wonder how the fuck the rest of the world fucked this up.  I remember, growing up in Sydney, my brother and I would catch a bus to a bus stop about 200 metres from our house.  But when we got off the bus, I would hold his hand and tell him to run as fast as he could because we had to make it home, i was literally scared for both our safety – and that was 200 metres down a suburban street.

Charlie enjoying the spoils of her first Maccas run in Japan!

Oh! First Japanese Maccas run complete!!!  The other night, Jesse, Ash, Charlie and I were all drinkin in the park with some Japanese guy, Yuuki.  Eventually we were hungry (12am), and we asked him where there was a 24 hour McDonalds – assuming he’d say there are none or there are none nearby.  But alas! He knew where one was! In biking distance!  And so he led the way down some dark alleyways (we were getting a bit worried to be honest), and it was freezing cold and i was in a shirt and shorts – not a good move.  Anyway, eventually we end up at Maccas and get our fix – but Yuuki left us when we got there!  So we had to find our way back.  Ash nearly died on the way back! was soooooo funny, she’s still a bit awkward on a bike me thinks, and she accidentally rode her bike into the middle of the “highway”, cars EVERYWHERE! But she lived.

Oh next awesome point! Stereotype: “Asians are all bad drivers” – AND NOW I KNOW WHY! lol jks. ok, so “bad” wouldnt be the word i’d use, but driving here in Japan is… different again.  People are just driving all over the place, they seize every opportunity to get into traffic, merging into the on-coming traffic lane just to turn into a carpark, tiny streets sharing both directions of traffic plus bikes and pedestrians etc. etc.  BUT! but but but! You would think this is a recipe for disaster! It isn’t.  Everyone is so patient, and understanding of the fact that there is congestion, tiny streets and pedestrians – and so they drive accordingly.  They even pull into OTHER peoples driveways on tiny streets to let the other direction of traffic through.  It works, and no ones is crashing – but as a result the traffic here is SOOOOOO SSSLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWWWW.   You may have a maximum speed limit of 40 somethings per hour, but good luck jumping on a bus that would have enough of a straight run to reach that speed!  It’s crazy! Drive like the Japanese do in Australia and you’ll be killed!  And vice versa.  The Japanese drive this way here because it works.

My Phone!

Oh so I got me a mobile phone.  It’s pretty schnazzy.  Cost me 35,000 yen + set up costs etc.  Total, comes to about $450 australian.  Which is a lot of money, but its a good phone and i’ve NEVER bought a phone in my life, sooo… it evens out.  Its a Softbank 930CA, (good mates of mine: guess what colour????) —- black.  Really like it, because it also has an 8.1 mega pixel camera on it. THATS RIGHT! 8. FREAKIN 1!!  It rocks, i love it, and it loves me.

Applications… oh dear… applications…  We had to apply for freakin everything!!!  So lets see… I needed an alien registration card thingy, so registered for that at the city hall, then i registered for an interim thing (because it takes 3 weeks for me to receive the alien registration card – so this fills in for me in the mean time), i registered my bike with Kansai Gaidai, then registered my bike with my seminar house so i could park there, then i applied for a bank account, and i’m sure i’m forgetting about something else too.  But it was intense and really hard to keep track of what I had to do and i’ve forgotten what everything does now :\

Study Sesh!

Classes started this week – so far so… shmeh.  Nothing REALLY appeals to me or my strengths so i’m gonna be sucky at anything i do.  Currently i’m enrolled in “The Dynamics of Modern Japan” and “Pacific Rivalry: Random text that Jace can’t remember”, both taught by Professor Paul Scott – who keeps me entertained.  I think i NEED this guy as my lecturer, because I was actually in another class with a boring lecturer and i fell asleep, but Prof. Scott keeps me entertained and… awake… so i dropped the other class and joined Scott’s other class.  The classes are ok i guess… they’re interesting at least, but it’s delivered in a way i’m not used to and i predict me doing very bad this semester – but i’ll do my best!

I had to sit a japanese placement test as well.  It’s on a scale of 1-7 i think, 1 being lowest level, 7 being the highest.  With only 1 semester of study under my belt I was placed in Spoken Japanese 2 and Reading and Writing Japanese 2.  Which i guess is cool, i was kinda shooting for level 1 to be honest lol But i’ve decided i’m going to commit to level 2, my Japanese skills will benefit a whole lot i guess.

Oh funny story, I was in Spoken Japanese class, and the teacher called on me and asked me in japanese if it was hot in australia.  I said yes, it was.  Then she said is it hot NOW in australia? ….i immediately thought to myself “I’m in Japan lady, i wouldn’t have a clue”.  So i fumbled about a bit then she re-phrased and said something about the seasons being reversed to Japan.  So I said yes, that’s right.  Then she said something else… NO IDEA what she said.  So i just stared at her with my mouth open, everyone looking at me and i said, in english: “I have no idea what you just said.” Everyone laughed and she just moved on, ignoring me the rest of the lesson lol But! I redeemed myself the next lesson surviving a conversation about what I had done the night before.  Here’s how it went (english-ified):

Teacher: “What did you do last night?”
Me: “I went to the park”
Teacher: “What did you do in the park?”
Me: “I was drinking beer”
[everyone laughed at me once again]
Teacher: “I hope you were quiet!”
Me: “Yes, yes I was”

SUCCESS!  My first japanese conversation lol

So far i’ve had to do 2 quizzes for Spoken Japanese, both of which i scored 100%.

My Overall feelings of Japan so far is that I’m accepting it as my new home.  I don’t want to go back to Australia.  Sure there are people I miss, but i love it here.  I want to be here, i WANT cars driving like 10 cm away from me whilst I’m on my bike, I WANT to order some random ass food from a store, I want to buy a bottle of water to later find out it wasn’t water.  This place is insane, the people are insane, and i fit in just fine.

Part of the Crew

Epic.

Ciao for Now!