![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
castawayEvery time I try to type this post up, I'm back at the dorm with almost no energy from the day. So this post, my friends, is the work of many days! Obviously, I have arrived in Japan. Long flight was very long, and I watched 2 of the Matrix movies, "The Reader", "Valkyrie", and some random National Geographic shows before the plane landed. Food on the plane was tasty, which was odd, and the flight attendants changed costumes! But you'd rather hear about Japan itself, not their airlines.
So, I had a few Gaijin moments within my first few hours in Tokyo. The very first thing I did was...forget my luggage at the baggage claim after I'd already left to meet the rest of the KCP students and our coordinators. OOPS? I had to go back and use broken Japanese to pick it up. Luckily everyone was really nice and helpful. But in the airport, I saw my very first of what would be MANY MORE vending machines! Yes, we have these in the US, but there's something very different about these. First, they work super fast. Secondly, they are everywhere.
Drinking ones are the easiest to find, but there are also cigarette ones, hot drink ones, some snack ones, and I heard ones for panties somewhere. ( Note: You can click on any of the pictures to see a larger version. )
Then after getting paired up with the other people in our dorms--I have just one other girl from the program in mine, her name is Jenny--we were sent to drag our luggage in the very, very humid and hot weather to a bus sent to bring us to our dorms. Ish. The bus ride itself was about an hour and thirty minutes. From Narita Airport, we passed a lot of fields and farm houses. It was beautiful, and I wish I had good pictures of it, but it was hard taking some that could pass as good from the bus.
We started pulling into Tokyo about 6:00 PM at night, and it was a very obvious shift from the rural areas we had seen. We traveled across the Rainbow Bridge, which was...not very rainbowy, but it was very impressive. Traffic was icky, icky, and you can totally see why most people in Tokyo walk or take the train.
We pulled into Shibuya to drop the first group of students off. Jenny and I got off at Shinjuku Station. There was a woman from KCP who helped us get to our dorms from there, which is about a 30 minute ride, though it felt like hours right then. I was tired from staying up for 48 hours, sweaty and overheated, and I just wanted to sleeeeeeep. But once we finally found the dorms, we had to go over all the rules and whatnot, and there were a LOT. And they were all being delivered to us in Japanese. I understood most of it, and I almost thought I lost my key within the first 5 minutes of being there...good job >>
Luckily I was just dumb and I had it the whole time. Urg. I was planning on posting this thing that night, but we had to go down and eat dinner and then go to bed. And sleep.
Sleep is good.
Had to get up early the next morning to get to school by 9 AM. School is in Shinjuku, dorm is in Ichinoe. Walk, train, walk. Full commute is about 45 minutes, which isn't bad for Japan. The train only really started getting crowded...I mean like squish against other people crowded on Thursday. But you know what's weird? Even when you're pressed up against everyone else, it's not intrusive. Everyone is minding their own business, so it isn't too bad. I have no balance, but we're figuring things out.
My first purchased meal was from a 7-11! Yes, there are tons of those here too. I got it because it said it was a "juicy ham sandwich", but...it really wasn't that juicy >> Good, but not juicy. That, and Inari sushi...I LOVE Inari sushi. I've had it almost every day since being here, lol. Delicious~ There are a lot of things I plan to do, but some have all ready been accomplished on the very first day!
After taking placement tests, Jenny and I decided we needed to get some things. I wanted an electronic dictionary and slippers, and she lost her tooth brush. One of the year-long students ended up showing us around Shinjuku to all the department stores. The first one we went to was
this store called PePe, which...is my baby's name! (My kitty, for those who don't know him). I had to take a picture :D
100 Yen store is AMAZING. It's basically a dollar store, and we got lots of shit. I got my slippers! We've been back since then. Went to a big discount store as well, known as Donki Hote, where I got an Alpaca from a coin machine! Jenny got a cellphone that can call back and forth in Japan. There were a lot of strange and random things there...I can't even describe some of them. This wonderful thing is a good example. Can you figure out what it is? If so, please tell me. I have NO clue.
We basically got back and were very tired...next few days were like that. I'll save a cover of Saturday for my next entry. For now, I'll leave you with some pictures...
So, I had a few Gaijin moments within my first few hours in Tokyo. The very first thing I did was...forget my luggage at the baggage claim after I'd already left to meet the rest of the KCP students and our coordinators. OOPS? I had to go back and use broken Japanese to pick it up. Luckily everyone was really nice and helpful. But in the airport, I saw my very first of what would be MANY MORE vending machines! Yes, we have these in the US, but there's something very different about these. First, they work super fast. Secondly, they are everywhere.
Drinking ones are the easiest to find, but there are also cigarette ones, hot drink ones, some snack ones, and I heard ones for panties somewhere. ( Note: You can click on any of the pictures to see a larger version. )Then after getting paired up with the other people in our dorms--I have just one other girl from the program in mine, her name is Jenny--we were sent to drag our luggage in the very, very humid and hot weather to a bus sent to bring us to our dorms. Ish. The bus ride itself was about an hour and thirty minutes. From Narita Airport, we passed a lot of fields and farm houses. It was beautiful, and I wish I had good pictures of it, but it was hard taking some that could pass as good from the bus.
We started pulling into Tokyo about 6:00 PM at night, and it was a very obvious shift from the rural areas we had seen. We traveled across the Rainbow Bridge, which was...not very rainbowy, but it was very impressive. Traffic was icky, icky, and you can totally see why most people in Tokyo walk or take the train.We pulled into Shibuya to drop the first group of students off. Jenny and I got off at Shinjuku Station. There was a woman from KCP who helped us get to our dorms from there, which is about a 30 minute ride, though it felt like hours right then. I was tired from staying up for 48 hours, sweaty and overheated, and I just wanted to sleeeeeeep. But once we finally found the dorms, we had to go over all the rules and whatnot, and there were a LOT. And they were all being delivered to us in Japanese. I understood most of it, and I almost thought I lost my key within the first 5 minutes of being there...good job >>
Luckily I was just dumb and I had it the whole time. Urg. I was planning on posting this thing that night, but we had to go down and eat dinner and then go to bed. And sleep.Sleep is good.
Had to get up early the next morning to get to school by 9 AM. School is in Shinjuku, dorm is in Ichinoe. Walk, train, walk. Full commute is about 45 minutes, which isn't bad for Japan. The train only really started getting crowded...I mean like squish against other people crowded on Thursday. But you know what's weird? Even when you're pressed up against everyone else, it's not intrusive. Everyone is minding their own business, so it isn't too bad. I have no balance, but we're figuring things out.
My first purchased meal was from a 7-11! Yes, there are tons of those here too. I got it because it said it was a "juicy ham sandwich", but...it really wasn't that juicy >> Good, but not juicy. That, and Inari sushi...I LOVE Inari sushi. I've had it almost every day since being here, lol. Delicious~ There are a lot of things I plan to do, but some have all ready been accomplished on the very first day!After taking placement tests, Jenny and I decided we needed to get some things. I wanted an electronic dictionary and slippers, and she lost her tooth brush. One of the year-long students ended up showing us around Shinjuku to all the department stores. The first one we went to was
this store called PePe, which...is my baby's name! (My kitty, for those who don't know him). I had to take a picture :D100 Yen store is AMAZING. It's basically a dollar store, and we got lots of shit. I got my slippers! We've been back since then. Went to a big discount store as well, known as Donki Hote, where I got an Alpaca from a coin machine! Jenny got a cellphone that can call back and forth in Japan. There were a lot of strange and random things there...I can't even describe some of them. This wonderful thing is a good example. Can you figure out what it is? If so, please tell me. I have NO clue.
We basically got back and were very tired...next few days were like that. I'll save a cover of Saturday for my next entry. For now, I'll leave you with some pictures...
