1st day in Japan extended extreme super long post

Disclaimer: This is a highly boring and verbose account of my experience in Japan so far. I would only read it if you REALLY want to know what has been going on with me.

Well, it is the end of my first full day in Japan. I'll discuss my adventure so far starting from the flight over:

The flight was interesting. I was expecting them to feed us on the local time zone schedule, but they based the schedule on Tokyo time. I didn't change my sleep schedule because I thought they would keep us on local time in the plane for some reason. I wish that I had stayed up the night before so I could have slept at the proper time in the flight. They ended up feeding us dinner around lunch time, which was weird. I read the hitchiker's guide to the galaxy on the flight. It was a funny book. I really want to continue reading the series, but I wont so that can I spend more time studying Japanese. My whole row on the plane was empty. I was able to lay across the seats when I slept. It was like being in first class. Sort of. I had a barbecue beef dinner on the plane with veggies and shrimp. Breakfast was chicken fried rice (choices were eggs and fried rice,). Both dishes were sub par, but edible. They gave out free beer and wine during the dinner, so I got a Sapporo. They also were handing out newspapers during the flight. One was a Japanese paper, and the other was The Wallstreet Journal. I grabbed the Japanese newspaper since I already had the New York Times with me.

Once we landed, I had to get my immigration stuff taken care of. There was some small form to fill out and then a long line to wait in. The line was long, but moved quickly. Once I was though that, I met my uncle Tim right outside of the baggage pick up area. He took the heavier of my two roller bags. It was very nice of him.

We went to a Starbucks and talked a little. I got a small black iced tea, and he got a medium coffee. Small drinks in Japanese Starbucks are actually small! It was quite refreshing. I always thought that "small" drinks in the states were more than enough. After we finished our drinks, we headed down to the train terminal. I used the suica card that Tim had given me a month or two ago for the train. It uses RFID at the turnstyle, so it was very fast and convenient.

The train had already arrived when we got to the station. We were expecting to get on the 4:00 train, and it was 4:50, so we thought that it was the wrong train at first. We soon realized this train was sitting there until its departure at 4:00. While the train was waiting, some employees went through the train and mopped the floor! So clean! I don't know if they ever clean the trains in the CTA system back home. Other employees were going through the train during transit and sweeping.

The train had a few delays for an unknown reason. The announcements were in Japanese, and all I understood was the "Please wait" at the end of the statement. I played a game of "see how many kanji you understand" with the train's adverts. I have become very familiar with this game already. Once we got to the Inage station, we quickly made our way to the international house.

The directions supplied by the university were quite good, and we got there easily without getting lost. Once there, I filled out some forms, and some volunteer Japanese students showed me my room and the different details within. Uncle Tim had to go before the room tour was finished to catch his train back. He had a flight tomorrow to do. He really made things a lot easier for me. I am very appreciative of the help he gave me.

Soon after the Japanese students left, I went off to the local supermarket to get some sheets and a towel so I could shower and sleep. I just happened to meet a bunch of other students in my building there. They were all fairly nice and seemed to be alright people. We went through the store together and got some groceries afterward. The rest of the gang was buying vodka, rum, and wine at the grocery store along with misc. food items. I just got some ramen and some rolls with bean paste in them.

We headed back to the dorms and I started my mission of unpacking. All I really brought was some clothes, some electronics, and my laptops. I found out that what I thought was a sheet set was only the part that goes around the mattress, and that the piece I thought was a blanket was also something meant for the mattress. That's what happens when you can't read anything. I also bought a pillowcase, but it mysteriously disappeared.

When I was in my room, another student invited me to see a movie. I said "sure". They were going to watch My Neighbor Totoro in Anna's room and they would come get me when it started. Despite that, I ended up going to bed soon after since I was so tired. I don't know if they ever came to get me.

I think I successfully alienated myself from that group of people with that act. They don't seem to seek my presence. I don't know if this is just because they expect me to come to them, or they think I don't want to hang out with them. I am afraid that if I make close friends in the international house, that I will speak English too much. So it may be good that I am a recluse in this case. I'll typically just let friends happen rather than try and actively make them. I might have to change this behavior if I want to make friends this year.

The next day:

We had an orientation today. I tried walking there, but got lost on the way. It is REALLY easy to get lost in japan. The roads are not in a grid formation. And from what I can tell there are no street names! You're supposed to just kind of figure it out I guess. Even Google maps doesn't give you street details. It kind of just says "Umm, yea. Make your way to this place when you get out of the train station". I ended up back tracking to the dorms and taking a train to the Chiba campus. An international grad student saw me at the train station and helped me get to the building I needed to be in. He was very nice! He said he was from Mongolia and is studying mechanical engineering. He spoke English with an Australian accent. Very interesting person. I ended up being 20 minutes late to the orientation. They had handouts for everything, so it was not a big deal.

They told us everything once in Japanese and once in English. I could understand most of the Japanese, so that made me feel good. They told us about the classes we will be taking and how we will register for them. We also got a small tour of the campus from our tutors. We all are assigned tutors that will help us with our Japanese and living at Chiba in general. I was in a group of four that was assigned two tutors. They were both helpful and nice. They told us everything in Japanese. I only understood half of what they said. It was frustrating at times, because they were giving us important information.

After the orientation was over, I went to the cafeteria with another American. He is a 23 y/o CS student from Wisconsin. He only took one year of Japanese a year ago. So, his Japanese was really lacking. We spoke in English most of the time. I would say things in Japanese and break it down for him to help him out a little. I had カツ カレ(katsukare) which is some kurry rice with a fried piece of pork. He had fried salmon with some kind of green stringy stuff.

After lunch, we went over to a supermarket for him to get some bed sheets. I directed him to where they were and left because I was tired. Once I got back, I went over all the forms and papers I got today to see what I need to get done. Nothing big had to be/could be done immediately, so my evening was free for other things. I studied kanji for a little while and decided to get some dinner at around 7:00.

I went back to the supermarket I was at before to get groceries and a bowl. One thing that strikes me about Japanese stores sometimes is the large amount of trust given to the customer. Some stores are wide open and could easily have something stolen. The cashier for one shop I visited was at the rear of the store with all the shop items right out in the open to the rest of the mall.

Being in the grocery store and seeing all these strange food items makes me want to learn to cook Japanese food. I might order a Japanese cookbook so I can better utilize what is around me.

OK, that is it for this extremely long initial blog post. I swear everything will be 1/1000th this length from now on. I won't have enough time to do something like this again.