Sorry, Alex. You've been replaced with a Japanese washing machine. But more on that later. So this blog is a little late, as I've been here for little more than two days, but better late than never, right? This is the place where I'll be voicing my blather about Japan, its people, its culture and its life lessons that I learn about while I'm here for 11 months. I can only hope some of this will be interesting for other to read, other parts I know are going to be strictly for my own enjoyment/cathartic pleasure, but you can't keep everyone happy.So. The Trip Over.
Getting to the airport was relatively painless, minus having to take a few things out of my overweight suitcase and bidding farewell to my mom and dad. The first flight went by in the blink of an eye, and the second flight was as good as any 14 hour flight can be, including the food. Also, upon boarding the flight we attempted to make conversation with the guy a few seats down from us in our row, who said he was going to Bangkok "for pleeeeasure," and yes, the word was elongated like that and said in a fairly creepy tone. Needless to say, there was not much attempt at conversation after that. The trip was far from restful, and by the time we landed in Japan, got through customs and gathered up our luggage, we were already dying a little bit on the inside.
We managed to stumble, point and nod our way through getting the luggage sent to the -House via the Kuroneko Carrier Company, and from there it was other series of squinting, pointing and eventually getting train tickets from Narita Airport to Tokyo Nippori train station. We opted for the cheaper train, which meant a little more standing and a lot longer till we got to our destination, while I was occasionally hearing "typhoon" from the train announcements. This, combined with the pouring rain and suspiciously colored sky was enough to make me wonder if we were going to hit some really bad weather/train delays, but we made it to Tokyo just fine. After getting lost in Nippori Station we made two short train rides to Sendagi, where Kimi was able to lead us right to the I-House. The manager ("Manager-san") and his wife ( "Machiko-san") checked us in, explained the rooms and mailboxes and left us to ourselves for the night. More on details of the I-House later~
After trying to find a free, unsecure wireless connection and getting some onigiri at the nearest 7-11 so as to not pass out, we finally discovered the cords for the 'net in our desks, popped off emails to our parents to let them know we were alive, and promptly fell into bed.
Woke up around 3. Paced around for a bit, drank some juice, checked my email and went back to bed. Woke up at 5. Around 5:45 I basically said "screw it" and just took a shower. Kimi was up shortly after, so after that we went outside and took an early morning walk to look at some of the local shops and get breakfast at bakery when it opened. When we got back to the I-House we ran into a bunch of other students, some of whom I'd known from online, and got a bit better acquainted and made plans to hang out later.
From there Kimi and I proceeded to explore some more and eventually had one of the "manliest" lunches I've ever eaten in my life. Seriously, not only were were the only foreigners in that place, but we were the only girls too. It was a donburi place, where you put your money into a machine that displays all the meals and their prices--from this you get a ticket, which you give to the adorable lady behind the counter who gives you your meal after the other person in the kitchen has dished it up. Donburi, at least the kind we had, is a MANLY food mostly for the fact that it's a bowl of rice and cooked meat, and you crack an egg (raw) over it, and mix--the heat from the rice sort of cooks the egg, but not really thoroughly, and what you end up with is a huge bowl of steaming, glistening protein. MANLY.
Yesterday I can't say that much of note happened, aside from our friends bringing us to this little back-alley where there were a ton of shops that sold cheap meat (40 yen yakitori), classic Japanese sweets (omg these are made if red bean past and are DELICIOUS) and other assorted bits of awesome. Fell into bed around 9, woke up at 3 again this morning. Rolled around and tried to ignore the sunlight until about 5, and then I just gave up again and got up. I don't really mind if getting up at 5 becomes a trend, but I'd rather not wake up at 3...
So far today I've mostly worked on making flashcards--I will have a set for verbs, a set for adjectives and a set for kanji when I am done. There's a matsuri (festival) this afternoon, so looking forward to that~! More tonight, later, after we get back~!
No comments:
Post a Comment