Curious Arrivals
Date: Dec 17th, 2007 2:42:23 am - Subscribe
Mood: Frazzled and Overwhelmed
Hey everyone. Greetings from Japan.
The hotel we're staying at has internet access in the rooms which is bomb, but I have to go to breakfast soon so I dont know how long this will be. Im not really sure where to start, but Ill begin by saying 10 hours is a long fucking time to be stuck in an airplane seat. I almost lost it a few times, finished a book, fell asleep during Spiderman 3, got bored during High Fidelity, and actually enjoyed Blades of Glory. I also made friends with the guy next to me who is in my program. We arrived in Narita when it was dark since our flight was delayed, and the Waseda students had to rush us through customs with all our shit, down some escalators and then shoved us into the train shouting "shinjuku! shinjuku!" which we knew to be a place and reasoned was the stop we should be getting off at.
Tokyo at night is not nearly as overwhelming as seeing the immense sprawl of 22 million people during the day, but it was still entertaining. My new buddy, his buddy and I had to traverse the train cars in search of the rest of our group, dodging the smiley official who was checking our tickets making sure we were in the right seats. We even pretended to go check on our luggage while he passed the seats we were in until he left the car.
There were lights everywhere! The Waseda students where wonderful. They helped carry our luggage, constantly asked us questions in Japanese, and took us out to dinner after we dropped our stuff off at the hotel. We all went out to a nearby restaurant and some people got food, but Molly and I werent hungry so we just ordered Sapporo beer and called it food. Trust me when I say, Kirin, Sapporo, and Asahi are loads better IN Japan. The two Waseda volunteers explained that the ingredients are different which is why it tastes so good.
Basically the last two days have been a clusterfuck (excuse the language) of information and OVERWHELMING sightseeing. The orientation stuff took like all day yesterday, and then we went to Toujou, the Tokyo Metropolitan building, which took us way above the city. Seeing the whole city in daylight is so intimidating, but I took pictures and will upload them soon. Also, the Waseda students keep making efforts to converse with us but only a few of our group are actually skilled enough to respond. The rest of us give one word answers or say "wakaranai" (I dont understand). I need more vocab! A few of us are going to Akibahara (the electronics district) today to get dictionaries so maybe that will help.
Next time I post Ill talk about the anxiety of meeting my host family, the drunken bonding in our room with three other members of our program (only one guy got drunk and he was so amazing at telling drunk stories, Ive never laughed so hard in my life), and the complete and utter fear I have and will have over taking the placement test after losing confidence talking with the Waseda students.
This city is so amazing! TV here is hard NOT to watch.
ja matta ne
-Spork
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