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tammaiyaI never sleep very well my first night anywhere, so it wasn't a surprise that I woke up multiple times my first night here. Actually, for me, it was a pretty good night sleep for a strange bed, especially since I'd already napped in the after. I guess cause it was pretty comfortable and I was pretty tired.
I woke up at around 6am and my ipod was running out of charge, though, so I switched on the laptop and plugged the ipod in (keep in mind I find it hard to sleep without music). So I spent a while talking to people online and tried to find a way to change the settings in iTunes so they wouldn't wipe my ipod. I'm not sure it can be done, because to change the iPod update settings you actually need to have the iPod plugged in... and if you plug the ipod in while iTunes is running and you have auto update checked, it'll delete the things not in your library. Being: EVERYTHING. Hm, komaru wa yo. Oh well, it's not like I really need iTunes, I guess, the only reason I was trying was because I thought I could play my ipod's music that way while it was charging. Whatev.
After a while I got really tired again, though, and my laptop had charged up a bit, so I was like, dammit, I will get my extra 2 hours sleep before I have to get up. (I had orientation at 10am. This is why it's good to arrive earlier than I did, dammit.) So I did, and got up again just before 9. I faffed around talking to people in Australia for 15 minutes, and then went, hey, great idea, I'll go see if my suitcase has arrived yet! and got dressed in my clothes from the day before, which made me feel grungy but shikata nai. Eh. So I trudged off across campus, and all the sunshine and warmth of the day before had gone away to leave dreary rainy weather. And it was all for nothing, because my case had not arrived yet! Ugh. Although I did meet the guy I'd been sending emails to about my insulin.
Anyway, back I went to my dorm room, and I decided if I had to be grungy in my clothes I could at least have a shower, so I christened my bathroom. It was quite nice, although the hot water certainly was hot (I suspect, however, that this may be a commentary on the patheticness of my hot water system at home, rather than necessarily Australia versus Japan). I'll have to try out using the combined shower/furo as a furo sometime. But I do feel the need to get a bathmat, since the floor gets wet. It's kind of all plastic-ish like a porta-loo, so not super slippery, but it has the potential to get gross.
After the shower it was about 9.45, clearly time to get dressed and head towards my orientation, but when I left the dorm at 9.55 and was starting to walk towards the JLC I had a sudden moment of "FUCK! I forgot to eat breakfast!" and had to run back in and run up the stairs (I pressed for the elevator but it was taking its sweet time so I gave up) to get my fruit cup to eat once I got there. Truly, I am the worst diabetic ever. (Actually, no. My BGLs generally aren't that bad, and there's a guy I know at the ANU who doesn't even test his blood sugar. like, wtf? HOW IS HE NOT DEAD?)
By the way, that fruit cup? Totally not what I was expecting. I was thinking, you know, canned fruit in syrup. Like you'd get in Australia. Instead, it's fruit suspended in clear jelly. It's kind of awesome, even though the little plastic shovel thing they gave me to eat it with was a little inadequate (note to self: find a 100 yen shop and BUY SPOONS), so I actually bought another one.
The orientation was... well, it was an orientation. Except in Japanese. Despite that I wasn't terribly fazed by it. Actually, mostly I was bored. They gave us an enormous stack of documents, though, and a list of various important administrative things we had to attend and deadlines and stuff. I am appropriately cowed by the threat of failure should I miss more than 20% of my classes. (Not that I was intending to-- although I was thinking about maybe skipping a week when my brother is here next January. I may have to reconsider.) These documents included a variety of things-- a list of dates for deadlines and things we have to go to over the next month, a university handbook (TOME), stuff to do with the university, stuff to do with our programme, stuff from this foreign students assistance committee thingy, the form for the health check and-- oh lord, I may never stop laughing-- the PEE POLE.
No. really. I KID YOU NOT. It was the urine sample jar for our health checks the following day, only it wasn't a jar, it was a tube... sort of two tubes, one capping inside the other, in a plastic wrap with the product name PEE POLE and, and INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO USE IT. ahahahahahahahahah oh my god, Japan is so weird sometimes. XDDDDD (pee pole!)
The most interesting bit was when a woman from the Musashino International Association (that's the proper name for the committee thing I mentioned above) talked about their association and what it does. Basically it's all about cultural exchange. They run a bunch of Japanese cultural activities for free so that us international students can learn about Japan, and you can also apply for this thing called "home visit" which is kind of like a part time home stay-- they set you up with a family, and you visit them and they take you places and celebrate festivals with you and stuff. I kind of really want to do it, although I'm waiting until I get a phone to put in the form so I actually have a contact number. According to the booklet the home visit thing starts from May and goes until March so I think I've got a little time.
After all that, they separated us out and those of us in the ISEP (International Student Exchange Program) went to another room to learn about our classes. After the bit where I heard we were allowed to take anything we wanted from the undergraduate courses unless it had a roman numeral after it (like German II, eg), I got distracted by flipping through the massive handbook looking for japanese history courses. XD I found one which involves reading historical texts... I'm probably crazy for considering it, but I'm like, dude! classical japanese AND edo-jidai history! two things I want to learn about! So I guess I'll talk to my advisor and see? Um.
Following my orientation there was a boring period-- in terms of blogging, I found it quite satisfying personally-- where I sat in my room talking to people until my stomach dictated it was time for eats and I went out to see if the cafeteria was serving food that day (it was closed on Sunday). The cafeteria building was open, but I still haven't found out if it's started serving food yet, because I have yet to make it there during anything actually resembling a lunch period. You see, it was about ordinary people lunch time when I made a beeline for it, but on my way in I stopped to blink at some girls wearing kimono and got waylaid by the tea ceremony club as a result. XD; I was totally all for it, though! You know, whee, cultural experience times, etc. They took me to a proper Japanese style room with tatami and sliding doors and a carp pond out the back and it was GORGEOUS. Then they fed me (and the other girls present, all Asian, not all Japanese) delicious tea ceremony candy and green tea, which I'm not generally a big fan of-- too bitter-- but after the first sip it was mostly just warm, which was nice on a horrible dreary day. And I totally sat seiza the whole time, too. I felt very proud of myself, although I could barely walk when I got up. Jesus christ, Japanese people must have traditionally had very strong ankles from the workout they routinely gave their poor feet, sitting like that.
(Oh, this is probably a strange time to mention it, but I have a shoe cupboard at the entrance to my dorm room. It's only a small room but you're still supposed to take your shoes off! I actually prefer it that way, I don't usually wear shoes at home anyway and this way I can just kick them off in the doorway.)
By the way, on the talking to people front, I had an email from my aunt informing me that my mother was not at ALL reassured by my voice mail the night before. XD; There followed a flurry of emails where I was told to buy a a phone card, to buy whatever I needed on credit card if I had to, here are the reverse call numbers for all the different phone companies in Tokyo... etc. So I also went to check out the public phone and so forth while I was at it. And then I went to the university co-op, since the phone was right next to it. I sort of thought maybe there was food in there, combini style (there wasn't) but it was still interesting.
Instead I ended up spotting a TV Guide which had Arashi holding lemons on the cover, and it all went downhill from there. I mean, I was just walking past that shelf and I was like, hang on, those guys look fami OH HEY LOOK, IT'S JUN. AND ARASHI. And then I'm like, haha, must remember to tell Becky... I'll just look at it... and skim read this interview... and flick through and see a picture of Gokusen 3 also holding lemons... how much is this anyway? 250 yen?
OH FINE, I'LL BUY YOU, STUPID MAGAZINE.
Which is how I know Himitsu no Arashi starts tomorrow (thursday) and VS ARASHI starts this Saturday.
Shut up, don't judge me, it's totally all Becky's fault. Besides, buying pointless magazines about boyband idols is totally part of the cultural EXPERIENCE of living in Japan! ... or something...
On a random side note, did you know the print quality of Weekly JUMP is really bad? I just thought I'd mention. I flipped through it and it's really grainy.
After that, I went back to my room briefly and remembered, dude, you still have to get LUNCH (it was like 3pm or so by this stage) so I wrote down the reverse-call number to Australia for NTT phones and then went on another trip to the combini, where I bought myself grape juice and strawberry yoghurt for lunch.
Two things to note about this: one, grape juice, what the fuck? It was the same brand I got the orange juice from, which is totally normal orange juice, and yet I get this grape juice and it's like, BRIGHT PURPLE and tastes like grape high chew in syrup form. XD Not that this is a bad thing, just... weird, when you're expecting actual proper fruit juice. The strawberry yoghurt was pretty much strawberry yoghurt, but it was kind of runny and I ended up basically drinking it, which was a serious reminder that I NEED SPOONS, DAMN IT. (I still haven't gotten any. I have to seek out the closest 100 yen shop ASAP, I'll do that tomorrow.)
On my way back to my dorm I almost got waylaid again by the Brazilian Samba club who were doing a display in the gym, but I still had shopping bags and hadn't eaten lunch and it was still cold and rainy, so I decided to pass and go actually eat. Then I killed some time until it was about 4.30pm (so 5.30 in east-coast Australia) and went to reverse call my mum and assuage her paranoia that I was like, dying or whatever. I spoke to her and my father, and they seemed much more reassured this time.
After that I mostly hung out in my room for a while, because it was rainy and gross outside and I felt I'd had my cultural experiences for the day between orientation and the sadou-bu. Plus I was trying out google talk's call function-- I spoke to my parents properly (and much more cheaply), and also spoke to Tristan and left Mari a happy birthday voicemail. I IMd a lot too.
Eventually, at some point late in the cold, rainy evening I decided I had to brave the elements for dinner, and I borrowed an umbrella from someone in the dorm and went out to the combini, where I bought my OWN umbrella for about 400 yen, stared in shock at the carb content of the only bento left (although the carb content of anything here is massive, how are japanese people so skinny on average? must be all the walking), decided to get it anyway, and also bought another fruit cup for breakfast and onigiri for lunch the next day. Plus milk. And bananas. Because they were there.
And, well, that's pretty much it for Monday!
I woke up at around 6am and my ipod was running out of charge, though, so I switched on the laptop and plugged the ipod in (keep in mind I find it hard to sleep without music). So I spent a while talking to people online and tried to find a way to change the settings in iTunes so they wouldn't wipe my ipod. I'm not sure it can be done, because to change the iPod update settings you actually need to have the iPod plugged in... and if you plug the ipod in while iTunes is running and you have auto update checked, it'll delete the things not in your library. Being: EVERYTHING. Hm, komaru wa yo. Oh well, it's not like I really need iTunes, I guess, the only reason I was trying was because I thought I could play my ipod's music that way while it was charging. Whatev.
After a while I got really tired again, though, and my laptop had charged up a bit, so I was like, dammit, I will get my extra 2 hours sleep before I have to get up. (I had orientation at 10am. This is why it's good to arrive earlier than I did, dammit.) So I did, and got up again just before 9. I faffed around talking to people in Australia for 15 minutes, and then went, hey, great idea, I'll go see if my suitcase has arrived yet! and got dressed in my clothes from the day before, which made me feel grungy but shikata nai. Eh. So I trudged off across campus, and all the sunshine and warmth of the day before had gone away to leave dreary rainy weather. And it was all for nothing, because my case had not arrived yet! Ugh. Although I did meet the guy I'd been sending emails to about my insulin.
Anyway, back I went to my dorm room, and I decided if I had to be grungy in my clothes I could at least have a shower, so I christened my bathroom. It was quite nice, although the hot water certainly was hot (I suspect, however, that this may be a commentary on the patheticness of my hot water system at home, rather than necessarily Australia versus Japan). I'll have to try out using the combined shower/furo as a furo sometime. But I do feel the need to get a bathmat, since the floor gets wet. It's kind of all plastic-ish like a porta-loo, so not super slippery, but it has the potential to get gross.
After the shower it was about 9.45, clearly time to get dressed and head towards my orientation, but when I left the dorm at 9.55 and was starting to walk towards the JLC I had a sudden moment of "FUCK! I forgot to eat breakfast!" and had to run back in and run up the stairs (I pressed for the elevator but it was taking its sweet time so I gave up) to get my fruit cup to eat once I got there. Truly, I am the worst diabetic ever. (Actually, no. My BGLs generally aren't that bad, and there's a guy I know at the ANU who doesn't even test his blood sugar. like, wtf? HOW IS HE NOT DEAD?)
By the way, that fruit cup? Totally not what I was expecting. I was thinking, you know, canned fruit in syrup. Like you'd get in Australia. Instead, it's fruit suspended in clear jelly. It's kind of awesome, even though the little plastic shovel thing they gave me to eat it with was a little inadequate (note to self: find a 100 yen shop and BUY SPOONS), so I actually bought another one.
The orientation was... well, it was an orientation. Except in Japanese. Despite that I wasn't terribly fazed by it. Actually, mostly I was bored. They gave us an enormous stack of documents, though, and a list of various important administrative things we had to attend and deadlines and stuff. I am appropriately cowed by the threat of failure should I miss more than 20% of my classes. (Not that I was intending to-- although I was thinking about maybe skipping a week when my brother is here next January. I may have to reconsider.) These documents included a variety of things-- a list of dates for deadlines and things we have to go to over the next month, a university handbook (TOME), stuff to do with the university, stuff to do with our programme, stuff from this foreign students assistance committee thingy, the form for the health check and-- oh lord, I may never stop laughing-- the PEE POLE.
No. really. I KID YOU NOT. It was the urine sample jar for our health checks the following day, only it wasn't a jar, it was a tube... sort of two tubes, one capping inside the other, in a plastic wrap with the product name PEE POLE and, and INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO USE IT. ahahahahahahahahah oh my god, Japan is so weird sometimes. XDDDDD (pee pole!)
The most interesting bit was when a woman from the Musashino International Association (that's the proper name for the committee thing I mentioned above) talked about their association and what it does. Basically it's all about cultural exchange. They run a bunch of Japanese cultural activities for free so that us international students can learn about Japan, and you can also apply for this thing called "home visit" which is kind of like a part time home stay-- they set you up with a family, and you visit them and they take you places and celebrate festivals with you and stuff. I kind of really want to do it, although I'm waiting until I get a phone to put in the form so I actually have a contact number. According to the booklet the home visit thing starts from May and goes until March so I think I've got a little time.
After all that, they separated us out and those of us in the ISEP (International Student Exchange Program) went to another room to learn about our classes. After the bit where I heard we were allowed to take anything we wanted from the undergraduate courses unless it had a roman numeral after it (like German II, eg), I got distracted by flipping through the massive handbook looking for japanese history courses. XD I found one which involves reading historical texts... I'm probably crazy for considering it, but I'm like, dude! classical japanese AND edo-jidai history! two things I want to learn about! So I guess I'll talk to my advisor and see? Um.
Following my orientation there was a boring period-- in terms of blogging, I found it quite satisfying personally-- where I sat in my room talking to people until my stomach dictated it was time for eats and I went out to see if the cafeteria was serving food that day (it was closed on Sunday). The cafeteria building was open, but I still haven't found out if it's started serving food yet, because I have yet to make it there during anything actually resembling a lunch period. You see, it was about ordinary people lunch time when I made a beeline for it, but on my way in I stopped to blink at some girls wearing kimono and got waylaid by the tea ceremony club as a result. XD; I was totally all for it, though! You know, whee, cultural experience times, etc. They took me to a proper Japanese style room with tatami and sliding doors and a carp pond out the back and it was GORGEOUS. Then they fed me (and the other girls present, all Asian, not all Japanese) delicious tea ceremony candy and green tea, which I'm not generally a big fan of-- too bitter-- but after the first sip it was mostly just warm, which was nice on a horrible dreary day. And I totally sat seiza the whole time, too. I felt very proud of myself, although I could barely walk when I got up. Jesus christ, Japanese people must have traditionally had very strong ankles from the workout they routinely gave their poor feet, sitting like that.
(Oh, this is probably a strange time to mention it, but I have a shoe cupboard at the entrance to my dorm room. It's only a small room but you're still supposed to take your shoes off! I actually prefer it that way, I don't usually wear shoes at home anyway and this way I can just kick them off in the doorway.)
By the way, on the talking to people front, I had an email from my aunt informing me that my mother was not at ALL reassured by my voice mail the night before. XD; There followed a flurry of emails where I was told to buy a a phone card, to buy whatever I needed on credit card if I had to, here are the reverse call numbers for all the different phone companies in Tokyo... etc. So I also went to check out the public phone and so forth while I was at it. And then I went to the university co-op, since the phone was right next to it. I sort of thought maybe there was food in there, combini style (there wasn't) but it was still interesting.
Instead I ended up spotting a TV Guide which had Arashi holding lemons on the cover, and it all went downhill from there. I mean, I was just walking past that shelf and I was like, hang on, those guys look fami OH HEY LOOK, IT'S JUN. AND ARASHI. And then I'm like, haha, must remember to tell Becky... I'll just look at it... and skim read this interview... and flick through and see a picture of Gokusen 3 also holding lemons... how much is this anyway? 250 yen?
OH FINE, I'LL BUY YOU, STUPID MAGAZINE.
Which is how I know Himitsu no Arashi starts tomorrow (thursday) and VS ARASHI starts this Saturday.
Shut up, don't judge me, it's totally all Becky's fault. Besides, buying pointless magazines about boyband idols is totally part of the cultural EXPERIENCE of living in Japan! ... or something...
On a random side note, did you know the print quality of Weekly JUMP is really bad? I just thought I'd mention. I flipped through it and it's really grainy.
After that, I went back to my room briefly and remembered, dude, you still have to get LUNCH (it was like 3pm or so by this stage) so I wrote down the reverse-call number to Australia for NTT phones and then went on another trip to the combini, where I bought myself grape juice and strawberry yoghurt for lunch.
Two things to note about this: one, grape juice, what the fuck? It was the same brand I got the orange juice from, which is totally normal orange juice, and yet I get this grape juice and it's like, BRIGHT PURPLE and tastes like grape high chew in syrup form. XD Not that this is a bad thing, just... weird, when you're expecting actual proper fruit juice. The strawberry yoghurt was pretty much strawberry yoghurt, but it was kind of runny and I ended up basically drinking it, which was a serious reminder that I NEED SPOONS, DAMN IT. (I still haven't gotten any. I have to seek out the closest 100 yen shop ASAP, I'll do that tomorrow.)
On my way back to my dorm I almost got waylaid again by the Brazilian Samba club who were doing a display in the gym, but I still had shopping bags and hadn't eaten lunch and it was still cold and rainy, so I decided to pass and go actually eat. Then I killed some time until it was about 4.30pm (so 5.30 in east-coast Australia) and went to reverse call my mum and assuage her paranoia that I was like, dying or whatever. I spoke to her and my father, and they seemed much more reassured this time.
After that I mostly hung out in my room for a while, because it was rainy and gross outside and I felt I'd had my cultural experiences for the day between orientation and the sadou-bu. Plus I was trying out google talk's call function-- I spoke to my parents properly (and much more cheaply), and also spoke to Tristan and left Mari a happy birthday voicemail. I IMd a lot too.
Eventually, at some point late in the cold, rainy evening I decided I had to brave the elements for dinner, and I borrowed an umbrella from someone in the dorm and went out to the combini, where I bought my OWN umbrella for about 400 yen, stared in shock at the carb content of the only bento left (although the carb content of anything here is massive, how are japanese people so skinny on average? must be all the walking), decided to get it anyway, and also bought another fruit cup for breakfast and onigiri for lunch the next day. Plus milk. And bananas. Because they were there.
And, well, that's pretty much it for Monday!
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 06:54 pm (UTC)Three things from a j-land veteran:
1) Aloe yogurt and meron pan. Both can be found at your combini, I SUGGEST YOU TRY THEM. (pn that note: you can buy milk at some combinis- make sure what you're getting is milk and not drinking yogurt. My friend found that out the hard way)
2) JORUDAN TRAFFIC GUIDE. If you don't already use it, bookmark it now.
3) Invest in a keitai. Do it now. You cannot live in Japan without one.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 06:58 pm (UTC)http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/
And yes, that little lifesaver is all the train information you will ever need for your region.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-10 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-10 01:03 am (UTC)Melon pan! I haven't tried it yet but there's actually a bakery in my area that has it. (I think the milk I bought is actually milk? I haven't tried it yet but it has the Japanese word for milk on the carton... *opens it* yep, it's milk! from hokkaido. :D)
??? What's that? *googles* ... oh, cool! *bookmarks* Thanks for that. So far Kaori has been helping me get where I need to go but when I go out a little more by myself that could be really useful.
I have one now! :D It's DoCoMo because they were the only ones who'd give me a phone on a temporary visa. But I'm not complaining, it's TOTALLY RAD. I can watch tv on it for free!