like two personal assistants

where we had lunch :)

after making it to campus on our own this morning and getting through homestay orientation, we each met up with two student volunteers from doshisha.  they were responsible to showing us how to get to class from our houses, helping us apply for alien registration cards, and making sure we had the proper forms to get commuting passes when we get our student id cards next week. it might not sound like much, but aya-san and masato-san were with me all day long. 

we began by going out to lunch at a nearby restaurant.  the food was really good, but i didn’t even finish half of my [alfredo sauce?] pasta—let alone the bread, mini-salad, and soup.  we each ordered our choices off the menu by putting yen into a vending machine to receive a ticket indicating what we wanted.  i wonder if there’s anything like that in the united states. 

after lunch, we took the subway and hankyu in order to get to my house. unfortunately, the map we were provided was not very clear, and we lost our way several times. it appeared no one was home, but we could hear loud [and scary-sounding] barking coming from within. i wondered if it could’ve been my host dog. anyway, we headed back to the hankyu to go one stop further to kami-katsura, where i would apply for my alien registration card. the process was relatively long, but luckily, some of the other akp students were waiting with their respective doshisha students as well. 

they decided to go to a karaoke bar for the evening. as interesting as that sounded, i was ready to head back to the hotel and get some rest. i was exhausted to say the very least. however, not wanting to rain on the parade, i agreed and went along. but because i’m a terrible singer, and because i don’t know too many japanese songs, it wasn’t all that fun for me. still, i was very grateful for everything that aya-san and masato-san did for me today. and after a little while, i was finally free to run to the comfort of my hotel room! 

…but who knew that my friends and i would be getting naked together in a public bath later that night? 

^_^