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? 

^_^

raw fish && cheap fruity beer

*update*

so this actually has a name ~ kaitenzushi, or "conveyor belt sushi"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conveyor_belt_sushi

we decided on a small sushi restaurant for dinner tonight. we sat down in a booth and watched plates of food go by on a conveyor belt. customers help themselves to whatever they want by lifting a plastic cover and removing the sushi off of it. the design on the plates correspond to a price, so the tab is kept by the empty plates on the table. unfortunately, i didn't have anything. i really had my heart set on some いなり [ rice in fried tofu ] or かっぱまき [ cucumber roll ]、but they never made an appearance on the belt, so i didn't have anything from the restaurant. i was reluctant [ complete understatement ] to try raw fish. i did sample the tiniest bit of raw salmon though. it tasted... really fishy?

i bought some yummy seaweed おにぎり [ onigiri ] and apple-flavored beer from a コンビ二 [ convenience store ] afterwards. the girls and i had planned on trying the public bath tonight, but time got away from us. so instead, we put on yukata, drank beer, and hung out in my hotel room. even though we elected not to do karaoke with some of the other students tonight, i thoroughly enjoyed the company of my friends.

after orientation this week, we will [ hopefully ] make friends with some doshisha students. but i'm not going to feel guilty for "staying in the comfort zone" by spending time with the midd girls because we're already really good friends--we're not sticking by each other solely on the grounds of attending the same college. it doesn't make sense to ignore the people i love hanging out with ~ though that is not to say that we can't make friends with others too.

bic camera

...is an amazing electronics store. it's huge! i think there were six floors altogether, but it seems like one could find virtually everything there. my friends and i walked there together, but we wound up splitting up into small groups. mia and i wandered around and found probably over a hundred different types of photo albums and photo frames! they were all so かわいい [ cute ] and hard to resist buying. we each got a "therapy color" photo album and a case for our 電子辞書 [ electronic dictionary ]. i had searched high-and-low for a case on the internet before but couldn't find anything. minutes after walking into bic camera, we came across a small wall completely full of them. furthermore, i found a pale pink/chocolate one, and mia chose a pretty orange one ^_^

on another floor, countless models of clocks were showcased. since my LG chocolate is of no use to me in japan, i was left without a method of keeping time and no way to ensure i won't oversleep. scanning the walls and displays for something in my favorite color, i mentally eliminated all of them but one. and this one was perfect. this clock is pink in color, egg-shaped, and includes features such as temperature, calendar, timer, and alarm. however, the awesome thing about this egg clock is that each feature [ when backlit ] is in a different color, and the backlight is activated when it is thrown off balance--meaning, this clock literally rocks [ all in directions about its base ] without falling over. && it's portable!

but shopping aside, mia and i struggled to understand what a bic camera "point card" was. the cashier was patiently trying to explain to us the benefits of having one, but we just got really confused. then i found an explanation sheet in english at the counter, and we finally figured it out. however, it took a few tries to express that i wanted to apply for one. the difficulties in communication didn't end there though. i needed a phone number, and i hadn't memorized mine yet--so mia gave me hers to use. but then, i needed an address. luckily, after writing it five times for my luggage tags and customs declaration forms, it had made its way into my long-term memory. the problem then came down to putting that address onto to paper--but in kanji... long story short, after all the communication issues, mia and i both have bic camera point cards now :)

everyone else was waiting for us outside the building at this point. somehow, we got "lost" on the second floor. when we realized we weren't on the ground floor, we headed towards the escalator to take us down. however, we first came to the one coming down from the third story, so we turned around and kept looking. the next one we came to would take us up to the fourth floor. after some more wandering, we finally found our way out.

the end.

^_^

p.s. rain + flip flops = bad idea.

first day of orientation

i'm getting so excited for this year! orientation has been fun and not the slightest bit overwhelming so far. my day started at 6:30am because i just couldn't stay asleep any longer. we had breakfast in the hotel, and i did something i'm not really used to doing--trying new food! i tried everything [ minus the pickles ] to the right of the rice, which included strange things i've never seen before. most friends know that this is highly uncharacteristic of me. even i was surprised for doing that. before arriving in japan, i was convinced that i wouldn't step out of my [ dietary ] comfort zone.

anyway, we headed out as a group after breakfast for doshisha's imadegawa campus by subway. the seats are cushioned! and i found myself at ease--as opposed to being completely on guard in nyc. the campus is merely several hundred feet from the station, which should be nice in the winter months.

i had ごほうてんぷら [ some kind of veggie tempura ] for lunch. it was delicious! and it only cost ￥110! the cafeteria is relatively small, but it's very cozy in that respect.

then at 2pm, we were turned loose in the computer lab--and here i am ^_^ ! but time's up, and now i'm off to explore kyoto!

finally in japan!

after a six-hour flight to san francisco and an eleven-hour flight to osaka, i've made it to kyoto!  i'll be staying at the kyoto tower hotel with the other AKP students until friday.  after the welcome party friday night, i'll be going home with my host family.  i'm so excited to meet them!

it still hasn't hit me yet.  i'm in japan!  after settling down in my hotel room, i went to a nearby convenience store with my friends, bought お弁当 (lunch box) with お酒 (alcohol--in this case, sparkling wine) for dinner, and wandered around kyoto for a little bit. breakfast is at 8am or so tomorrow morning, so i should get some sleep soon.

i'll try to blog more (and in more detail) later this week, but the flights were fine and comfortable.  the entire process was actually rather smooth-sailing.  i had no trouble with customs, and AKP staff were right around the corner to greet us.  our large luggage were shipped to our homestays, and after a two-hour bus ride, we arrived in kyoto from kansai airport.

and the journey begins... [part one]

mom & grandpa dropping me off at jfk :)

i went to bed after i got off the phone with matt around 1am. everyone else was already asleep, so i was talking in the bathroom as not to wake anyone up.  i really didn’t sleep too well.  i tossed and turned because the taxi service was going to take me to JFK at 5am, and i still had not finished packing. 

upon entering JFK, the first thing i noticed was the huge line at check-in.  much to my dismay, the line was actually a lot longer than what it had appeared to be at first sight, wrapping around the corner and then extending some 50 meters or so.  i was definitely glad i had arrived an hour and a half before boarding time.  however, it wasn’t until about five or ten minutes later that i realized I was standing in the wrong line. 

luckily, the line for united—not us airways—was short and much less intimidating.  i scanned my passport, but i received the same error message [something like, length of stay exceeds limit] when i had tried to check-in online the day before.  i was directed to a representative, and he got me taken care of—it was pretty painless.  as soon as i exited the check-in, i saw nestor and his family come in.  i ran to give him a hug and waited for him to get through check-in. 

going through security was relatively smooth-sailing too—until they found my nalgene with some water in it.  i just had to empty it at a nearby water fountain, but i had to go through everything all over again. 

>_>

*the rest of the story to come soon... i keep finding drafts of blog entries on my pc while i'm cleaning up some folders =]*

just a few more to go...

i’ve disappeared from this blog for over a month, and now i find myself on a greyhound bus headed for boston, where i’ll board another to nyc.  in three days, i’ll leave for kyoto from the san francisco airport after a six-hour flight out of jfk.  

it’s hard to imagine that the 9-week program is already over.  i finished with a grade much better than i had expected—i’m very pleased.  however, it goes without saying, the letter grade is rather insignificant to the overall experience.  

*the rest of the story to come soon... i keep finding drafts of blog entries on my pc while i'm cleaning up some folders =]*