Sleeping on the rocks and wandering white people
Today was the first day of Hosei orientation. But before I tell you about that, let's recap the night before.
That very loud street doesn't quiet down until about 3 am. The reason I know that is because after going to bed at 9 pm the night before, I woke up pretty much every hour because of some japanese crotch rocket. Also, I should note that my pillow feels like it has rocks in it. A traditional japanese "makura". (pillow) So I ended up waking at about 5 am and go about the day. Quite an early start. But the sun rises here about 5 am so it feels like around 7 to me.
So we leave the dorms around 7:30 and head for Tsutsujigaoka station. It was a pretty cramped ride all the way to Ichigaya station. And by cramped I mean the train was already packed tight and then we had to let on even more people by the subway staff pushing the excess passengers into the doors.
We get to Hosei and get our ID cards and then we take the Japanese placement test. The test was...hard to say the least. I'll probably get put into retard japanese 101 thanks to that redunk hard test.
Then we had the lunch break. Hosei has a nice little cafeteria with incredibly un-japanese prices. So that was good. Then Rachel and I headed out to change her money and find a phone to let her mom know that she was here. We had a mini-self tour of the area around Hosei.
After the lunch break we had the regular orientation stuff. We were told how to open a bank account, register as an alien, prepare for an earthquake, register for classes etc. Even though they told us a bunch of stuff, I still feel pretty clueless.
After the orientation I went with Rachel to her room in the Shinjuku YWCA. She's just 10 minutes away from Hosei and right in the middle of Tokyo. So we went in search of a place that did passport photos since we needed some. We finally found a store and took some awful pictures. Then we went to a pretty upscale 100 yen store and got some goods and then Rachel got some groceries. Japanese grocery stores make me wish I could go to ghetto HEB. One apple was 120 yen and one bunch of grapes were 580 yen. We were in a more expensive grocery store I think...but still.
Then I attempted to have my first alone train expierience. And that it was. First I could barely figure out where I was going. I finally found out how to get to Tsutsujigaoka station and bought a ticket. Luck was on my side when the first train I saw said "Tsutsujigaoka". I got on and then realized it was the local train. (local trains stop at every stop whereas express trains only stop at select stations making your commute much quicker) But I thought, oh well. I'd eventually get there and that is all that matters. So I made it to the station...very slowly. After I got off the stop I couldn't exactly remember where to go. But I thought I knew where I was going. I definately didn't. Cut to random white person wandering Chofu streets for 40 minutes until her gets incredibly lucky and finds that busy street where cars go too fast. Also, japanese roads, especially in Tokyo, are not at all like american roads set on a grid. The roads here are just kind of based on where the houses were before they built the roads. So there is no pattern and actually...most of the roads don't even have names. Coming from Johnson County, home of the easiest roads in the world, this is quite different.
That was the exciting day. Lesson of the day: pay attention when you are going somewhere.
That very loud street doesn't quiet down until about 3 am. The reason I know that is because after going to bed at 9 pm the night before, I woke up pretty much every hour because of some japanese crotch rocket. Also, I should note that my pillow feels like it has rocks in it. A traditional japanese "makura". (pillow) So I ended up waking at about 5 am and go about the day. Quite an early start. But the sun rises here about 5 am so it feels like around 7 to me.
So we leave the dorms around 7:30 and head for Tsutsujigaoka station. It was a pretty cramped ride all the way to Ichigaya station. And by cramped I mean the train was already packed tight and then we had to let on even more people by the subway staff pushing the excess passengers into the doors.
We get to Hosei and get our ID cards and then we take the Japanese placement test. The test was...hard to say the least. I'll probably get put into retard japanese 101 thanks to that redunk hard test.
Then we had the lunch break. Hosei has a nice little cafeteria with incredibly un-japanese prices. So that was good. Then Rachel and I headed out to change her money and find a phone to let her mom know that she was here. We had a mini-self tour of the area around Hosei.
After the lunch break we had the regular orientation stuff. We were told how to open a bank account, register as an alien, prepare for an earthquake, register for classes etc. Even though they told us a bunch of stuff, I still feel pretty clueless.
After the orientation I went with Rachel to her room in the Shinjuku YWCA. She's just 10 minutes away from Hosei and right in the middle of Tokyo. So we went in search of a place that did passport photos since we needed some. We finally found a store and took some awful pictures. Then we went to a pretty upscale 100 yen store and got some goods and then Rachel got some groceries. Japanese grocery stores make me wish I could go to ghetto HEB. One apple was 120 yen and one bunch of grapes were 580 yen. We were in a more expensive grocery store I think...but still.
Then I attempted to have my first alone train expierience. And that it was. First I could barely figure out where I was going. I finally found out how to get to Tsutsujigaoka station and bought a ticket. Luck was on my side when the first train I saw said "Tsutsujigaoka". I got on and then realized it was the local train. (local trains stop at every stop whereas express trains only stop at select stations making your commute much quicker) But I thought, oh well. I'd eventually get there and that is all that matters. So I made it to the station...very slowly. After I got off the stop I couldn't exactly remember where to go. But I thought I knew where I was going. I definately didn't. Cut to random white person wandering Chofu streets for 40 minutes until her gets incredibly lucky and finds that busy street where cars go too fast. Also, japanese roads, especially in Tokyo, are not at all like american roads set on a grid. The roads here are just kind of based on where the houses were before they built the roads. So there is no pattern and actually...most of the roads don't even have names. Coming from Johnson County, home of the easiest roads in the world, this is quite different.
That was the exciting day. Lesson of the day: pay attention when you are going somewhere.
posted by Scot @ 21:31
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home