Lazy Day

I was up at 5 or so again, had my yogurt cup, a slice of bread and piece of cheese for breakfast and headed down to waste time on the Interwebs.  Something I've noticed is that there doesn't seem to be any wheat bread, unless perhaps a bakery has it.  Then it was of to campus with Arianna.  I found my umbrella, so the walk was much more pleasant today.

We arrived with only a few minutes to spare and headed to Multimedia Hall for the pre-orientation meeting.  They went over the information in the packet they passed out, released those of us not scheduled for the placement test and had the rest of us take it.  There was a listening section (which was not repeated, just given once, at normal Japanese speaking speeds), a Hiragana/Kanji/Translation sheet, the main portion of grammar (which had parts A-E; you took up to three, depending on how many years you've studied--I took A-C and felt good about it) and then a kanji section for those intending on taking reading and writing courses as well.

Kaboom!  Otters on the sidewalk!

From there I headed to the cafeteria and got the club lunch which was some form of fried Salsbury steak.  It was alright; interesting flavor.  I also had my first official bowl of rice since arriving in Japan.  I ran into Daniel on the way out and then headed to the CIE for the Interwebs.  There was a card from Miho in my mailbox with her phone number, so I'll finally be able to contact her.

I turned in the first wave of forms, including health insurance, photo release and some other liability release.  Then it was on to pay my 11000 yen's worth of fees before heading back to the Interwebs to chat with people from home.  I went to the banking session after that and only messed up the form once.  In three weeks, I'll get my allowance.

On my way out, I spied Daniel in the "fishbowl" (student lounge, never seemed right to call it a fishbowl) and pestered him and the friends he was hanging out with.  Eventually we headed to dinner at Gasuto's, which he deemed Gaston's--it really seemed to be a Japanese Denny's (so I got my afters in the form of delicious Japanese dishes) that had doorbells on the table you'd ring when you were ready to order!  We walked back to the seminar houses (and stopped at Top World on the way to pick up a bowl, spoon and eggplant chopsticks for me) and watched the first half hour of Love My Life, one of my favorite Japanese movies, before deciding it was time for sleep.

Then I fought with the Interwebs in the seminar house for the better part of an hour.  I've been fighting with things today.  Like the water fountain.  The button's really sensitive but it's timed, so I'll hit and hold it and it'll go off immediately, try to push it and it won't stay on, and then press and hold and it may or may not stay on, depending on how much of a fool it wants me to look like.  Takes me no less than three tries to get a drink every time.

Lots of Lightning

The sun rises earlier here than it does back home, I think.

I woke up once at four or so and it was already light outside.  I woke up again at five and wondered why my alarm hadn't gone off.  I woke up again at six because there were people in the common area talking and giggling and eventually got up around six-thirty.

Breakfast was a yogurt cup, melon pan and carton of milk while a handful of roommates continued chatting and generally enjoying each others' company.  Then there was an hour or so of bumming around the Interwebs before grabbing my bag for the day and heading over to KGU's campus.

It was hot.  It was muggy. But the lounges were adequately air conditioned.  Our group was one of the first ones to the CIE and so we got in line early to register our laptops to use the university's wifi.  That done, I met up with Daniel (above) and a couple roommates and we wandered around to check out the convenience stores and food on campus.

I ended up with tempura udon, chocolate mousse cake and melon-flavored Fanta (I didn't know they made it!), which was all wonderful.  Then it was back to the convenience store to order myself a phone!  It seemed like there were going to be 20 billion options, but it turned out there was only one model available in two colors for the pre-paid, gaijin-only plans.  It was 6000 yen for the phone, charger and two months of service (which is about $60, by the way).  Then they told me to go away and come back in an hour or so to pick it up.

Back in the CIE, I poked around the Interwebs and spoke with mom and a few people in game chat.  Yes, I am from the future and I was killing time, so again, I apologize if that killed time messes stuff up for y'all.  Then I went back to the shop and picked up my phone!  I played around with it for a while while I waited for my Language Lab tour to begin.

They explained the program we'll be using for homework and whatnot and then took us on a tour of campus.  We talked out of the CIE and found a black cloud had moved over just campus.  It seemed okay until the thunder boomed.  And the lightning started flashing.  Loud, loud booms and really close-by flashes.  We continued our tour and while we were in one of the buildings, the cloud burst. Literally.  We couldn't leave the building it was raining and winding so hard.

When it died down a bit, we headed to the library and a few other places (and I remembered my flip-flops have absolutely no traction whatsoever) and ended up in the CIE again.  I poked around the Interwebs and posted videos of the storm on Facebook while outside dried off and then headed back to the dorm.

I ate the katsu sandwiches I picked up yesterday and took a quick shower to remove the sweat of the day.  I found the ginger cookies in my bag and shared a few before wandering downstairs to poke at the Interwebs a bit more.  Daniel came by to visit one of the other people in the seminar house so I pestered him to hang out a bit before heading back to his own seminar house.

The bugs were out today, and apparently I'm just as tasty in Japan as I am back home.  I have at least four bites.

In other news, I figured out the address for my CIE mailbox.  Enjoy~

Kathryn Michelle Sipos

c/o Center for International Education

Kansai Gaidai University

16-1 Nakamiyahigashino-cho,

Hirakata city

Osaka 573-1001 JAPAN

Big huge address--and I still don't know who my host family is.  I don't get to know that until the 4th or 5th.

I also figured out how to open the windows on the other side of the dorm and was able to take a picture through the screen.  This is aimed toward seminar house 2 and possibly seminar house 4 in the distance.  You can also see the park around the corner from where I'm staying.

For now.  Tomorrow's more orientation and form-filling-out and the placement test.  It'll be full and partially miserable, but I'll live.  Can't wait to know what classes I end up with.

So Much Food

Today was a day full of food.

I got up a bit after 9 a.m., naturally, without the alarm and had a yogurt cup for breakfast before planting my butt in a computer chair for an hour or so waiting for my roommates to get up so we could go find campus.  We finally got going after 11 and headed to the Top World, the nearest supermarket.  I picked up some shrimp tempura, milk tea and sandwiches for lunch and we headed back.

Back to the computer lab, I submitted my request for classes.  I signed up for Spoken Japanese, Reading and Writing Japanese, Introduction to Japanese History, Visual Anthropology of Japan and Shinto.  My alternates are Sumi-e, Monsters, Ghosts and the Making of Modern Japan, Anime: Method and Meaning, Basic Ceramic Techniques, Religion in Japan and The Body and Communication in Japan.  Hopefully I get into the ones I want; if I don't, it isn't first-come, first-serve, it's lottery-based.

Then I met with a group and we wandered in a new direction for lunch.  We found a local restaurant and invaded.  A handful of us tried our seiza to see who could last longest and it was one of the guys who won in the end (he sat that way the entire time we were there).  I had an oyakodon set, which included chicken and egg over rice and udon soup.  Afterward, we wandered through a 100 yen store and then back to the seminar houses.

I read more of Ulysses and managed to sync my brain with it.  I guess I had perfect reading conditions for my brain to latch onto the style of the prose.  Everything made sense, despite being short and choppy and... well, Ulysses.

Then back to adventuring.  A group of us got together and finally figured out where campus was.  It was a 20-minute walk despite us going through residential areas.  It was neat seeing what different architecture was hidden away in the neighborhoods.  Apparently addresses aren't given by the order of the houses, they're given by the order of when the houses were built.  We found campus but it was after the gates were locked, so we stared through it for a bit before wandering to the 7-11 down the street.  7-11s here definitely have better stuff than the ones in America.  I picked up a melon ice cream cone (in the cold case!  It looked like a soft-serve cone and was consumable as such, but it was pre-made!) and a pork bun, both of which were delicious.

Can't wait for the daily allowance to start.

Friends

I got up around 7:30 a.m. on August 27 and was out the door by 8:30 a.m.  There was a bag with the newspaper because someone didn't have the decency to ring the doorbell and say 'kbai' or give hugs or anything.  We stopped at Safeway and picked up a slice of cake for Miho before heading up to SFO.

Security was easy enough to go through.  The strap on the laptop bag broke before I even got to the gate, and then when I was at the gate, it wasn't the right one because the airport told me the wrong one.  So I found my gate and pulled out Tiny Laptop to steal supposedly free wifi.  It didn't exist, so after a half hour I put her back away and called to suspend my phone service.

And then I was on the plane.

And then I was still on the plane.

And then I continued to be on the plane.

I read the first 100 pages of Ulysses, played Pokemon, wrote a lit, watched Clash of the Titans and entertained the small child seated next to me.  Oh, and heard Always by Erasure on the in-flight radio station.  Open your eyes~

Cthulhu made a friend named Ted on the flight and they got pretty close pretty quick.  Unfortunately, their relationship was a short one, as distance drove them on their separate ways.  But the photographs will remain to immortalize the memories.

Then I was off the plane and following the hordes of other KGU students on the flight.  Customs went ridiculously smoothly, baggage claim was perfectly timed and there was only an hour wait until the shuttle.  People introduced themselves all over the place and bonds formed pretty quickly.  Hooray for geeks!  Then it was on the bus for 2 to 3 hours and then we arrived at the seminar houses.

And it was muggy.  Disgustingly so.  You walk outside and you're soaked.  Actually, you walk out of the immediate proximity of the air conditioner and you're soaked.  I can do heat and I can do cold, but the muggy's going to drive me insane.

So Short!

And I'm not in Japan yet!

I finally went out and had my hair cut.  I promised it at the beginning of the summer and gave people ample opportunity to have their way with it, but in the end only Alex really did anything (and the resulting Sailor Moon meatballs were awesome).  I didn't have the chance to do my Toreador Lorelei style before the big cut today.

So now it's shoulder length and short and in a tiny ponytail.  Christian's is longer.  Pictures to appear in an update.

Now we're throwing the last few things out to pack and then hopefully sleeping for a decent amount of time before heading out tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.  In 12 hours, I will be on a plane headed to Japan.

1:30 a.m. Update:  I'm packed.  Shower and sleep.  Great good gods, I'm going to be so far away from y'all.

Entertainment and Gifts

I picked up Ulysses and the Count of Monte Cristo to go with my copy of the Tale of Genji that will be my traveling entertainment.  That's roughly 3000 pages to keep me busy when I've got downtime.

I've also got a 1-pound box of See's chocolate to take with me as a gift, and a couple packs of gum, as I've heard gum is a hot item from America.

Frank was so very nice and got me both a translator/dictionary and $100.  Thank you!

Tomorrow is laying stuff out to pack; Thursday is actually packing.  Where did the summer go?

Creation Test

So, this blog now exists.

I leave for KIX from SFO around 11 a.m. on Friday, August 27.  I will miss game but hey, I'm headed to Japan.  I will miss the people here, but for them it's just me gone for my usual four months of school.

Am I nervous?  Not yet.
What is my biggest fear going over there?  Not getting along with my host family.
What am I looking forward to most?  Being there and experiencing.  And picking up Pokemon Black.

I've got a list of things either to pick up or do; it'll get longer as time goes on, as these things do:
-Traveling photos with Ninja Dave minion #2015 (Index Staff). +
-Traveling photos with Cthulhu (Loki).

-Find a panty vending machine (Ashley).
-Pick up a Yes-No doll (Lindsay).
-Pick up safe travel charms (Loki).
-Bring/make a b-day cupcake (Miho).
-Stalk and bother Quill (Me).
-Pick up Pokemon Black (Me).
-Pick up an omamori (Ashley).
-Postcards! (Drea, Loki)
-Eat a delicious fish (Tom).

To the right is Ninja Dave minion #2015.  He sneaked into my paperwork at the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco and made a special appearance.

There's more.  I'll remember them as I go or people yell at me to remember them.
(Hint: Yell at me right now if there's something that should be added or you want added.)