Touchdown Daniel

DAY 1

Hello Everyone.
So I made it to Japan scratch free, but didn't have access to internet, hence the lack of an update (falling behind already!).

So, I'm studying at Sophia University in Tokyo and living with a host-family in setagaya-ku (approximately 40 minutes from campus by train). So this is my host-families house.
Its much smaller on the inside I must say, and I get to duck whenever I go into a room. I'm still adjusting to the sparce use of airconditioning too (do japanese people not sweat?). Anyway I'm with a happy little family of four. We've been speaking Japanese almost entirely with only a few stray english words tossed in the mix for clarification. Also they run a day-care out of their home and so I get to spend my breakfast time talking to 2-3 year-olds (I know more japanese than them!).

My second day was spent at orientation on campus. Basically my homestay family told me where the train station was and then sent me on my way. For your viewing pleasure I present to you the tokyo subway system map. My starting point isn't even featured on this guy. It was daunting (seeing as to how i'm neither proficient in japanese nor train-riding), but I pulled through and even got to experience some rush hour cramming (imagine 50 more people than you'd imagine would fit on a train coming through just one door, no joke).

I'll spare you from mentioning orientation. By the end of the night though, I managed to find myself in an english pub (note to family: drinking age is 20 in Japan) with some brits and russian students, which wasn't exactly my ideal way to experience Japan, but it was nice to see the multiculturalism present at the university.

DAY 2

Today I once again braved the trains and had to go find city hall to register myself as an alien residing in Japan. It was naturally time-consuming and quite taxing if only because I couldn't follow anything the officer workers were saying (Immigration related vocabulary should be added to japanese textbooks). Then I met up with my friends from High School Diplomats from the summer of 04 and they treated me to lunch!
(Left is Yoshiko and Right is Jo).

I spent the rest of my day with Yoshiko trying to get a cellphone. Something that is very difficult when A). You aren't Japanese B). You have no residence in Japan and C). You lack a Japanese Bank Account. Hours later I had visited half of the cell phone shops in Akihabara (famous for electrics) and Ikebukuro (shopping area), if only because its hard to find a good contract or prepaid phone for just a year.

My night ended with me quietly riding the train and staring at my cell phone. I felt I was pulling off the Japanese look quit nicely. Anyway with all my errands out of the way, I still have til Oct 1st to run around before its time to buckle down for a 15hour a week dose of Japanese classes.