◊♦◊ 2005.9.30 ◊♦◊
Yes, I love reading comments on my entries...Anywho, since it took sooooooo loooooong to get my internet hooked up, and I have so much to write about, I am not going to write one horrendously long entry. Instead, in the next few blog entries, I am going to write about what has happened during the past three weeks in parts until I catch up to what is going on now. (Or else one entry covering the past three weeks would be obscenely long...^^) Also, when you let the cursor hover over an image, you can read my comments about that photo. ^^
So here goes: *drumroll*
Part 1 of Adventures in Japan - 9/12/05 to 9/13/05
On 9/12, after a long (10 hour) plane flight (on which I swear they placed all of the white Americans on the right side of the plane near the emergency exit because I was not near a single Asian person), I arrived at Narita International Airport. The walk from the gate to customs felt like nearly 3 miles (or maybe it felt that long because of the bags I was carrying that seemed to be getting heavier with every step). Customs was really the only thing I was somewhat anxious about, but I passed through easily, and no one seemed to even consider searching my luggage. The airport greeters were right where they said they would be with a big sign that said "Aoyama Gakuin University." )
Aya (from the International Exchange Center at AGU) and Miki (my tutor) were waiting for me. It was nice to finally meet Miki since we had been exchanging emails for the past week, but I was definitely shocked when I saw her. She cannot possibly weigh more than 70 pounds...she is, quite literally, skin and bones. She is the tiniest person I have ever seen and there can't possibly be even an ounce of fat on her...Miki helped me sign up with a baggage delivery service and I sent my big luggage off to be delivered the next morning to 5 Ships.
So from there we had to go to the other terminal to meet another student who was arriving and was also going to be staying at 5 Ships (my dorm). Her name is Nicole, she's from Chicago, and will be studying at Aoyama as well. I got to meet Nanami (another tutor) and then we set off to go to 5 Ships. Aya had called ahead to 5 Ships (because they had a 5 pm check-in deadline) and they told us they would wait for us and we would definitely be able to check in no matter what time we got there. We took a bus which cost nearly 3000 yen (about $30...eek) and it took about an hour to get to the Shinyurigaoka train station. )
By this point I was just moving around in a daze, and could only do what Miki was telling me without paying any attention to how the train system actually worked (and I figured I would have plenty of time to puzzle it out later anyway). From this station, we took the train to Ikuta station near 5 Ships, and then we had to WALK. The entire stupid road towards 5 Ships was uphill. (Yes, this was not fun because: one, it was quite hot, two, it was humid, three, it was HUMID, and four, I was very tired and very hungry).
When we finally made it to 5 Ships after we had stopped briefly at the 7-11 (Yes, those are everywhere in Tokyo) and I had bought a few things to eat (I grabbed the most colorful things I saw since the Japanese characters were, at this point, swimming nightmarishly before my eyes) we checked in and were shown to our rooms. The entrance to each unit has a place to take your shoes off before entering the room (I stared at this area blankly before my brain kicked back into gear and said "Yes, this is where you take off your shoes, genius"). Now for photos of my ultra-glamorous room:
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Making a futon is certainly hard if you have never made one up before and especially if you have just spent over 24 hours traveling. After the first ten minutes of staring at it, and another ten spent wrestling with it, I was quite proud of myself when I was able to make it up correctly. (I was determined that my first conversation with my suitemates was not going to be about how to make up a futon.) One thing that certainly caught me off guard, though, was that my pillow was this tiny thing filled with rice...eh...I barely had time to ponder this fact before I was sound asleep.
The next day...
There was an orientation on 9/13 for the new girls who had just arrived during the past few days. I spent the morning unpacking after my luggage arrived, and then napped until orientation time. We learned rules and regulations, all about sorting trash and which bins to put which trash in, applying for an internet connection, etc. Tadauchi-san, the woman who held the orientation, is probably the only staff member at 5 Ships who speaks English, and we were able to get a lot of questions answered. After the orientation, the six of us (me, Nicole, Cathryn, who is from Los Angeles, Lucy, who is from Vancouver, and two Korean exchange students) went to the Kawasaki City Hall to apply for our alien registration cards. This process was suprisingly easy and we pick up our cards the first week of October.
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After a quick stop at the ticket window outside the Mukogaoka-yuen station (picture at left) where the Korean exchange students were buying their commuter passes (and they showed us how to buy the passes so we could come back when we had the cash on us to pay for it), we headed to the 100 yen shop. A 100 yen shop is like a dollar store in the U.S., but unlike the dollar stores in the U.S., it has good quality stuff, and you can find just about anything at these stores. (I cannot emphasize enough how awesome the 100 yen shops are ^_^). The entire time we were in the store, there was a recording that was looping over and over and over of a woman speaking in a high-pitched voice about how great this store was. And on top of that, all of the employees in the store, every 20 seconds, would shout "Irasshaimaseeeeeeeeee!" and I could hear them no matter which part of the store I was in...I was highly amused by this for some reason...I got about $100 worth of stuff for about $30...sweet.
On the way home, we absolutely could not resist stopping in at a McDonald's near the train station (I had this strange, sudden craving for fries). Cathryn ordered first and we spent the first five minutes trying to tell the girl taking our order that Cathryn wanted NO pickles or onions on her burger (that was highly amusing). After getting our food, we had to go to the second floor (there were no tables on the first floor) and climbing the stairs with our trays of food and our big bags of purchases from the 100 yen shop was truly an exercise in balance. The first thing I noticed after we sat down to eat was a large (I emphasize large, since one would have to be blind not to see it) NO SMOKING sign on the wall in both bright red English and Japanese Kanji. The reason I noticed this was that there were five different people smoking around the room, and ashtrays were provided at each table. *scratches head* I guess the no smoking sign was just for decor (add a little splash of red to a boring white and yellow room...heh).)
I must say, though, the fries were probably the best I've ever had...And this last picture was on the way back to 5 Ships, in front of Ikuta station. It's a group of school children, and I had to take a picture. It was one of those scenes that make you say "Awwww...Aren't they cuuuute?" ^^
To be continued...
The Siren lost her way
at 7:39 p.m. //
◊♦◊ 2005.9.29 ◊♦◊
This update is definitely LONG overdue. After 16 looooong days, I FINALLY got the internet hooked up in my room here. (I was told to wait 10 to 14 days for my modem to be delivered, and then they took 16 days to deliver the darn thing...I have been using the computer at Aoyama to use the internet, but those computers would not let me access my domain account or email for some reason...) The entire how-to-install book for the modem was in Japanese and after a long day of classes in Japanese my brain was no longer really comprehending any language properly, so I just randomly started plugging stuff in and got it to work on the first try (I'm just that good). And it's a fast connection, too, which is sweeeeeet.
Anywho, I'm tired, have a headache (I mean, what better way is there to begin my first day of school by waking up with a sore throat and having to fight off a cold my entire first week of classes?), have some homework to complete, suitemates to bug about helping me translate said homework (but at least they are very polite and patient about it ^^), some w-inds to watch, eating dinner might be a good idea, watch more w-inds, and sleeeeeeep...I'll do a proper update by this weekend by posting pictures and beginning my tales of my adventures in Japan. (Skips off to boil some water...mmm...sencha is yummy...)
(And yes, Bonnie, I discovered bank fees when I went online to see how much I was withdrawing in US dollars everytime I went to the ATM to get yen, and saw that no matter what amount I withdrew, there was a $5 bank fee. So taking out more money at once (after exchange rates and bank fees) defintely works in my favor. ^_^)
The Siren lost her way
at 7:10 p.m. //
◊♦◊ 2005.8.27 ◊♦◊
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Went to the Grand Canyon on Thursday. This gave me a good excuse to finally use my new digital camera (I took over 200 pictures ^^). Above is one of the panoramic photos I took that actually came out good once I figured out what I was doing...
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We walked quite a bit, taking the shuttle way out past Bright Angel Lodge. We walked between two of the lookout points on the route, which took a bit longer than we thought since we had to walk around the Orphan Mine area. (The ground is unstable because of the old mine tunnels).
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Once we got to Hermit's Rest, we saw this raven who was posing for the crowd. (I just couldn't resist posting this picture). The raven certainly seemed to enjoy having his picture taken since he kept turning and puffing his feathers for the cameras.
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And the last stop on our trip was to visit the Watchtower out at the Desert View area on the eastern side. It's several stories so of course we climbed to the top. The view is amazing from there. ^_^
The Siren lost her way
at 11:16 a.m. //
◊♦◊ 2005.8.24 ◊♦◊
So today was my last day of work... ...ah, I'm gonna miss the wonderful people I work with...And most of my friends will be graduating next May, so they'll all be gone when I return from Japan to finish my last year of college...wah...
Now all that's left is waiting, packing, and desperate last minute cramming of the Japanese language...
Woo! and I downloaded the new music video by w-inds yesterday...They are certainly the most beautiful men alive...Yes, I can't wait until I get to Japan and hunt them down...ah, I must figure out a plan first...*walks off mumbling and giggling to herself*
The Siren lost her way
at 8:02 p.m. //
◊♦◊ 2005.8.20 ◊♦◊
Only three days of work left...Then there is nothing left to do but pack and get ready for studying abroad in Japan. I am quite surprised that I am not yet super excited or anxious about leaving yet...Ah, I will be soon enough. Only 21 more days until I leave for Japan...
No pictures for this entry, not unless y'all wanna see more pictures of our ever-so-cute cats. But I'll have lot of pictures for next week because I am going to the Grand Canyon on the 25th! Woot! I've seen it several times, and pictures taken of it never really capture what it feels like to stand at the edge of the canyon and see it for yourself. That'll be much fun.
And, yeah, I'm just rambling really...not too much to write about at the moment...
The Siren lost her way
at 9:31 p.m. //
◊♦◊ 2005.8.9 ◊♦◊
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Woo! Got my new laptop computer today. It is truly spiffy and quite powerful. It took a large chunk of my savings to buy, but I'm not thinking about that right now...I am going to thoroughly enjoy uploading all of my junk on there. (Only 80 GB of space so I guess I'll have to be a bit selective.) The computer is quite, ah, large, isn't it...It's a bit bigger than I thought it was when I was shopping online...Large screen, though, very cool.
I have also finished moving my domain to my new host. A friend recommended a great host which was leaps and bounds better than my previous host. And I'm saving money by switching, too. ^^ I now have 3 GB of web space that I can fill up...Switching hosts turned out to be a bit more...complex than I thought it would be since I had never done it before, but after irritating the heck out of the support guys at both hosts with my clueless questions, I got it all worked out.
The Siren lost her way
at 9:31 p.m. //
◊♦◊ 2005.8.7 ◊♦◊
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Woo! Pictures taken with my spiffy new digital camera. Aren't these two kitties so cuuuute! ^_^ Peanut is the orange one and he is my mom's cat. He's laying in the grass of the fake indoor plant there... My mom has two other cats as well, but I have yet to get good pictures of them. (They run whenever I pull out the camera). The black and gray striped one is my adorable kitty, Chloe.
So as you might have noticed, I have created a new layout. I have also renamed my blog since I was quite thorougly sick of the last name. I have also finally moved my blog from pitas.com to my domain. Finally. I have been meaning to do that for a while now... I also did some much needed cleaning up of the code since it had gotten quite...ugly, actually. So, update bookmarks! ^^
I will also be changing hosts in the next few days, so if my site is unavailable for a time, that is why.
The Siren lost her way
at 2:02 p.m. //
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