ORIENTATION WEEK

Oh my goodness.  I have no excuse for why I have not written in over a month except that I’ve been having too much fun.  Though the truth includes lack of access to internet for a bit, inability to edit videos, etc….still, no excuse for my absence from the internets.  I can remember the Monday of orientation week pretty well, but the rest is blur.  Here is my summary of orientation. 

Also,  I have finally uploaded edited videos of the seminar houses/dorms so here are the goodies to make up for it:

LINKS!!

Kansai Gaidai Seminar House 4 Tourhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDNuz315zzQ

Kansai Gaidai Dorm Tour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQWBQco3BIU&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

 

Monday - August 29

Took a campus tour that consisted of way too much walking.  The tour guide lady made us walk up all the way to the 3^rd floor of the library, and when we got to the 3^rd floor, all she had to say was, “This is the 3^rd floor.  We have more books here.”  Then she had us walk back down ALL THOSE STAIRS.  Now, you may think I’m complaining about walking too much, but that 3^rd floor tour was completely unnecessary, and you have to remember that I’ve been living in Florida for the past  five years or so where walking is at the bottom of the transportation totem pole.  Floridians mostly drive everywhere or take escalators.  Yeah…I know…I’m a lazy butt now.  That will change in Japan though.

That afternoon I also took my placement test.  OMG, don’t even get me started on that mess.

Tuesday - August 30 to Friday – September 2

The rest of orientation week was full of more official things to do like opening a bank account, paying for my housing arrangements (homestay fees and a deposit), liability fees, tours of where everything we need is, safety workshops, and just asking questions about things I thought up randomly.  Liiiiiiiiike, “How do I join a club?” “Can my parents mail me boxes to my mailbox on campus?” “If a creeper guy touches me on the street, can I punch him in self-defense?” and so on.

I can expand on the answers to these questions and the processes mentioned above in later posts if peeps are interested.  Just message me.  Really…..anytime.  I’m lonely and bored  and would like something to do and people to interact with.

AAaaaaanyways….

I went karaoking during orientation week, and it was so awesome!!  We went to this place called Jankara, and it was kinda pricey, but the atmosphere was really nice.  We went with an old friend from our university who had done the JET programme and continued to live in Japan with her boyfriend afterwards.  Jankara is located on the fourth floor of a building near Hirakata city’s train station.  You take a sketchy, tiny elevator up, and then you’re brought into a bright and boldly colored room with drink dispensers and a front desk.  You pay for whatever karaoke package you want (how many hours, alcoholic drinks or not, etc.), and then you get assigned a room, which could range from a small room the size of a small public restroom with a table and two couches that line the walls on two sides to a super big room with couches that line most of the walls and one to two tables.

Most asian karaoke place in America (from my experiences karaoking in New York and Florida) usually use a typical family home-style karaoke machine in which you enter codes for what songs you want to sing, and the codes are usually in large phonebook-like tomes.  However, the nicer karaoke places in Japan like Jankara just have a touch screen device that you can type in the artist name or song.  The thing will search for what it thinks you want, and then you can enter it into a queue.

I highly recommend  doing karaoke, either in Japan or asian karaoke places in America.  It’s a great stress reliever, super fun, and just a great bonding experience with your friends because you definitely embarrass yourself as you sing and discover the awesome let-loose ridiculousness you and your friends have inside as you drink and belt out songs you know you can’t sing well….heh heh.

 As you can see, the karaoke was the highlight of my week.  I continue to enjoy and be obsessed with it, too.  :P

From now on, posts will either be RECAP EPISODES since so much has happened that I have not written about yet, or they will just be normally titled posts for more recent events.  There you go~!

I'm in Japan, and It hasn't hit me yet :D

So….I’ve been in Japan for about a week now, and I love it!!  Well, there have been some hard parts (:P) to be honest, but before I delve into anything, I want to relay this week’s past events.  (And omg, this week was so loooooooong (:P) ).

August  28^th Saturday – The Overnight Airport Stay

I traveled through time zones and over where the Bering land bridge used to be to get to Tokyo, Japan.  The ride was over 13 hours long, and I watched two movies, three TV shows, played hangman, slept, and tried not to go out of my mind.  Luckily, 9 of the 11 UF students going rode this leg of the trip with me, so we were able to keep each other company.

When we got to Tokyo, customs went by rather quickly actually, and we had no issues with baggage or anything.  However, when we re-checked our bags, we found out that our flight got delayed.  We were planning on catching the last limousine bus out of the KIX airport (where we to finally end up at) to Hirakata City in order to make it to the international dorms before the 11 pm curfew.  So…..we decided to maybe just take a taxi straight there, but when we got to KIX with our massive and beastly luggage, we ended up wasting time debating to take the taxi or stay at a hotel for the night (since the taxi turned out to be more expensive than we thought).  In the end, 3 of us decided to stay at the airport hotel, and the rest of us had an overnight stay in the airport itself.

My god.  I will never do that again.

I slept maybe 3 hours fully.  We lugged our bags all around the airport in search of food and bathrooms, and then finally we settled in a hidden corner where the airport mailbox/post office area was.  We thought that this was probably the best location since it seemed deserted and out of the way.  Unexpectedly, it turned out to be the a high traffic area for security and the janitorial staff to stomp, STOMP, STOMP through and clank, CLANK, CLANK through while rolling large squeaky equipment and carrying quite jangly keys.  (insert angry face).

Anyways, I ended up a cranky, uncomfortably unwashed, and sleep-deprived foreigner in Japan after that night.  That’s not to say we didn’t have fun.  We took lots of video and pictures and laughed and talked for hours.  We explored a lot of that airport, and generally enjoyed our night to the best of our abilities.

August 29^th Sunday – The Longest Day of My Life After That Mess Last Night

I ended up changing and cleaning myself as best as I could with a baby wipe around 3 to 5 am that morning.  My friends and I brushed our teeth and stuff and loaded al our luggage onto those luggage carts that airports have.  We went up to the top floor of the airport to watch our first Japanese sunrise and took video and pictures.  It was really fun, and then we navigated our way to food and then to our friends who stayed at the hotel.  We ended up taking that shuttle bus (cost 2000 yen) at 7:10 am or so for about an hour and a half. 

Watching the scenery go by was really awesome.  I was so sleepy, but my first real glimpses of Japan were so amazing.  It looked so different but at the same time….normal.  There were mountains to my right in the horizon and sea to my left.  There was only one actual Japanese native on the bus, and the rest of the passengers were made up of us 11 UF students and one other international student from Alabama (we met up with the 11^th one at KIX and made new friends J ).

The bus let us off in Hirakata city, and then we took taxis to the seminar houses (the international dorms).  Those taxi drivers lifted our super heavy suitcases and had to drive with their trunks open and a single rope holding our bags in.  I was scared the whole time something would fall off during the 10 or 15 minute drive.  Then these guys lifted our suitcases back out, too.  Just fyi, these guys were grandfather-aged.  I was super impressed.  It ended costing about 1900 yen to get from the bus stop to the seminar house.

It was hilarious moving in because the guy in charge was like, “How many people are coming?”  Four of our friends were going to stay in a different house, so I was like, “8 of us.”  The caretaker then asked, “3 or 4 more?”  “No, there are 8 of us.”  He went and got some papers for us to sign in and receive for orientation and then asked again, “2 or 3 more people?”  I wanted to yell, “NO, man!  EIGHT!! So 6 more!!”  All that I did was repeat myself until two more people from our group came and then another girl who came by herself and left him once I was able to lug my suitcases up to my room.

Omg, and then the first thing I did was take a wonderful, very-much needed, long, and delicious shower.  Then I went to another dorm room where some of my friends were gathered.  Andrew, my boyfriend who was also put up in the same house, informed me of some of our friends from the other house wanting to go out and eat.  I said something along the lines of, “Hey, Andrea and peeps wanna go out for dinner or something soon.  You guys wanna go?”  They stared at me and then laughed, “Sandra, it’s 10:30 in the morning!”

It wouldn’t be until the next Saturday that I would finally have the time and day right.

Anyways, we went out to eat, met new people, walked and explored the area around our dorm, bought food at the convenience stores (OMG AND THEY ARE CONVENIENT!  They actually sell real food and things you actually need and can use), and got adjusted.

The rest of day felt like forever until it got dark and I went to bed around 9 pm.

WAIT!  I remember what else happened.

I know I got my cell phone, and it cost like 7000 yen up front for a prepaid plan and from then on it will cost 3000 yen every two months for unlimited texts and emails and 30 minutes of actual phone calling LOLZ.  Apparently, people rarely call here and just use email as our form of texting.  It’s been super useful for getting people together to do things and just communication in general (DUH lol), but yeah, if you come to Japan to study abroad for at least a semester, get a cell phone.

I know we explored the clothing stores that are about 3 minutes or less by walking from the house I’m in.  Japanese clothes are super cute and can be SUPER SMALL.  My butt will probably never fit into most of the shorts and pants they sell there.  I tried.

NEXT POST:

August 30^th to September 2^nd –Orientation Week 

I LEAVE IN 2 DAYS WHHUUUUT~

Last night I spent a stressful few hours packing.  I've been super overwhelmed lately with last minute financial issues, moving my sister in to her first dorm ever for her freshman year in college, and making sure everything will go smoothly.  Mostly everything is ready to go, so I'm like, *sigh of relief*.  My baggage finally has everything in it that I need except for the things I'm currently still using that will go into my carry-on.


Other than that, I've also been freaking out about not having studied enough Japanese in order to be ready for the reading/writing and oral placement tests that will be administered this coming week.  To be completely honest, I have reviewed two thirds of the first of two textbooks that I should know all the grammar and kanji of.  Let me tell you, my kanji knowledge sucks right now so I'm trying to revive whatever's left from a summer of lazin' with kanjibox.

Btw, what is this about drowning kitties??? O.o
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LoL, I walked away from this and then read what I wrote. Gaaah, I hope these posts are understandable and interesting.  I will try my best, and I hope I'll get better from here on out.  I think it's because I'm stressed that I feel like what I'm writing is bland and meh.
Ok, enough hatin'. 

Here's what one of my most recent shopping lists looked like.  Enjoy.

I never did get the turtle neck, but I found plenty of sweaters and a scarf.  I keep thinking I have everything I need, and then my parents are like, "What about snacks in case you get hungry at the airport?" "What about benadryl?  You know you get food allergies a lot."  "Mi hija, don't forget the midol and tums!"

Today is Wednesday.  I leave Friday.  My mom has made another shopping list that includes a flashlight ("You never know.  There might be earthquakes and no electricity."), more midol, paper duct tape, and sandwich baggies.  I'll be taking care of that tonight.

I'll be uploading a video to intro vlogging.  It's so derp, but whatevs, g.  I'm so tired so it'll have to do.