Sunday, August 5, 2007

General stuff on Japan...having a great time....

Firstly, Happy Bday to my mum for the 6th. I am sitting here in my apartment with the fan on the highest setting. It is so humid here. I can totally understand why the people here wait till night time to do stuff. The shops are mostly open till 9 or 10pm.

Well how to start....so much has happened since we landed on the 29th of July. Firstly, we went to Shinjuku for Orientation. It was really great. I stayed in a room with a girl from Adelaide, Natalia. Alot of the sessions were either really boring or really useful. Like life i guess. I admit my first meal in Japan was actually italian because that was the first place we found. But then the Adelaide group went to a really nice noddle place. I had tenpura and udon noodles. It was very nice.

FYI - Shinjuku is the busiest station in Japan....trying to cross from one track to another is really hard cause there are so many people to get through.

Then all the participants who are going to Saitama Prefecture got on a bus and we went to the meet our supervisors. This was on Wednesday last week. My supervisor is really nice. Her name is Morita Sensei. She took us out to lunch and then we went to our apartments. There is an American guy who is here in the same area as me. His name is Mario and he is from Texas. It is nice to have another person here to talk to.

On our first night in the Danchi (apartment block) Mario and I went shopping. We had to take the trolleys cause we bought so much stuff. Anyway, we returned them later but people kept giving us strange looks. Turns out you are supossed to ask to take them home with you.

Then the next couple of days were spent doing admin stuff. We went with Morita Sensei to get our Alien Registration cards. Only to find out that it takes two weeks to get it. And that means we have to wait that long to get our mobile phones and internet.

There is one other ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) here in the Danchi. He is called George and he is from Canada but is married to a Japanese girl. He took us to Diamond City to get some essentials. He has been really good about sorting things out for Mario and me.

On Friday, I went to the festival. Then on Saturday night i went back to Diamond City and did some more shopping. I got lots of stuff from Laura Ashley for my apartment. It is so cheap here. I decided to have dinner there so i went and ordered a meal of udon noodles and seafood. It was only $6 aussie. And it was so good. Not sure what all the seafood was but guess what this is all about.

Then today i spent relaxing and reading my newspaper. For lunch Mario and I went to a resturant near Warabi station (our closest one). What you do is pick a meal on the vending machine and put your money in. Then it prints out a ticket and you go inside and collect your meal. I guess it cuts down on lines etc. They are all about efficiency here in this country. I had the curry rice and it comes with soba noodles. It was very nice. Although, you have to carry your tray upstairs and they are so cramped. I nearly dropped my meal....it was funny at the time.

Other interesting things that i have found include a glue stick that is used to stick your socks to your legs. So that your socks don't come down. A face massager I think and a neck one as well. But they aren't like anything i have ever seen before. You can buy a huge sticker to stick on your window so that it looks like you have a blue sky and clouds all day long. Umbrella vending machines are also something new that i saw.

They have treats that are in the shape of a hamburger. The bun is made out of biscuit and the pattie is made out of chocolate. They also have chocolate mushrooms. I liked the hamburgers but not the mushrooms. Oh and did i mention that they are both mini sized.

Well i think that is about it. I am catching up with a girl from the states tomorrow. Her name is Kara and it will be nice to have some female company.

Love me

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