Wow.
Today was a ridiculous and long day. I woke up at 5 am from the jetlag, prettied up my room, and was on the computer until 10 when Moe (pronounced “Moe-eh”), the girl who picked me up at the airport, came to help me find my way to Sophia. This was reallyyy nice of her as it’s very out of her way. I would have been completely lost without her, so, thanks Moe!
I was pushed through a couple subway lines to get to Sophia where I sat in orientation listening to Japanese people speak very slow, deliberate english to all the exchange students about things they need, should, and might want to do. It took a couple hours and afterwards a group of about 10 of us, exchange students and their “monitors” who help them around, went down to the cafeteria. There is a big line for these machines that have pictures of Japanese food with the prices. You go up to it and pick what you want, put the money in, press the button, and you get a slip of paper that you have to go wait in another line for. You hand it to the cook who quickly puts together whatever it is you just thought looked tasty on the picture but you have no idea what it is because you can’t read a damn thing. What I got happened to be the slipperiest noodles in the world. I thought I was pretty competent with chopsticks but after a few minutes I swallowed my pride and used a fork on it.
After this eating embarrassment I went and was forced onto myspace by some of the Japanese monitors in the computer labs there. Sooooo, myspace me! Then I was given a campus tour by them all with other exchange students. I didn’t really learn much except there are 4 cafeterias, yeyy! Then there was a mingling party for all the foreign exchange students which I was actually quite successful. I met a ton of cool people, a couple of which I’m going to Akihabara with tomorrow. Akihabara is a famous section of Tokyo known for its electronics. Definitely many pictures will be taken, and hopefully I’ll be able to upload them once my bag comes.
Oh, yes, my bag. It hasn’t come yet. Tomorrow, they say. But don’t worry, I have a blanket now so I’m going to keep Bart Simpson in the bathroom.
The real adventure of today started when we left Sophia though. We went to Shinjuku, another famous section of Tokyo. It’s kind of like Times Square, but on a much larger scale. We went into some of the insane shops that are small, crowded, and sell everything imaginable and even more things I would never imagine.
So today was pretty amazing. I have no doubts that this year is going to be incredible. I love Tokyo already and I’ve only seen a small, small, smallllllll part of it. I’m ridiculously tired right now though so I’m going to pass out and hopefully stay that way for longer than last night. Pictures when I get stuff working, good night!
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