ParkThe park between Seminar House 4 and the other three seminar houses. It's a bit annoying being so far away from everyone else, but it's a very pretty park!
The one good thing is that the bus stops d
... [more]So today was the first full day of living in Japan. I must admit, I was feeling a lot better today. Getting sleep makes a *lot* of difference in how you feel, ahaha.
Though I will say that it was a little weird. I woke up this morning, like... wide awake. At first I thought both my other roommates were up, but it was just Kennisha, on her computer. But I got up, got my glasses, kinda stood there, and then asked her what time it was. 7:15. WHAT? I never wake up that early! Especially feeling so awake! So I went back to sleep until 8:00 or so. Well, not actually back to sleep, but I got in my bed and tried to get back to sleep until 8:00.
But anyway, today was a fairly busy day. I had to get used to the showers first... they are a bit strange. You have to pump them every 30 seconds or else they turn off. It's a bit annoying... and a few times it did turn off before I was able to pump it, but it wasn't too bad. And the toilets are weird too! Lots of strange buttons with sprays
HousesEven the houses here are just so fun to look at! I wish I lived in one!! Ahaha, well... I guess... technically, I will soon. I hope the house I live in is nice.
and the like that I'm too afraid to try. Plus they're warm seats. How weird is that? >_>
At 12:00, I met up with a bunch of people to go get lunch. A Japanese girl named Ayako was coming with us. Apparently, the school cafeteria was open, so we were going to go eat there but... the entrance to campus was completely closed. So we didn't. Thus, we walked around until we found a little lunch/coffee shop to eat at. Unfortunately, there were too many of us to fit in the restaurant at the time, so we went across the three to the 100-yen store until other people had left.
Food was delicious. I had some yakiudon (fried udon noodles) that was really good. Made some more friends there too, which was cool. One of them was from Britain! So that was neat.
After lunch and walking around, we went back to wait until the tour to Kuzuha Station/Mall at 3:00. The tour was really pretty much them taking us to the mall and then we could do whatever we wanted until 6:00, when we would meet up for dinner. The mall was awesome! It pretty much looks and feels
Coffee/Lunch HouseThis is the restaurant that we ate lunch in. It was very pretty and cozy inside! The food was quite delicious as well.
exactly like an American mall except for a few things like... the grocery store in it. The strange corridors that go off the main paths with more stores. The fact that random live concerts are held in it. And then the food court is not really a food court... it's an indoor marketplace. Seriously. You walk through there and there's all these food vendors with all kinds of things that I didn't even know what they were. And they're all calling out and there's tons of people everywhere and it's very crowded. But it was fun to walk around.
The only thing I ended up buying at the mall was an alarm clock I got at a store called "The Loft". It's a simple little black one, but it cost friggin' 1,890 yen, which is about $18. Suck! That's an expensive alarm clock!! But I kinda need it without my phone.
For dinner, we went to a yakitori restaurant, which is basically all sorts of fried chicken foods. It was a pretty cute little place. It was rather humorous too, because whenever any customers entered or left, everybody working there would say 'Welcome' or 'Thank you'. It seems like people
Karaoke Show?There was a show playing on the TV in the restaurant... some sort of... strange karaoke show. It made me laugh. At one point, there was a really old man up there singing.
were constantly yelling! Ahaha. To eat, I had some chicken... on a stick... I think just basic yakitori. It was good. Then I also got a fried onigiri (rice ball) with miso soup. It was quite excellent. I was so full afterwards! One funny thing was that the Japanese girls next to us kept ordering more... and more... and more food... we were like 'how can they eat so much???'
Most of the group was planning to order some more, but we were done, so we decided to take off. There was a 100-yen store in the basement of the building we were in, so we went there to find an ethernet cable we were told was there. Now that is cheap!!! Ethernet cable for only 100 yen?? That's what I've discovered here - some things are a lot more expensive here than at home, but some other things are a whole lot cheaper!! It doesn't make any sense.
But anyway, I bought one too, but when I tried to connect my computer upon returning home, it would connect me to the local connection, but I couldn't get an actual internet connection. Therefore, I am still stuck in the lab.
Grocery Store?There was a grocery store... in the mall. It was just weird!! And funny at the same time.
Not fun... but I hope that we can figure it out. Though, I don't even know what my host family will have available for internet.
Tomorrow, there is a campus tour at 11:00 that I'm going on with my friend Casey, and then there is the banking session that we will go to. I'm a little nervous about that, because apparently, there is a strict rule that you can't make a single mistake on the forms or else you have to fill a new one out! Some people said they had to go through like... 3 or 4 before they were able to get one all right. Yikes!
But hopefully that will go ok. I don't have my language lab orientation nor my language placement test until Tuesday, so besides the tour and the banking session, I don't have a lot going on tomorrow. Which will be nice, because I'm still tired. Seriously, we got back at 8:30 and I was already bushed!! I'm still trying to get over this jetlag, hhhhh...
Well, I think that's about all that we did today. I can't remember it there was anything else significant, because I am slowly becoming more and
Cute ShopThis shop was right across from the cell phone place at the mall, and it had lots of cute little things in it. On a similar note, cell phones shouldn't be too bad to get - only 3,000 yen for the phon
... [more]more tired. ^^
Anyway, I hope that tomorrow goes well too!
MANGAI was told by someone to take pictures of the shelves and shelves of manga. So I complied. OMG THERE WAS A LOT. The only problem is that they're all sorted by publishing company, and since I don't
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Strategy Guides?I really wanted to buy the Smash Bros. one, ahaha. Holy cow it was so thick! And only 1,200 yen! Books are so amazingly cheap in Japan!!
More of the honyaOk, so maybe I went with a bit crazy with pictures in the honya (bookstore). It was so funny though - one of the Japanese girls was taking us around the mall and as soon as I saw the book store I was
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Concert in the mall?I'm not sure why, but there was a concert going on in the mall... strange.
But the guys were cute, lol.
CrowdThe friggin' concert was garnering quite the crowd! You'd never see that many people just stopping to listen in an American mall.
Three-tiersThe mall itself was huge. Although, I think once you get above the third floor, it's something else, because we never went higher than that.
Kuzuha MallThese signs were all over the mall. I don't know why I took a picture of it... ahaha.
People WatchingWe had about a half hour before we were going to meet for dinner, but we all just wanted to sit down, so we found some benches. Then we pretty much people-watched, which was highly entertaining. Cas
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OutsideOutside the mall it was pretty neat too. There were some more shops and some tall buildings... and this random place where there were tons of pigeons. There was a little boy who kept chasing them ev
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More OutsideAnother shot, this time of some of the buildings outside the mall.
Kuzuha StationThe Kuzuha Station was a lot nicer than the Makino Station, which is where we got on. On the other side of the tracks, there was this random grassy area with bushes and a little shrine off the side.
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Onigiri!I ordered an onigiri for dinner! It was quite delicious! I didn't know if there would be anything inside it or not... but there wasn't. It was just rice. Very delicious though. And it came with s
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Yakitori RestaurantHere's the restaurant itself. It was really cool inside, with the paper lanterns and everything. Everything you ordered was 280 yen no matter what it was. Some of it was a great bargain, but some o
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Engrish FTWI couldn't resist taking a picture of this card in the 100-yen shop. Though there was also this hilarious notebook with ducks on it that said "Ducks have a cute face, but they swim hard." Ummm... I
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Inside the ShopInside the 100-yen shop. It was cute in there. Although, funny story - I get to the cash register and try to pay with what I thought was a 100-yen coin... but... it was Korean money that Cindy gave
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More of the ShopJust another picture of the shop. You'd be surprised what you can get for 100-yen. Like an ethernet cord, for instance.
Waiting for the BusThe area around Hirakata Station was really cool when it was all lit-up at night. We took the bus from here back to Kansai Gaidai.
Inside the StationSome of the shops inside Hirakata Station. Well, and just a big open area.
In LineMore of the lit-up buildings while we waited in line. You know what's really strange, though, is that the friggin' bus is more expensive than the train!
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Heeeeelllooo again. I'm a little behind on your entries, can you tell? I kind of forget about this thing, bahaha.
Um, this site is still sucking it up for me! I can only see two of the pics on this page. ULTIMATE FAIL. Oh well whatev.
The mall sounds fun! What I want to know is...what you did not buy me a present. That is unacceptable. XD Just kidding!
Glad you're liking the food, that's what I'd be most worried about! But I guess I'm a pickier eater, haha. lsjflkds.
Anyway, that's all I've got to say. See you next blog entry! :D
Well, I only have two!! Lol. And the reason you can only see two pics is because I was having some troubles in uploading my pictures, so finally I was just like... AHHHH I'M SO TIRED I'll do this in the morning. Which I just did.
Yeah, the mall was pretty cool. I'll have to go back there sometime when we have more time to really look at stuff.
And um, I didn't even buy myself something besides something that I *needed*, ahaha. Wah!!
I haven't tried any really strange food yet, like some of the octopus ball stands or things like that, but everything I've had so far has been really yummy.
All these manga and strategy guides... wow! I'm sure I wouldn't leave the book stores for hours! So many stuff to look at...
And heated toilet seats *rofl* I guess only Japanese people are coming up with stuff like this XD
Ahaha, I know! It was crazy! I'm going to have to be careful about what I spend in bookstores, lol. And the heated toilet seats are quite strange. I'm sure they would be nice in winter, when it's freezing, but in the summer, they don't really do much. XD Plus, they have all these strange buttons that I haven't tried yet because I'm too scared!!
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