My glasses! I can afford new glasses!

Wow, I can't believe that orientation week is almost over already! It doesn't feel like it's been almost a whole week! We had a number of more activities today... the biggest one being REGISTRATION!! I was a bit nervous going into it because I was afraid I wasn't going to get all the classes I wanted! And considering that I really need the two art classes so I can transfer them back as major credit at UNI, I really needed to get them!

So I went up to the line a little before 10:15, which was my time slot, and there was a looong line, so I was like SUCK! But fortunately, you got to go in the line wherever you number was! So I just keep glancing at peoples' slips of paper to see where they were and kept going up, and up and up... and I ended up being able to pop in as the second one in line. Awesome! And even MORE awesome... I got all the classes I wanted!!! Color me very excited! Even the brush-painting one! So yes, that was quite a success. I am actually rather excited for classes to start, because I think they'll be fun!

For lunch, we decided to try out the McDonald's on campus. One, because we hadn't eaten at a Japanese McDonald's yet, and two, because the cafeteria ended up being closed anyway. So we went... and it's a lot more complicated than the ones in America. Geez! You have to get a tray and slide along in the line. First, you have to tell the lady behind this big empty rack what you want, and then you get this little plastic ticket with the name of your food on it. You then take it to another lady who ladles you up some fries if you got a meal or whatever. Finally, you go to the last lady who takes your money, gives you your drink glass, and you then get a number that you can come back to get your food with. You have to wait up near the line holding your number until it's ready. Even for something as simple as a cheeseburger!! Ahaha. I also ended up trying this drink called Qu. I'm not sure what it was... but it was pretty good. It was some kind of juice that I couldn't quite place.

So yeah, quite the experience. Though I was sad because since it was just a campus McDonald's, they didn't actually have everything they normally have on the menu, so I was able to get a shrimp burger, which I really wanted to try!! Oh well, I'll just have to wait.

After that and walking around a bit (including going to the Japanese garden right on campus - so pretty!), we had the opening ceremony, which was pretty much just a bunch of really important people sitting in the front and then some people giving speeches for an hour. Rather boring... but not all that bad. After that, they led us all to the cafeteria for the Welcome Dinner (which explained why the cafeteria was closed that day). At first I was like... wow, there's not a lot of food, it seems. There were a bunch of tables set up with various places of food ranging from sushi, to rolls, to shrimp tenpura, to nikuman (rice dumplings), to fruit, to takoyaki (fried octopus), and a whole bunch of other things. But everything in Japan is so small! So you're like... oh, this doesn't seem like a lot. But it WAS! And it was so delicious too!! I was so full afterwards! You could just take whatever you wanted and put it on plates. I ended up getting some sushi - I even tried one with eel and it turned out to be quite wonderful!. Then I tried a nikuman, which was one of the best things I think I've ever TASTED! So I had two of those. I also had some shrimp and a mini onigiri (rice ball) that had what looked like some fish or shrimp on it. Oh, and I also had what looked like a swirly crescent roll, that ended up being mixed with chocolate. That things was friggin' delicious. I had two of those as well. Finally, we got in line to get some ice cream, and I got vanilla and green tea swirl ice cream. Yummmm~! Why is green tea ice cream so delicious?

So yeah, the dinner was quite wonderful. It's so weird though, *looking* at what I ate, it doesn't look like a lot, but the food here is so filling!!

After the dinner, we wanted to go out and explore around the Hirakata station, since this was one of our last free nights before classes started. So we took the train and basically just walked around for a while. We ended up finding another shopping mall and spent most of our time there. It's so much fun to just look around at the different fashions and clothes. And what's really humorous is that you go up to the men's fashion floor, and it looks almost exactly like the women's!! Guys' fashion here is quite a lot more feminine and dressy than it is in America. It makes me laugh. There was also a floor just full of toys and plushes and nick-nacks and such. That was a really fun floor to walk around in. And then above that was another arcade!! Ahaha, I love arcades! They're so much fun! And you're like... su*rrounded* by music and sounds and lights and such. Casey really wanted to play Taiko Drum Master after I lent her my DS, so she and I played a few rounds on it, ahaha.

Whew! I'm getting quite good at walking long distances now, though. You have to walk quite the hike to get just about anywhere here! My legs are also so tired, though!!
I'm very excited to go to Kyoto tomorrow. That should be fun! And then I'm also excited to meet my host family this weekend! I hope they put up on the CIE board when exactly I'll be meeting them. Oh, and they'll also be putting up the results of our placement tests tomorrow, so I'll see what Japanese class I get put into, ahaha. That will certainly be interesting to see.

Well, I should head off to bed, because I'm exhausted!! I don't think I've ever had a week where I've been so very tired every night! Probably because I'm doing something constantly throughout almost the whole day, and I'm almost always on my feet! It sure wears you out!

Anyways, though, I will put the pictures from today up tomorrow.
Oyasumi nasai~!

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