Jet lag is a bitch

---

Alright, I'm gonna catch everyone up quickly on what's been going down. Here are some random pictures that I haven't uploaded yet to illustrate.

I'm sitting in my hotel room, it's 5:51 AM, I woke up an hour ago and I can't sleep. The mattress and pillow here are both super firm, and the underside of the later also seems to be filled with weighted beads of some sort. Either way, the sun's up, and sleep won't happen for me today, so it's ブログのとき！(Blog-Time!)

Yesterday had it's highs and lows. I got breakfast at the hotel yesterday (something I'm eagerly awaiting this morning: que tummy rumble), and they came out with rice and fish(cooked) and pickled vegetables and sweet egg. Delicious!

We were then taken on a train by our PAs (Japanese volunteer students) to TIU (Tokyo International University, my school). We walked through strange little streets with no names but finally got there. We then had orientation for the next 7 hours... I was so tired by the end of it that I was physically sick to my stomach and light-headed.

In the middle of orientation, however, a few random Japanese students stopped by to introduce themselves. Junki, Yukki, and Yuuya want to learn more English, and meet us crazy Americans! Yuuya and Junki both said something about liking soccer, and since I had gotten back into soccer this year at Insomniac, I went up during a break and had a little conversation with them. My first Japanese conversation with Japanese people in Japan! すごい！(Amazing!) I think that's when I started to realize that I was in Japan and that it was going to be fun and manageable.

However, I also think I going through a bit of culture shock already. After we left TIU, our PAs were going to take us to dinner. My PA, Marina (マリナ）, took us to a diner-ish place called Gusto. I, and my new friend George (from germany!), had a very broken conversation with her. To give you context, George and I speak very little Japanese, George speaks very good English, and Marina speaks very little English. No concept was too big for us to try and explain in Japanese, but we often failed, lacking the specific vocab or sentence structure that we needed (I tried explaining the concept "Second Wind" to her, which became this epic saga of trying to find enough common words to illustrate the idea). This left me feeling exhausted, happy that I tried so hard, but unhappy with how much I actually accomplished...

To give you a quick idea of something that was especially frustrating during this episode: Japanese have this cultural tick, where they nod and say "Un, un, un..." (a re-affirming sound) repeatedly when you're talking to them. To a westerner, this sounds and looks like a "Yes, ok, I understand..." gesture, but really to a Japanese person it's there way of saying "Yes, ok, I 'm listening...". These are two VERY different things! I would be explaining to Marina something in broken English and Japanese, and she'd be looking up at me saying "Un, un, un..." and nodding, and I'd feel like 'Wow! How is she getting this? I wouldn't understand myself if I was her!'. So then I'd say "Wakarimasuka?", which means "Do you understand?", and she'd just shake her head! Argg!!! Even after I was told that this was the case in Orientation, it was still annoying...

Lastly, I broke the brand-spanking-new camera I bought last week. It still takes pictures, but at lunch time I busted it out and the entire screen was broken. I probably shouldn't have had in my pocket with other stuff when I sat down, and I definitely should have bought a case with a harder shell. When I bought the case, I was just thinking about scratch-protection, not breaking the actual screen... It's a good thing I sprung for that warranty!! Now I just need to spend a crap load of money shipping it back to the states to get fixed.

Alright! That was my day yesterday. It is now 6:25 AM, so I only have 35 mins until breakfast. I meet my host family today!! And I take a Japanese Language placement test... Wish me luck!!

Rowan

---

Photos

Spider
As seen on a street corner I passed by.

Hotel Room Ignition 1
Off.

Hotel Room Ignition 2
On. A/C and lights turn on.

Kawagoe
From TIU's balcony. Only picture I took after my camera died.

Coin-Op Restaurant
Buy your meal from the vending machine and the staff bring it to you.