Whoo! I'm so glad the posting-via-email thing works. Unfortunately, all the photos will be rotated 90 degrees anti clockwise because that's what my phone does. Suppose I'm gonna have to take all my photos with the phone rotated 90 degrees clockwise to counter it. Anyhow, apologies for not updating you on how my first week has been.. Can't do it now cos I have homework. Hopefully I'll find some time this weekend between dinner at Nishi Waseda dorm and going to Akihabara.

Publishing on Blogspot can be done via email. At first I that this could only be used by folk with smartphones,then I got myself a keitai denwa (more on that later) and now this is the test run

(In Fee's latest blog post, she made a comment about my blog being up to date and concise. Though they seem to me to be far from concise I will try to uphold these characteristics, but if I'm too tired I'll follow what she's done and just list things.)

I'm going to make this one brief because I need to go to bed ASAP so that I'll wake up early enough to leave the dorm at quarter to 7 tomorrow morning to get to my 9am class in time.

Yesterday, Chee Seng, Eszter, William, Sherif, Frant, Jenna and I went to the imperial palace grounds. The weather was great - not too warm and a breeze kept me cheery, very sunny, and it was perfect for strolling through gardens and around ponds. (I'll add photos another time.) It's like Regents Park in that the lay out seems planned in such a way so that photographs look really lovely. Especially with the old buildings dotted around.

We only saw about half of the grounds because when we got hungry and finding somewhere nearby that sold food proved difficult we decided to have a picnic at Yoyogi Koen instead. We ate by the big fountains and people-watched. The most noticeable thing we found was that all dogs being walked were tiny. There was a middle-aged couple with five dogs between them: 3 in the stroller and 2 walking beside them.

We didn't spend long there as we wanted to see Harajuku. On the way out of the park we saw three gangs dressed in different fashions from around the 50s and dancing to 50s music. Just beyond them were park gates and to get beyond the footbridge that takes you across the road, we had to shuffle as there were so many people streaming in both directions - towards and out of the park. Then we passed a great torii (I don't remember whose memorial it led to), crossed a bridge and met another sea of people trying to get into the station. Across the road was a massive (bigger than any single clothes shop I've seen in London) Gap store. omg. It had its own building, all windows and had three floors! Oddly, coming to Harajuku made me crazy over things we have in London yet wasn't so keen on. For example, Jenna, Eszter and I looked around the Accessorize store with wide eyes at all the pretty sparkly and feathery things (which were double the price back home), and none of us are even all that into dressing up. There's something about Japan that's made Eszter buy pink items and a headband with a big bow, and me want to squeal at the kawaiiii things.

I would liken Harajuku to Camden town for the kinds of fashions it is most visited for. There is one street that gets most of the attention in the area and we walked through making only three stops. The first was at the crepe place - Chee Seng pretty much hurried us to there (and I must post a photo of them stuffing their faces), the second is this kind of gothic lolita shop to which Jenna and I ran up the stairs to see (omg there were some nice dresses for only £15!) and the last was so that Chee Seng could take a photograph of a plane inside a shop.

Afterwards we made our way back round to the station. The guys are so lovely they let us see the whole of Accessorize. I sensibly walked out without buying anything, though I tried everything. Next weekend we're going to see Akihabara and let the guys go mental over the electronics.

Oh my goodness, it's already my second weekend here. ..But I still can't handle the heat and humidity very well.

On Tuesday was the Club Info Session. I expected it to be like freshers' fair where all the clubs set up a stall and try to persuade to become a member, sometimes by giving you freebies! We, the new students, were all excited to see what kind of clubs the student body had to offer since we'd been told numerous times that there are thousands of clubs. But we were all very disappointed as less than 10 had turned up (and without freebies). So after quickly walking past the tables to the computers by the window and unsuccessfully trying to check my mail, I went to that shady seating area outside Building 22 where I met Fee the other day to eat my lunch. There I found Chee Seng and sat with him and his friends. We talked until around a half hour before the SILS (School of International Liberal Studies, the school we're enrolled into for this exchange program) when we decided to take another look at the Club Info Session in case some more clubs had turned up. None had so we soon left  for Okuma Auditorium to get good seats. We took many pictures of ourselves with the building in the background on the way and, by the time we sat down, the start of the ceremony had been delayed for 10 minutes because people were taking too long to come in and settle down.

Somehow we all separated and I don't know who I sat next to but we were in the second row. Order of ceremony (as written on the programme, which has the Waseda song on the reverse so I think I'll keep it):
1. Opening words
2. Address by the Dean
3. Guest Speech by a Visiting Professor
4. Greetings from the Associate Deans
5. Introduction of the Faculty Members
6. Closing words

The Dean's speech was very statistical. He talked a lot about the relativeness/relativity (?) of distance with respect to travel and transport, bringing up Phileas Fogg and the dean's own experience of a 36 hour journey from Japan to London by aeroplane. It was, as the deputy dean described it, dizzying, but at the same time interesting, tough long winded. The visiting professor was very funny, actually they all seem very friendly and approachable, and seemed genuinely very excited about being in Japan for a year, so his big speech was to remind us all how lucky we are to be here and that we shouldn't forget how lucky we are. I think saw him today but I wasn't sure at first, so I didn't high-5 him; I hope he's enjoying time here.

After the ceremony ended, we were entertained by a very impressive acapella group. These 5 boys call themselves, or are part of, Street Corner Symphony.

Since I didn't know where my friends were or what they were going to do afterwards I went home. At least we'd arranged to meet the next day for Citibank's bank account applying seminar. However, I left late and was approaching the campus gates at 10 past noon and the seminar began at noon, so I stopped at a photocopying place to get my documents ready and coincidentally Chee Seng, Marion, Eszter and some other people turned up there too! The seminar had turned out to be very popular and a lot of people were told to come to the later ones, so we went to the 1pm session after a leisurely lunch. The bank accounts were explained and the form was straight forward but I didn't have a certificate for my Alien Registration Card.
Afterwards, Marion and I tried to find the NASIC office cos Marion needed to give them her photo but the office was probably just one floor in a building and we didn't know which of the 20+ buildings it was in. We tried asking at the info centre and they said to simply turn right, but that didn't lead us there.

At 3pm was an orientation run by a student club, they gave presentations on Shinjuku and Harajuku, and cafes and bars near campus. They were in Japanese, so I didn't understand much and missed all of the jokes. Eszter even fell asleep through cos she was so bored not being able to understand, but the presentation on cafes made everyone moan about wanting cake during the break. The orientation ended after they showed us a video they'd made about Japanese manners and things, and it was quite funny. The most memorable clip is the one about accessories people attached to their mobile phones. Three students were commenting on each others' as they took their phones out in turn. The first person had something small and cute attached, and they all liked it, whereas the second person was thought to have too many as she had three plush toys. The third person had attached her phone to an accessory, not the accessory to the phone. It was a plush toy about the same size as her head and she defended it by saying that at least it was just one and since it could fit into her bag it wasn't a nuisance but just soft and cute..

This student club had also organised a welcome party for us new international students at the cafeteria of the campus around the corner, Toyama. But Jessi had found that there was going to be a moon-viewing festival not too far away and we decided to go to that instead. It started at 6, so we had some time, and before we set out we decided to have dinner first. We ate at a small yakitori restaurant around the corner from the Nishi Waseda dorm. The guy running it asked how many of us there were, then rushed to the dining room to set up. He turned the lights on, set up a fan and laid cushions around the low table. Of course we had to take our shoes off before entering the dining room. He gave us cold tea and grapes to help us cool down as he prepared the food. There were other customers in the shop so we had to wait a while for the food, but we all agreed that we'd like to go there again as it's so cosy and friendly. For just 700 Yen each, each person got a bowl of rice, 6 sticks of yakitori of various meats and miso soup, and we shared a salad and beansprouts cooked in a delicious sweet sauce.

Soon afterwards we left for the festival but Marion decided to go to the party instead as she wasn't feeling well and wanted to stay near the dorm. It took us around 20 minutes to get to Akasaka-Mitsuke and we arrived around half 7, I think. When we came out of the station we were surrounded by glittering skyscrapers! I was in awe. After a short walk we spotted a huge, bright red torii. It's amazing how you can find jinja in the midst of this modern setting. After walking through the torii, we climbed some steps and came across a tall set of stairs, and this passageway was lined with many little torii (I imagine this has its own name that I'm not aware of). At the top of the stairs, I was surprised to find a vending machine, but I suppose I shouldn't have been since we are in Tokyo.

The first set of doors to the jinja were locked and there were people watching through the bars, so we did the same. But after the first performance we decided to go around the building to see if there were any other entrances. On the adjacent side a sign said that the doors were locked at 5pm, but someone decided that we should carry on walking around just in case and to our amazement we found a door open. We walked through and squeezed in with some people standing at the back.

One of my friends told me that they'd overheard someone saying that the door was being blown open by the wind and that we weren't meant to be there, but a short while later was the show's intermission and some people left their seats. We decided to take advantage of this and look for seats left unclaimed. Luckily all but one of us found seats, but one of the seats was in the path of a great stone pillar so two of us stood watching at the back. I don't know what kind of performances they were but on the fan I as given at the exit the website address printed is www.hiejinja.net The music seemed dissonant at first but after a couple performances, I felt that it worked with the slow, fluid dances.

Most of the people in the audience were dressed in suits, as if they'd come straight from work, with their colleagues too. Everyone also had programmes for the show and the seats that were free were those without a tag attached, so we think that to attend this concert you were meant to have bought a ticket.. While we'd just walked in halfway through.

Outside we met Marion who had turned up with a few other people that had decided they didn't want to go to the party. It turns out that you had to pay 1500 Yen to cover the food they'd provided and we hadn't been told this, plus she'd already eaten dinner. The others she'd arrived with had already left by the time we got out. As we walked back towards the station Jessi decided that she needed cake. In Japan cafés at coffee shops are, supposedly, distinct. If you want cake you must go to a café while coffee shops don't serve cake but they were more likely to be opening at this time than cafés. We found a café before the station but they were out of cakes, so we went back to the Waseda area cos Kaytlin thought that there might be one she knew of that was still open. And it was! Haru and Marion had gone back to the dorm but Jessi, Eszter, Kaytlin and I each had a coffee and a slice of cake. The girly chats we had that night were hilarious! I'm so grateful to Kaytlin for letting me stay over at her apartment, even though we'd just met that day, otherwise I would've had had to have gone back to my dorm to arrive in time for the midnight curfew.

I just went downstairs to reclaim my umbrella and put my shoes away into my shoe box, cos they're drying by the door, but they're still wet. Then on the way back up I noticed the little note on the board for the Toco Bus timetable and a note saying that the first train at Nishi Kawaguchi Station (I can recognise its kanji name =] ) is 4:36 and the last train is 0:58.

Good news: I found the local hyaku en (100 Yen) shop!
Bad news: when I got to the cashier I found that I'd forgotten my cash..

So I hurried out looking most embarrassed and sorry, headed over to the 250 yen meals place and bought lunch, then over to The Price for a few little things. I've finished eating lunch now, but don't fancy heading straight back out again. It's a 25 minute walk in a very subtly encroaching heat.When I first left it was cool and better than bearable outside but as I walked the heat slowly became more noticeable. I hope Autumn comes soon.

In my last post I'd said that we have a freshers' fair and opening ceremony today but I'd made a mistake. They're tomorrow, while today is Respect the Aged Day and some shops are closed. But I don't actually know what this holiday entails.

After dancing and singing along to Rooney's When Did Your Heart Go Missing? I decided to step out onto my balcony. I hadn't done so before because there's an insect screen, implying that there are bitey bugs around here, but I woke up with a couple bites on my legs the other morning and I'm not ill with malaria (just itching a little), so I braved it. I think it was around half 5pm and this is what the sky looked like.

I've also taken photos of the view, from my balcony, of the road that the dorm is on.

Because it was cool outside I decided to go for and walk and as it was going to get dark soon, and colder, I left wearing a cardigan. Although it never turned out to be cool enough for me to want to have worn one. But I must bear in mind that one of the girls I spoke to at dinner yesterday told me that she had gone out shopping to buy tights because it is getting colder and Autumn will come soon.

Like I'd mentioned before, vending machines are on every road and they are very brightly lit. I'm glad that they're so bright because the street lights are quite dim and rather far apart.

I went to The Price, the local supermarket also known as the 7-11, to get a couple onigiris cos they're only 98 Yen each there but they were all sold out. So I went for a walk to see the shops on the other side of the station. From the platform you can see signs for arcades and a KFC. A couple people I've spoken to here at the dorm prefer travelling from Toda-Koen Station, even though it's further and more costly, because there are so many arcades around the Nishi Kawaguchi Station.. I suppose this means that the gambling zombies at the pachinko machines wake up to be an angry mob as they grow frustrated at not winning. Like any casino, there are no windows at pachinko arcades, so that the people inside can't tell how long they've been in there gambling for. I stayed in the brightly lit area and found several bookshops, convenience stores and places to eat, then headed back after half an hour.

Dinner isn't served at the dorm on Sundays, to give the manager and his wife a rest I suppose, so I had to buy my own dinner. It's cheaper buying ready made stuff than to cook a meal a week because I'd have to also buy pots/pans and utensils to use. The choco chips are the ones I won at bingo earlier at the party, the cereal's just there cos I was reading the box (I've not bought a bowl and spoon yet, so I've not bought milk for it and eaten any), the smaller packet on the left is a pasta coleslaw and on the right are sweet potato croquets with sweetcorn and carrots. I also had an onigiri from a Sunkus convenience store (135 Yen ¬_¬ ) that was saltier than any onigiri I've had before but the filling was a nice flaky salmon.

Righto, all for now. Freshers' Fair-like thing tomorrow where the clubs and circles (as they call them here) that are keen on inviting foreign students will have booths/tables where we can find out about what they do and sign up if interested. There's also an opening ceremony for all the students entering Waseda this semester (it's taken me until orientation here to work out that semester = term) at the fancy-shmancy auditorium. Will post about that tomorrow. Goodnight!

Welcome party at the dorm today!

I woke up around half 8, then fell back asleep.. cos it was so warm I didn't fancy getting up and having to walk around or do anything. But when I finally woke up it was 10.45 and a couple minutes later I realised that the party was to start at 11am. Oh.

By 5 past 11 I was downstairs. At the door to the lounge/party room each person was given a can of cold green tea (yeuch) and asked to spin the bingo thing to draw their seat number. A good way to get everyone to mix. See, this is an all-girls dorm for students of all years at Waseda, so some people have lived here for a while (at least a few months, since the academic year begins in April) and some people have just moved in last week like I did. First we went round the room, each perosn introducing themselves, then we ate (thank goodness - I'd missed breakfast again) and played Bingo until everyone got a prize. There were lots of different prizes and you weren't allowed to choose which you'd like. Each was wrapped and tied to a string that was threaded through a grid and you had to pull a random string. There were lots of differnt kinds of prizes. A couple of people got panties, someone got a glass jar, a few got little boxes of chocolate, I got a box of chocolate chip cookies (and I'm going to use them as an excuse for knocking on peoples' doors later by offering them a cookie), someone got a pair of slippers..

I spoke to a few people but don't remember any names.. I'm terrible when it comes to unfamiliar names. A lot of people are also in SILS and I spoke to one girl (who's going to spend the next year at a university in Tanzania) about the teachers of the modules I want to take. I also spoke to one girl who is going to spend a year studying in Germany and I asked her sprechen sie Deutsch? but that's as far as I could take it without resorting to memorised sentences such as ich habe keine Hund or ich bin sympatisch. That really disappointed me seeing as my only A grade at GCSE was in German.

Today I'm going to explore the surrounding area and hope I stumble upon the nearest 100 Yen shop to get a spoon, a bowl, a glass and some flannels/small towels for drying my hands at public toilets. I also need to buy laundry detergent, an onigiri to snack on (btw I bought an onigiri box yesterday, to stop them from getting squished in my bag, and on the front it reads 'lunch time will make everyone happy' - so true! plus it was a pack of two from the 100 Yen = 80p shop, so Fee and I each have one cos they've become our staple food) and hand soap.

Oh I've just realised how late it is.. I wonder whether shops close earlier on Sundays here too. I might just stay in and read and work on katakana since I only have a week to learn them all, then shop tomorrow before going to the opening ceremony for Fall semester admissions.

Yesterday, I went to the town hall of Toda to apply for my Alien Registration Card; with this I will be able to open a bank account, though recent legislation has made it difficult for people that have lived here for less than six months to do so, and be part of the National Health Insurance scheme, which means that 70% of any medical bills will be paid for by the government (I think). We, the Residents' Assistant and I, took the Toco (Toda Community) Bus from down the road, stop 16, to stop 5. The bus stop has a picture of a little cartoon girl's smiling face and the same little girl smiles on the sides of the bus.

Today I went to uni to drop off a couple forms. On the way to the station I went to the big supermarket to get a couple onigiri for the day. I was pretty proud of myself for having found the quickest way there that didn't mean following the way to the station and turning on to the supermarket's road. Along the way is a laundrette; it looks like this.

From far away I thought it might've been a nursery for little kids.
Some notes about bikes:
- many people of all ages ride bikes
- most bikes look like this one
- the lock they use on their bikes is so discreet I thought that no one locked up their bike until the locks were pointed out to me
- you're not allowed to take your bike on the train (there are lots of stairs to climb at stations after all and there's rarely enough space for bikes since they're so big), so there tends to be places you can park your bike near the station; sometimes it's multistorey like a car park

Here's something I saw at the supermarket and had to show you. The LCD displays are the prices. I've also seen a train with large pictures of pokémon on the side. When paying at some supermarkets, the cashier attendant puts your money into the till which counts and dispenses the change. Very techy and cool.

I was feeling adventurous and sick of my long commute, so I tried out a different route which looked like it would be shorter and knocked off about 20 minutes from the route I was shown. I'm so glad. After dropping off the forms I found a cool place to sit outside and eat an onigiri. I can't read what it says on the packets of them, so the filling's always a mystery but not always a pleasant surprise. Fee also had to drop off a form, so we met up, I showed her where the office was, then we went to pick up her inkan. We then went to McDonald's cos Fee was hungry and we're not sure what she ordered apart from it being like a big chicken nugget and very tasty. Afterwards we went near Takadanobaba Station to go shopping for clothes and things cos we don't have enough clothes for this hot weather. Unfortunately most of the clothes were either for Autumn or hot weather, but we did find one clothes shop above a supermarket that did pretty much all sorts.

(I'd like to show you the photos I took of the cooler-than-clothes stuff we saw in the shops but the camera and computer aren't co-operating. I'll have to try again tomorrow..)

Here's some of the food I've bought so far. Don't they look neat? I'm not sure what drink is in the pink carton but it looks very happy, so it can't be bad. The label on the bottle says that the water is from 'Mt Fuji's Vanadium Natural Spring' but I think it tastes horrid; it must have a drastically different mineral content. Also, the label states that it contains 500ml + 30ml.

 

And I was so happy when I saw a man carrying reusble Sainsbury's shopping bags, erm, jute bags I think they're called. Whereas usually I think it's horrid that people have only started reusing bags cos their supermarket has insited upon it..

Oh man, I should've gone outside when the sky was a pale blue and the sparse clouds were turning from a wispy orange to a sleep purple. But I was afraid of melting. Sorry.

I haven't seen any pigeons here but they have massive corvids/black birds that make non-birdy sounds. They sound more like someone yelling, or maybe someone was in the trees yelling.

So far I have made two very silly mistakes.

1. Going home yesterday I got on a train at Takadanobaba going the wrong way.
But it wasn't long before we got to the next station. I got off and we were on a bridge overlooking a street where a three-storey arcade towered over us. It was lit with coloured neon lights from top to toe, inside and out. I thought it was pretty awesome. The trains going the direction I needed were packed tight with people and I couldn't get on the first one cos it was so full, but everyone else that needed it managed to squeeze in and I was left on an empty platform. I decided I'd get on the next one cos I was very tired and they don't have benches on the platform. I squeezed into a gap right in front of the door and I had to hold on to the space above the doors so that if someone shuffled I wouldn't fall back out before the doors closed. It was only like that until Ikebukuro where two thirds of the passengers got off; it's where a lot of train lines meet. I'm very glad the trains have air con but when it's packed like that it wasn't strong enough whereas it's too strong if you're using the train in the middle of the day.

2. I bought a pillow yesterday and slept really well last night. I'd arranged to go to the town hall with the RA, to process some forms, at 10am, so I thought I could have a lie-in and stayed in bed until half 8 forgetting that that's when breakfast stops being served. When I got to the canteen, the lights were off .
But the couple that manage the dorm were kind enough to give me two slices of bread, cut oranges, a glass of milk and a glass of water, and sachets of butter and jam*. I suppose that's cos I'm the silly gaijin girl that speaks hardly any Japanese.

*sachets = squeezy butter, at first I thought he was trying to give me mayonaise but he said butter. mhmm.

This is a peace offering. I'm sorry for all the long and rather dull blog posts, but that's how my days have been so far: long and dull.

When the poster of Tommy Lee Jones gets replaced I will be very sad, especially if it's replaced by an advert that isn't as cool. Now follows a list of other nice things I've seen or experienced while I've been here.
- a boy at the gates of the elementary down the road from my dorm yelling ohayou gozaimasu (good morning) at me
- multi-story bicycle parks, cos you're not allowed to take them on the train
- the tune the trafiic lights in front of Takadanobaba play to say it's safe to cross the road
- the brightly lit and colourful arcades
- most people have clear umbrellas; a nice change to London where most people have black umbrellas
- girls in their school uniforms look so cool but, of course, they don't think that, I saw a group of them on the train yesterday afternoon rolling them at the waist to make them shorter. of course if I dressed in their school uniform when I go back to England, it'll look like I'm cosplaying every time
- drinks vending machines on every road, even little roads where it's just houses and no shops, but I've not seen any vending machines that sell things other than drinks (yet!)

Even tho I came back with soggy socks, cos of the massive puddles at the crossings, and a pool in the front pocket of my backpack, cos I didn't shut it properly, I'm really glad it's raining cos the temperature has fallen too.

Today was day 2 of orientation but I'm going to do this post in order and tell you about day one, yesterday, first. Actually I should start with the afternoon after I settled in, on the day I arrived.

I asked the Residents' Assistant if someone could show me how to get uni cos the next morning I had to be at room 202 in building 22 by half 9 and I wanted to know how early I should leave and which building it was. The journey that afternoon took around 2 hours. There were four of us including the RA lady and they walked too slow for my liking, so when I left around 8 on Wednesday morning I managed to arrive a little early. After she showed us where building 22 was I decided to stick around, while the others went to find building 8, and see if Fee'd turn up cos she was wandering around looking for 22 too. I was really hungry by this time, so I was hoping she'd turn up soon and we'd get something to eat. Eventually I gave in and ate at a place across the road where most of the dishes cost 500Yen. The place was empty, cold with the air con constantly on and the chef was watching TV. After eating my dinner at 5pm Japan time/9am England time I made my way back to the station and didn't get lost. But I was miserable. I was aching from tiredness and in total agony over the long commute back, but I suppose the Japanese, or people in Tokyo anyway, don't think it's very long considering that when I get off the train there are still plenty of people left continuing their journey. On the platform I met the other two people I travelled to campus with. When we got off at our station I walked ahead cos they were keeping me back and made the journey to bed longer. But it turns out that I should've stuck with them cos I forgot to take a turning. It was hard recognising things I saw earlier that day cos by 6pm it was already dark.

Like I'd said in an earlier post, I had trouble sleeping that night cos of the air con and the pillow (I caved and bought a new one today without waiting for mummy to send more money), but I managed to get to orientation early. We were given goodie bags of leaflets, booklets and our student ID, had lots of presentations and talks about rules and regulations and I was there til around 4pm. We also played some games, I'm not sure why - the teams were too big and they weren't even meant to be team-building kinda games like orientation tends to revolve around. Anyways, the first game asked for 6 people to stand at the front of the room and each say a certain word from a common theme simultaneously, and the teams had to write down the 6 words. I only got the odd English word that was yelled extra loud but it was still fun. What was not fun was ending up at a table where everyone spoke Japanese really well and feeling incompetent, even playing Cream Puff Roulette and eating the mystery mustard-filled cream puff was more fun. Hmph. But our team did win and they let me pick out my prize first cos I'd been such a good sport..

Today's orientation began at 2pm and I was meant to spend the morning at the Toda City Office to apply for my Registration Card for Foreigners and National Health Insurance, but I had trouble sleeping again last night and, coupled with an irregular eating pattern, I felt terribly nauseous this morning. Then I left too late to eat a proper lunch before getting on the train. I've noticed that no one eats on the train and I suppose that why they gleam, so I didn't eat until I got to the common room area in the building the meeting was in. Big, bad mistake; I felt alright after resting that morning but eating a late lunch made me feel pretty bad again and I was very fidgety all throughout that orientation meeting. Except that could be due to half the talks covering stuff we already knew..

After orientation I didn't fancy commuting back cos it seemed as if I'd commuted for no good reason, especially as they think we're not computer literate enough to be able to follow the instructions in the booklet to set up a Waseda email address. I couldn't find Fee, so I hung out with Marion and Sasha, walking with them to see the dorm I didn't get into, Nishiwaseda. We also popped into a supermarket on the way and I bought a pillow and a bunch of bananas.

From home to the dormitory

I woke up at 4am to finish packing and we left around 6. We arrived at the airport at half past, a lot sooner than I'd expected, but, then, the roads I should've known the roads'd be pretty clear at that time. 

As anyone would be, I was very glad to see that the queues in front of the check-in desks were very short; actually, we were third in line when we joined. Although before we got to the front a member of staff approached us, asked which flight we'd be on and told us that the flight to Abu Dhabi had been delayed by long enough for me to miss my connecting flight out to Tokyo, but to ensure that I reach my destination I've been booked into a BA flight and just needed to join the queue behind us to get the ticket. We queued for four hours!

The 'we' is mum and me. Rika had school but didn't leave til very late, I'm not sure why, daddy dropped her off and Yusuf went with them cos he has an infection that's making walking painful and once we got the ticket we had to make our way to terminal 5 (we were at terminal 3). When we got to the front of the queue, mum kicked up a fuss, demanding for an upgrade from economy class, but what can Etihad do about BA seating? That really annoyed me, especially as I was the one travelling and didn't care, and really needed to pee. Plus the BA flight was going directly to Tokyo and we landed just after 9am, whereas my original intinerary said that I'd arrive around lunchtime.

You'd have probably laughed at the way I looked walking around the airport. I had a long pillow tied to my backpack and my panda toy (Panthy =] ) strapped in; he looked like a child in a sling. Man my backpack was heavy and a bit of nuisance but it was totally necessary. The flight was uncomfortable, the engines too noisy for me to sleep and I watched quite a bit of TV. When we landed, the air con was turned off and the door opened, it became warm and humid quite quickly; a small taste of the weather outside.

To my surprise, the queues at the immigration desks in the airport were very short in comparison with past experiences at other airports. I suppose that's evidence for Japanese efficiency. When called up you hand the officer your passport and the landing form filled out on the plane. Then you're asked to place your index fingers on scanner buttons, then have your picture taken. Baggage reclaim was like anywhere else and customs officials only say hello and ask you the purpose of your visit. Of course you're not hassled unless you've declared that you have exceeded any limits on particular kinds of items or brought any prohibited items.

Afterwards I moved some things from my suitcase into another bag to bring with me while I had the suitcase delivered. It was strongly recommended that I do this since I'd be travelling by public transport. I took a Skyliner from the airport to Keisei Ueno Station to meet the person escorting me to the dorm. The Skyliner looked really sleek and snazzy; I'll take a picture when I take it back to the airport in February. It had terminated at the airport, so they cleaned it before letting us board and the chairs all turned in their pairs to face the direction we travelled. I had hoped to keep my ticket, cos it looked pretty cool too, but the machine at the exit ate it.

Ticket machines at train stations are easy to use. The only trouble is in reading the map, as they're not always written in romaji and you need to look for your destination on the map above the machine to know how much to pay. You pay the machine, choose the fare accordingly and a ticket pops out.

My first impression of the train to the dorm is that it was really clean! Honestly, it glistened. Definitely a whole lot cleaner than the Northern line, but with a lot more adverts. There are both TV screens for adverts and posters. The carriages are bigger too and I couldn't believe that it would be filled with more people than Northern line trains can hold, but, then, Tokyo is a lot bigger. See, I know a guy living near Shinjuku, an area considered to be the centre of Tokyo, where it's always bright and buzzing, but it takes him an hour and a half to get to uni which is also in a hub thought of as the centre of Tokyo!

The nearest station to my dorm is Nishi Kawaguchi and then it's a 10 minute walk. It was so terribly hot, humid and sunny, and I'm sure I arrived at the dorm tanned. The dorm manager greeted us (the student escort and me) at the entrance. I was told that I had to take my shoes off at the entrance and each person gets their own shoe locker. In the entrance hall there is also a name board where you show whether you're in or out by sliding the marker; blue for in, red for out. The dorm manager very kindly insisted that he carry my backpack because I must've been tired, and my room's on the fourth/top floor. As I climbed the stairs I was saddened by the lack of colour in the building and I was exhausted; I wished that I could live in the dorms near campus.

Here we get sunoko beds and have to rent futon, and the dorm manager helped set up the futon and tidy the sheets. I'm so glad that I have air con in my room; I was melting. After eating a fish onigiri for lunch, I was shown the shower room, public bath room and canteen. There's also a lounge with sofas, a TV and an exercise bike. Each floor has a room with toilets, sinks, laundry machines and each person gets a little cupboard space for their toiletries but, out of habit, I'll keep my stuff in my room.

Afterwards I took a shower and wanted so much to collapse on my bed, but since orientation was at half 9 the next morning I thought it's be best that I was shown how to get to campus and look for the building where we were meeting, so that I needn't bother someone early in the morning. I'll tell you about orientation later.

I fear my money is running out too quickly; I didn't account for the time difference and jet lag effecting my appetite. Since I didn't eat or sleep very well on the plane I've been eating earlier than the meal times, meaning that I've had to buy more food than I'd budgeted for. Also, I've been buying bottled water because I don't like the taste of tap water here =/

Phooey!

Oh but I'd really like to go out for karaoke some time soon.. With Fee and any folk on the exchange program. I'm pretty isolated in this dorm cos, well, I've been out a lot, and when I'm here I just stay in my room too shy to knock on anyone's door and say hi in case they don't speak English, cos my Japanese is too basic for conversation.

Dinner tonight tasted amazing! I'd like to show you what I had but the only camera I had on me was my phone and I don't have the cable for it.

Dinner is Japanese food, while breakfast is a choice between Western and Japanese food. (D'oh! I've just remembered that I didn't put down a preference.) You come in, take a tray, take a main course dish, a side dish, a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup and pour yourself a drink. I'm not sure what we had exactly. The main dish was fish with some greens, the side dish was greens in soy sauce with tofu, soup is miso soup and there was dessert tonight. Erm, glutinous rice balls, maybe, topped with a sweet, sticky sauce. After you've finished eating, you throw away the cling film that wrapped the main and side dishes, put the hashi in the pot, rinse the plates, bowls and cup, and wipe down the tray. I want to show you how the canteen works, step by step, but I'm too embarrassed in case they think I'm a silly gaijin that's easily amazed.. And that is what I am. 

The couple in charge of this place are really, very lovely. They always smile and bow and greet you. They were in the corridor leading to the canteen when I went down for dinner. I'm not sure what they were busy doing, showing some new people around maybe, but the lady left them to help me with dinner. It's only my second dinner here and Yuuko (my Japanese next door neighbour that speaks brilliant English and spent last year studying in Brighton) wasn't around to eat with me. The lady pointed at the trays on the table to signal that I should take the ones that had been left out, rather than from the cupboard, told me to say itadakimasu to the cooks as I took a dish from the shelf in front of the kitchen (of course I should've known to do that myself and made a point of saying gochisousama as I cleared away) and poured my soup. The booklet of dormitory choices states that dietary requirements cannot be catered for but the man asked me what foods I don't eat when he showed me how things are done in the canteen. I said that I don't eat pig meat and pig meat was on the menu that night, so he asked me what my favourite food is and I could have that instead. Isn't that lovely? I turned the offer and said that I'd be happy to have a simple vegetable dish but he then asked if I'd eat beef, chicken, fish.. Yeah, I'll try food so long as it doesn't have pig meat and I had beef for dinner that night. Awesome.

Oh man, I was meant to go back out to the 7/11 cos I need passport photos for tomorrow but I'm too tired now and it's dark/scary outside. The Residents' Assistant lady said that she wants us to go at 8.20 tomorrow morning, so I'm going to have to go after an early breakfast tomorrow. So much for a lie in. As long as I sleep well tonight I'll be alright though. The weather's been getting cooler, so perhaps I won't have to leave the air con on tonight.

I'd just finished eating a large chicken katsu bento I bought for 250Yen = £1.90 when I typed up the last post and it's now time for dinner. I had to get that bento cos we were only given a carton of juice and some sandwiches for lunch. These Jap folk have pretty small appetites, but, then, I did only have a small breakfast of a cube of omelette with peppers and peas, and a glass of milk.

Tonight should be spent unpacking and tidying my room, writing in dates of parties and events, and telling you about the journey from home to the dorm.

Still exhausted

I could barely sleep last night despite having slept for only four hours before flying off, then only 3 hours on the plane. It may be because of the pillow; it's filled with beads, rather than synthetic filling like I'm used to, making it very hard. Also, it's smaller and has a dip in the middle, whereas pillows back home are usually most plump in the middle. Another reason as to why I couldn't sleep well is the air con. I have to keep it on at least some of the time or the room will be too warm and stuffy (it is very hot and humid here), but it's also loud and if I leave it on for too long it gets too cold (and if I turn the temperature up it won't be cold enough).

Today we had orientation. I'd planned on leaving at half 7 but it felt like I'd finally fallen asleep when my alarm went off and finally left the dorm around 8am after a hurried breakfast. I arrive around quarter past 9 and there didn't seem to be many people, but when the room filled up I was very surprised cos it's a lot more than the number of people in the FB group I'd joined. Unfortunately I was too tired to strike up a conversation with anyone and I finally left to go back to the dorm around 4. It has been a very long couple of days.

Exhausted. Will tell you about it tomorrow. Was cheered up by a massive advert that was a close up of Tommy Lee Jones's face next to the word 'boss' in thick, giant letters. I'll show you eventually. Goodnight.

I'm flying out tomorrow morning and I haven't finished packing yet

The airline's 20kg baggage weight restriction has made things very difficult. I won't be coming back until mid-February and between now and then I'll experience both temperatures around 30 degrees celsius when I arrive and a winter where the temperature drops to single digits, perhaps even negative numbers (but I doubt there'll be much snowfall in Tokyo since they have neon signs that are on all day and cos of climate change, y'know). So I gotta pack all sorts of clothes (from thin dresses to my winter coat), plus a few books, some hardware, toiletries and, uh, just stuff. Last time I checked (I've avoided the stress of packing for the past couple days now) my luggage was at 21kg and I haven't finished packing, but there's nothing else I can leave behind that I haven't aready unpacked. My backpack/carry on bag is also going to be heavy with my latop, a book, a towel.. The only option left is to post the remaining stuff straight to the dorm.

To get to the dorm I must take a train from the airport to meet the dorm rep at Keisei Ueno Station, then we'll take a train from there. It's been strongly recommended that I use a baggage delivery service at the airport to make travelling by public transport as easy as possible (for myself and other users also I suppose). The service will deliver my luggage the next day, so I must have a bag packed for my arrival day, night and the next morning. I had originally tried packing one medium-sized suitcase and a little one, but the weight of two suitcases alone took up a significant portion of the weight allowance. So I've had to move everything into one big suitcase and I'll bring a big canvas bag to move stuff into there and take on the train before sending everything else off.