Here
Okay, well everyone; here I am. Tokyo ^^ Yay. Finally? Well the plane ride was long enough. My ears hurt really badly the whole time we were going into the landing too. One of my ears hasn't popped back yet either so it kind of feels like I have water in it. Quite annoying. Taking off and landing was really fun, like Katie and my dad said it was. I really enjoyed flying to San Fransisco though, it was interesting. Most of the way to Tokyo I tried to sleep though because after a while, we were too high to see anything but bright white clouds.
Everyone that works here for the program is really nice so far. They met me at the airport, helped me get a currency exchange, took my luggage, helped me call... everything. So it was neat.
The airport hotel wasn't anything spectacular, but it was in Chiba prefecture. I took two pictures from the window because I thought that the mist over the mountain was cool but that's all. After breakfast we took a bus for about 2 hours from Chiba to Sophia. It was interesting riding the bus because the roads are so different here than they are in the U.S. They are much more narrow and I don't really understand the lines that much, like motor bikes will just zoom up wherever they please. We came into Tokyo over a bridge, but I have no idea where it was.
Tonight and tomorrow I am staying at a hotel called Tokyo Green Palace Hotel. This hotel is much nicer than the airport hotel we stayed in, and it's right next to Tokyo Tower. I am suffering quite bad jet-lag right now though, so I didn't go explore with the other students. My room mate didn't either, and she's actually probably sleeping now. Right now it is 8:41 PM here, but in Colorado it is 5:41AM so everyone I know is (hopefully) sleeping now too.
Last night when we were taken to the Convenience store, we pretty much went through the whole airport on accident. Our guides, who are Sophia University students didn't really seem to know where they were going. Once we got there though, I wasn't hungry at all and I really didn't want to eat anything. I bought a chicken and egg sandwich, which is still in the bag. When we went back to the meeting point, I saw a banner with Miura Haruma on it! ^^ Other than that though, I haven't seen anything else with celebrities that I know on it... yet.
Breakfast this morning was interesting, because it was a mix of Japanese and Western food. There was bacon and scrambled eggs, but there was rice porridge, rice and miso soup too. I tried something like an egg omlet(?) which is much different here, I think that the girl I was with called it "tamagoyaki" but I'm not sure. It was sweet, but really good. As I said before, after breakfast we went to Sophia University.
When we got to Sophia, we started orientation. While we were on the bus, we were put into groups and once we started orientation we stayed in the groups. We were shown around the campus, which is a lot smaller than CU AND Auraria and then taken to lunch in a cafeteria. I had ramen for lunch, which was about the same size as the ramen they served at Bento Zanmai, only it cost about 3 bucks instead of 9. I didn't eat all of it, because even though I was hungry, I wasn't really hungry. I noticed that has been happening to me during lunch (yesterday on the plane too.) I think that it will take some getting used to.
Once we finished lunch, we went back to the classroom to finish orientation. We went over many things that will just bore anyone who reads this, so I'm skipping it. Once we finished that, we walked over here to the hotel (about 5 minutes away!!) and got our room keys. Since I am staying in a homestay, I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow, and I can just keep my things all over the room ^_^
Tonight was the "Welcome Dinner," we went to a restaurant about 6 minutes walk from the hotel and ate. Dinner there was very interesting, because it was a mixture of Japanese and Western food again. It started out with sausages and potatoe wedges, then we had salad, then yakisoba and finally some sort of seafood rice (which I DID eat, by the way. Not the clams, but the salmon I did eat.) After that I came back to the hotel, but many people went to Shinjuku. I want to go there too, but I am much too tired, and have to get up at 7 AM so I don't really want to stay up longer than I have to.
OH! I got the information on my host family yesterday. There was a picture, and there is a mom, dad and two daughters ages 1 and 4. I am also going to be sharing the homestay with a girl named Chelsea that I met yesterday. It doesn't look like we live too far from campus, which is really nice but I am going to have to take a bus and the train to get here. We go to our homestays on Friday morning.
And with that, I am going to go to bed. I don't know when I will be able to get online again, possibly tomorrow before bed but after that I have no idea. Japan doesn't have a wireless internet culture and there is free ethernet internet here at this hotel... but... well... we'll see.
There's not many here right now, but you should be satisfied with these:
Airport hotel at about 5:30 this morning-
Again, a little later-
Tokyo Tower
I'm assuming this one explains itself-
And these are from inside the hotel-
YES they really do wash you!! O__O
Everyone that works here for the program is really nice so far. They met me at the airport, helped me get a currency exchange, took my luggage, helped me call... everything. So it was neat.
The airport hotel wasn't anything spectacular, but it was in Chiba prefecture. I took two pictures from the window because I thought that the mist over the mountain was cool but that's all. After breakfast we took a bus for about 2 hours from Chiba to Sophia. It was interesting riding the bus because the roads are so different here than they are in the U.S. They are much more narrow and I don't really understand the lines that much, like motor bikes will just zoom up wherever they please. We came into Tokyo over a bridge, but I have no idea where it was.
Tonight and tomorrow I am staying at a hotel called Tokyo Green Palace Hotel. This hotel is much nicer than the airport hotel we stayed in, and it's right next to Tokyo Tower. I am suffering quite bad jet-lag right now though, so I didn't go explore with the other students. My room mate didn't either, and she's actually probably sleeping now. Right now it is 8:41 PM here, but in Colorado it is 5:41AM so everyone I know is (hopefully) sleeping now too.
Last night when we were taken to the Convenience store, we pretty much went through the whole airport on accident. Our guides, who are Sophia University students didn't really seem to know where they were going. Once we got there though, I wasn't hungry at all and I really didn't want to eat anything. I bought a chicken and egg sandwich, which is still in the bag. When we went back to the meeting point, I saw a banner with Miura Haruma on it! ^^ Other than that though, I haven't seen anything else with celebrities that I know on it... yet.
Breakfast this morning was interesting, because it was a mix of Japanese and Western food. There was bacon and scrambled eggs, but there was rice porridge, rice and miso soup too. I tried something like an egg omlet(?) which is much different here, I think that the girl I was with called it "tamagoyaki" but I'm not sure. It was sweet, but really good. As I said before, after breakfast we went to Sophia University.
When we got to Sophia, we started orientation. While we were on the bus, we were put into groups and once we started orientation we stayed in the groups. We were shown around the campus, which is a lot smaller than CU AND Auraria and then taken to lunch in a cafeteria. I had ramen for lunch, which was about the same size as the ramen they served at Bento Zanmai, only it cost about 3 bucks instead of 9. I didn't eat all of it, because even though I was hungry, I wasn't really hungry. I noticed that has been happening to me during lunch (yesterday on the plane too.) I think that it will take some getting used to.
Once we finished lunch, we went back to the classroom to finish orientation. We went over many things that will just bore anyone who reads this, so I'm skipping it. Once we finished that, we walked over here to the hotel (about 5 minutes away!!) and got our room keys. Since I am staying in a homestay, I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow, and I can just keep my things all over the room ^_^
Tonight was the "Welcome Dinner," we went to a restaurant about 6 minutes walk from the hotel and ate. Dinner there was very interesting, because it was a mixture of Japanese and Western food again. It started out with sausages and potatoe wedges, then we had salad, then yakisoba and finally some sort of seafood rice (which I DID eat, by the way. Not the clams, but the salmon I did eat.) After that I came back to the hotel, but many people went to Shinjuku. I want to go there too, but I am much too tired, and have to get up at 7 AM so I don't really want to stay up longer than I have to.
OH! I got the information on my host family yesterday. There was a picture, and there is a mom, dad and two daughters ages 1 and 4. I am also going to be sharing the homestay with a girl named Chelsea that I met yesterday. It doesn't look like we live too far from campus, which is really nice but I am going to have to take a bus and the train to get here. We go to our homestays on Friday morning.
And with that, I am going to go to bed. I don't know when I will be able to get online again, possibly tomorrow before bed but after that I have no idea. Japan doesn't have a wireless internet culture and there is free ethernet internet here at this hotel... but... well... we'll see.
There's not many here right now, but you should be satisfied with these:
Airport hotel at about 5:30 this morning-
Again, a little later-
Tokyo Tower
I'm assuming this one explains itself-
And these are from inside the hotel-
YES they really do wash you!! O__O