I've arrived!
Hello to anyone reading!
I'm going to be living and studying Game design in Japan as an exchange student for the coming 4 months and 10 days so I thought I might as well keep a journal. :)
I'm both very nervous and very excited and I kinda want to remember my impressions.
I arrived the day before yesterday after a crappy night in an airplane with one hell of a jetlag. One thing about Osaka on 21 September 2010, the day I arrived, it was freaking hot! At least 28 degrees while I had just arrived from Holland, a country with decent 12 degree weather. It took some getting used to and every shop and building was full of air-conditioning. Enough to give any foreigner a cold, which I already had.
Luckily I had no problems getting my baggage and Takami-san, the girl who came to pick me up, had no trouble recognizing me from my picture. Before we started towards Neyagawa City (the part of Osaka I'm staying) she took me to get something to eat.
Now, I've been in Japan before -once- for a week, but that doesn't mean I've in any way gotten used to getting food in Japan. It stays an adventure. For one thing, it's kind of hard to recognise what food contains what as the chance you'll be able to read what it says on the tags beside the prices is kind of small. This coming from me, who at least can read some Japanese, I wonder how people who don't even have that would handle it. Luckily I had, at least that time, a guide through the mysterious lands that are the Japanese cuisine. Now don't get me wrong, Japanese food is actually quite good and eating with chopsticks is fun but you never know what the next thing is going to taste like.
I'm warning anyone going to Japan for the green stuff called 'wasabi'. DON'T stick it in your mouth! It's a bit like Chinese sambal. Putting a bit on something else might be good but that's it.
Getting to my room took a while. We had to take a bus, then a train and then another train and after that we had to walk some more. Also, if a girl is going to live somewhere for half a year her suitcase is probably going to be heavy! Or at least, mine was.
About my room, I was pleasantly surprised. It has a wooden floor, like customary in Japanese households, and a place by the door where you're supposed to leave your shoes. The kitchen is very nice for a student, same goes for the bathroom. I've got both a bath and a shower in a separate place so the rest of the bathroom won't get wet. I'm sure I'll have fun with that. The small living area contains a bed, an air conditioner, a television, a closet and a small table. There is also internet access (though it didn't work at first). I got new bedcovers and a mattress but they're kind of hard and rough and I can already tell that this is one thing I'm going to miss about home, my own soft bed. Still, I'm very good at sleeping at weird places so I don't think I'll have any real trouble sleeping. Across from me live, as far as I've heard the only non-Chinese foreign exchange students in the school and they don't go to the same faculty as me, two French boys.
The first thing I did after I got my stuff into my room (after admiring it of course ;) ) was taking a shower. I would have gone to sleep right then except my guide was still here and she was supposed to take me to the president of the board of the college I will be going so I put on some clean clothes and off we went. It was an interesting visit, there was a lot of small talk but it really got me into talking some Japanese (being Anime-taught has the disadvantage that you hear a lot but never talk) and my familiarity with the language is already growing fast. The president was nice I suppose (and old, I can't remember anyone at home still working at 90 years old) but during the conversation I could really tell that the way 'ranks' between people are way more important in relations here than at home. And yesterday I was invited to see yet another board president, though I'm not sure why.
I suppose I'm a curiosity over here. I have to do nothing but walk across the street to feel that way. I've been to Southern Africa before, parts where everyone is black, and I and my family felt like beakons in the crowd. Here in Japan you see hardly any foreigners and I just feel big and weird, though I suppose I'll get used to it. I'm not that tall for a Dutch girl but Dutch people are tall and Japanese people are small and that's really all there is to it.
Yesterday Takami-san also took me to foreign registration and after that she took me around so I would get some feel of my surroundings and where I could get my food and that sort of thing. I had some problems with my bank pass as I couldn't find an ATM machine here that would accept one but after some help from my mom through Skype (even if my mobile would work, which it doesn't, it would be damn expensive) we found one. After she showed me the bus stop where I'm supposed to go tomorrow for my first school day I went home since my jet lag was still making me tired. I slept through the rest of the afternoon and evening and ended up staying awake for half of the night.
Today I went shopping for food in the supermarket. One thing about Japanese food, going to the supermarket is about as expensive as going to one of the many small restaurants that are dedicated mostly to one meal only (like Ramen, curry or sushi). Getting any fruit is expensive, at least three times as expensive as in the Netherlands. Also, basically going to the supermarket is at least twice as expensive and Holland isn't a cheap country. I think it's a good thing the school got me a room and I just have to pay for water and electricity if getting food is going to be like this. In any case, I did some guessing at certain points on what it said on the packages of food and I'm going a bit blind here but I guess in the time I'll spend here I'll figure out at some point what I like and what I don't, by trial and error.
Tomorrow will be my first day of school and I've finally finished figuring out the photo camera I got on the airport just before my departure. Many thanks to my dad who reminded me of the foolishness of departing to Japan without the means to take any pictures. ;)
I'll probably put some with my next entry.
Signing off,
Anne
Random note: the biggest difference between a Dutch street and one in Osaka beside the Japanese writing and the architecture is the electricity cables. They are all above ground. It has an interesting effect on the surroundings.
Another Random note: On many random places on the street there are vending machines with all kinds of drinks, from soft drinks to sake (Japanese alcohol). They aren't expensive and especially with this hot weather I really like this detail of Japanese society. :D