An actual update!
So, I am finally updating this journal for the first time in over a year. I seem to pick it up everyone once in a while and then drop it again soon after, so we will see how long I manage to keep it up this time. Anyways, I have been in Japan for exactly one week now but it feels like it has been much longer. I have tried to force myself to take lots of pictures, but I was quite lazy for the first couple of days. And then I went crazy today when I went to Ueno. This post is probably also going to be used as a basis for emails I send to the parents and some other friends, so it is probably going to be very long and rambly. Feel free to skim it if it is too boring.
Orientation/Makuhari
So, when we first arrived in Japan, we were taken to this facility called OVTA (Overseas Vocational Training Association) for orientation. We stayed there for about 4 days before we went to our dorms/homestays. It was actually quite a nice place. Each person had their own single room with a private bathroom. I was expecting them to just put us all in just one big room or something like that, so I was pretty surprised. I was also up on the 12th floor so I had a pretty nice view of Makuhari. Makuhari is a suburb of Tokyo and is probably about 30 min to an hour out of the city.
My room in OVTA
View of Makuhari from my room. You can't really tell but just beyond the buildings is water. Apparently there was a beach about a 30 min walk away, but I never go the chance to make it over there.
And Makuhari by night
Orientation itself was pretty boring. We basically sat in this room for hours on end while they talked at us. At one point they spent forever talking about how it was illegal to carry around a knife or sword. And they kept making a big deal about how bad it would be to pull a knife on someone. At the time I found it strange that they were talking so much about it but apparently they had an incident with this before. Last semester this student pulled a knife on someone when he was drunk while they were having some sort of a fight. So he ended up being put in jail for a while and eventually deported.
They also talked at us forever about the train system. They were trying to explain it but in the end they ended up making us all even more confused. I was really intimidated by the train system at first but now I actually free pretty comfortable using it. The train system is way more extensive than I ever thought before. Whenever I looked at maps of it in Tokyo guide books, I was only looking at the trains that go around downtown Tokyo. But when you start looking at all the JR lines that go around to the suburbs as well, it starts to get pretty intense. Here is a map of the all whole system if anyone is interested.
We pretty much had all of the evenings free to do whatever we wanted. For the first couple of days I was able to keep myself up pretty late. I went out to karaoke a couple of times to groups of people and just wandered around Makuhari. By the end of week I was so exhausted that ended up falling asleep really early.
Finally on Saturday all of the host families came to meet the students they would be hosting. All the dorm students also had lunch with the host families as well. After that we all went our separate ways to our dorms/homestays. It took forever to get to the dorm because we all had to get our commuter passes/suica and then some people were having some serious issues with the train systems. But finally after about 2 hours we managed to make it to our dorm.
Baraki Nakayama
Baraki Nakayama is a neighborhood in Ishikawa where my dorm is located. It is not too far out of Tokyo (30 min to 1 hour depending on where you are going). It is quite a cute little neighborhood. There isn't really much to do here. There are a couple of restaurants, a few conbini, and a pachinko parlor and driving range. There is also a supermarket, 99 yen store, and 100 yen store.
My dorm actually seems quite nice. There are a bunch of little things that I have to get used to. First of all the no wearing shoes inside rule. When we come inside we have to take our shoes off and put them in our own little shoe boxes. We have to wear slippers around the dorm. And then there are also special slippers we have to wear in the bathrooms as well. One annoying thing about the dorm is that there are only 4 shower stalls for about 90 people or so in the dorm. So I can imagine it gets rather difficult to get a shower in the morning. There is also an open bath that we can use as well. There are also strict rules on curfew here. There is a midnight curfew. The dorm manager does check to make sure we are back by then (there is a board at the entrance which has a name plate for all of us which we have to flip back and forth depending on if we are in the dorm or not). Also, absolutely no guys are allowed in the dorm (except for family that is).
First view of my room
Second view of my room
A little shrine on the route from my dorm to the train station
On the route from my dorm to the train station
Meikai University
Meikai is the university that I am going to be going to for my Japanese classes. The other school I am going to go to for the other classes I am going to take is KUIS (Kanda University for International Studies). I have only been to Meikai twice so far, but it seems pretty nice. The first time they had us come to campus it was actually raining and freezing. Not an enjoyable time for a tour of the campus. But today it was actually quite nice out. Another nice thing about Meikai is that it is only one train stop away from Tokyo Disneyland. Even if it is really expensive I am definitely going to make sure I am able to get there.
The main part of the campus
One of the many palm trees in this area (Shin Urayasu). I am not sure why, but they are everywhere.
Only half of the spaces for the bikes to be parked. It is kind of insane how many people ride there bikes around.
Tokyo
So far I have made it into Tokyo twice. On Sunday I went to Harajuku and Shibuya and today I went to Ueno.
Harajuku Station packed on a Sunday
Harajuku. I was actually really impressed with myself because I was able to remember how to get around Shibuya and how to get from Shibuya to Harajuku. I guess going between the two places so many times during the last trip really caused it to stick.
And today I went to Ueno which was absolutely gorgeous. I kind of went a little camera crazy. I didn't feel so bad though because everyone was taking pictures. But I would highly suggest that anyone in Tokyo in early April should go to Ueno. The sakura are beautiful.
Man, this took forever to write. Hope someone enjoys reading this. And Bonnie, now you can stop bugging me for pictures!
Orientation/Makuhari
So, when we first arrived in Japan, we were taken to this facility called OVTA (Overseas Vocational Training Association) for orientation. We stayed there for about 4 days before we went to our dorms/homestays. It was actually quite a nice place. Each person had their own single room with a private bathroom. I was expecting them to just put us all in just one big room or something like that, so I was pretty surprised. I was also up on the 12th floor so I had a pretty nice view of Makuhari. Makuhari is a suburb of Tokyo and is probably about 30 min to an hour out of the city.
My room in OVTA
View of Makuhari from my room. You can't really tell but just beyond the buildings is water. Apparently there was a beach about a 30 min walk away, but I never go the chance to make it over there.
And Makuhari by night
Orientation itself was pretty boring. We basically sat in this room for hours on end while they talked at us. At one point they spent forever talking about how it was illegal to carry around a knife or sword. And they kept making a big deal about how bad it would be to pull a knife on someone. At the time I found it strange that they were talking so much about it but apparently they had an incident with this before. Last semester this student pulled a knife on someone when he was drunk while they were having some sort of a fight. So he ended up being put in jail for a while and eventually deported.
They also talked at us forever about the train system. They were trying to explain it but in the end they ended up making us all even more confused. I was really intimidated by the train system at first but now I actually free pretty comfortable using it. The train system is way more extensive than I ever thought before. Whenever I looked at maps of it in Tokyo guide books, I was only looking at the trains that go around downtown Tokyo. But when you start looking at all the JR lines that go around to the suburbs as well, it starts to get pretty intense. Here is a map of the all whole system if anyone is interested.
We pretty much had all of the evenings free to do whatever we wanted. For the first couple of days I was able to keep myself up pretty late. I went out to karaoke a couple of times to groups of people and just wandered around Makuhari. By the end of week I was so exhausted that ended up falling asleep really early.
Finally on Saturday all of the host families came to meet the students they would be hosting. All the dorm students also had lunch with the host families as well. After that we all went our separate ways to our dorms/homestays. It took forever to get to the dorm because we all had to get our commuter passes/suica and then some people were having some serious issues with the train systems. But finally after about 2 hours we managed to make it to our dorm.
Baraki Nakayama
Baraki Nakayama is a neighborhood in Ishikawa where my dorm is located. It is not too far out of Tokyo (30 min to 1 hour depending on where you are going). It is quite a cute little neighborhood. There isn't really much to do here. There are a couple of restaurants, a few conbini, and a pachinko parlor and driving range. There is also a supermarket, 99 yen store, and 100 yen store.
My dorm actually seems quite nice. There are a bunch of little things that I have to get used to. First of all the no wearing shoes inside rule. When we come inside we have to take our shoes off and put them in our own little shoe boxes. We have to wear slippers around the dorm. And then there are also special slippers we have to wear in the bathrooms as well. One annoying thing about the dorm is that there are only 4 shower stalls for about 90 people or so in the dorm. So I can imagine it gets rather difficult to get a shower in the morning. There is also an open bath that we can use as well. There are also strict rules on curfew here. There is a midnight curfew. The dorm manager does check to make sure we are back by then (there is a board at the entrance which has a name plate for all of us which we have to flip back and forth depending on if we are in the dorm or not). Also, absolutely no guys are allowed in the dorm (except for family that is).
First view of my room
Second view of my room
A little shrine on the route from my dorm to the train station
On the route from my dorm to the train station
Meikai University
Meikai is the university that I am going to be going to for my Japanese classes. The other school I am going to go to for the other classes I am going to take is KUIS (Kanda University for International Studies). I have only been to Meikai twice so far, but it seems pretty nice. The first time they had us come to campus it was actually raining and freezing. Not an enjoyable time for a tour of the campus. But today it was actually quite nice out. Another nice thing about Meikai is that it is only one train stop away from Tokyo Disneyland. Even if it is really expensive I am definitely going to make sure I am able to get there.
The main part of the campus
One of the many palm trees in this area (Shin Urayasu). I am not sure why, but they are everywhere.
Only half of the spaces for the bikes to be parked. It is kind of insane how many people ride there bikes around.
Tokyo
So far I have made it into Tokyo twice. On Sunday I went to Harajuku and Shibuya and today I went to Ueno.
Harajuku Station packed on a Sunday
Harajuku. I was actually really impressed with myself because I was able to remember how to get around Shibuya and how to get from Shibuya to Harajuku. I guess going between the two places so many times during the last trip really caused it to stick.
And today I went to Ueno which was absolutely gorgeous. I kind of went a little camera crazy. I didn't feel so bad though because everyone was taking pictures. But I would highly suggest that anyone in Tokyo in early April should go to Ueno. The sakura are beautiful.
Man, this took forever to write. Hope someone enjoys reading this. And Bonnie, now you can stop bugging me for pictures!