So basically today was a pretty busy day from about 9:15am to 3:00pm. During this time, we had a mandatory orientation about the school, and basically the code of conduct, and how this program will work, how we should act in certain situations, etc. (basically culture stuff and school stuff, and safety/health stuff). All in all, this took about 4-6 hours or so and it was basically a marathon.
Anyways, after that we went to the city office to register our residency and get our national health insurance card. Of course, just like all other days, it was extremely hot and humid. It was hard to handle, but everyone in our study abroad group were becoming closer and becoming even better friends. After the city registration thing ended at around 3, we pretty much relaxed at the dorms for a bit until leaving to the downtown area to a thrift store called "Hardoff". Yes, it's a weird name I know, but basically it's just your regualr thrift store with a whole bunch of knick-knacks. For those who play videogames, there were tons of sega, nintendo 64, gamecube etc. game consoles available, as well as coin purses, DVD players, digital camera parts, video games, CDs, DVDs, Kimono, toys, etc. We stayed there for a fair amount of time, but the only thing I ended up giving money to was this set of 7 shot glasses of a character named Chopper from One Piece. I bought one of the shot glasses basically for $0.25 (it was 25 YEN) and it was actually glass! after that we went to A grocery store called gourmet city which was basiclaly a supermarket with tons different food.
I bought Banans, a 5-pack of instant ramen, two types of dinner rolls, and a big bottle of Milk Tea and it didn't cost too much.
this other Home Depot-like store which had puppies. Me and my friend Derek were able to carry a baby Shiba-Inu and it was freakin' adorable. before we held it it looked through its glass cage straight into our eyes and souls and we pretty much melted. Once we were able to hold it though, we melted even more. We took videos, pictures then moved on with our lives.
Once we met up with everyone else, we went to this Ramen place downtown called Gutara and they were really nice. We came in with all our groceries and alcohol for tonight but they still seated us and were really enthusiasitc. It seemd that they wanted to practice their english becuase they were speaking english to us. They were also pretty young. I'd say they were in their young 20s just like us, or maybe a bit older.
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Just FYI. The way that Ramen places have worked so far is that we would walk up to this machine, and insert money (just like a vending machine). Then we would press a button and you would then get your change as well as a ticket which had the item you selected written on it. You would then give the ticket to the man working there behind the coutner and then simply wait at a table for your foot. I really think that this is an extremely efficient process, and I feel like a vending machine-type food ordering proces would me much more efficient then the way we have it now. Japanese people also don't have you wait for very long before getting your food so that too is a plus.
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After we got our ramen(which i didn't photograph at all) we went hoem and talked with a friend who didn't live in our dorm building. Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed in any floor other than the lobby because he didn't live there and our dorm has really strict rules against visitors. After talking our plan for tomorrow (buying cellphones in shibuya / poss. going to skytree) he left and we proceeded upstairs to the girls floor (3rd floor) for King's Cup! The drinks we had.... were.... I don't remember (despite being only about 1.5 hours ago) but it was basically a lemon fflavored carbonated alocohlic drink. It was more or less a HARD Mike's Hard Lemonade because it was 8% Alcohol by Volume. As I write this I think I still am a bit buzzed because I feel dizzy when I spin my head, but it was really fun. It was some good bonding experience since we played about 2-3 games of king's cup, as well as a game of 10 fingers, in which me and another guy had a flawless victory (trying to look at the positive, lol).
After we finished the games, we talked more about our plan tomorrow and I proceeded to post on Facebook about our plan.
Our plan is to meet up at like 9:50-10am and leave to Musashisakai Station by foot to arrive at around 11am to meet Derek, and then take the train to Shibuya to order phones. The people who came but didn't want to order phones would probably juts walk around and go shopping. After that we were planning to go to Skytree, but we may or may not do that since it is really out of the way and there are more cheaper and less crowded alternatives.
Anyways, now I'm here. After talking about our plans I went to the 4th floor, chilled for about 3-5 minuets watching some Brazilian movie with the people on the 4th floor and went into my room to writhe the blog.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THIS IS ME TRYING TO BE QUICK. It was quite the busy day with orientation and walking, but it was definitely a fun one. I am getting to know my neighbors better and better and we are all becoming friends. ALL IS WELL HERE IN JAPAN. Please let me know if you're down to Skype because I'd love to setup a time where we could Skype. I hope everyone's having a great time back in the USA / Ireland / wherever you are.
Love,
-Slightly Buzzed of alcoholic lemony-tasting soda Andrew.
OYASUMINASAI!
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