Here I Am, Japan!

I'm finally here in Japan and settled in with my host family!

My trip started out great though inevitably long (24 hours). I flew via China Airlines which put me next to a bunch of Chinese people. So not only was I surrounded by a bunch of Asians, it was the wrong type of Asians. At one point I was like, "Wait, am I going the right way?" But I did finally make it to Japan, only without my luggage... Because what trip for a Swiss girl would be complete without losing something? So I walk down to baggage claim and see a Japanese woman with my name on a card and I think, "Oh, this must be the person from my program who's picking me up." But no she's there to tell me that my luggage won't be coming until a later flight so I shouldn't expect it until morning. Then they ask me where I should send it when it comes and I honestly had no idea because I didn't memorize my host family's address  (though I should have written it down, always missing something right?) and though I remembered that the hotel I was staying at was Hotel Okura, there are like 8 of them. (All of this mind you, in Japanese, and I was getting more confused by the minute) I eventually just told them to send it to the one in Kobe and hoped it turned out for the best.

I continued out into the airport arrival place to meet the person from the program and I couldn't find anyone. I looked around and around but didn't see anyone with a "Konan Daigaku" sign or anything so what do I do? Call my mommy. I managed to find a wi-fi spot and skyped her to ask her advice. But she couldn't really help me from all the way over in America so eventually someone else from the program spotted me and I was very relieved to have found everyone! Next step was withdrawing money. After trying 3 times on 2 different machines, it wouldn't work! It said my card was invalid! And then we had to get on the shuttle to the hotel. So there I was in Japan with no luggage and no money! What to do! 

Not only that, but it is SUPER humid in Japan.  Like, sweat running down your back hot. So here, everyone carries around a hankachi or minitowel (handkerchief) to dry yourself off when you sweat too much (sounds disgusting I know but it really comes in handy!).

So when we arrived at the hotel one of the sensei/coordinators took me out to a local ATM and I had little hope for it because of the failure at the airport but I was surprised and delighted that it worked! I was so relieved. We also went to Starbucks while we were out and man is it expensive! I mean it’s pretty much expensive everywhere but they have a really small size that you would maybe give to a child. I picked it because it was the cheapest (cheapest being like $4.30~) and they said it was small but they really weren’t kidding, I was finished in thirty seconds. I learned too that it’s customary not to drink or eat while you’re walking. It’s considered rude. Which I didn’t know at the time so I drank it all as we walked back to the hotel. (oops) But you either drink it where you bought it or wait until you’ve arrived at wherever you’re going. That’s also why there are only trashcans near vending machines, although even those are mostly for bottles/cans (“petbottles,” they call it). So you’d think that the streets of Japan would be littered because there’s nowhere to throw anything away but they’re virtually spotless! Japanese people will hold their trash until they can find somewhere to throw it away or until they get home.

When I got back to the hotel, I took a more thorough look at the room I was staying in. The first surprise was the toilet. Japanese toilets are super advanced. The seats are heated so when you sit down it’s a certain temperature (it has three settings)! There’s also a built it bidet and something that says “massage” (??) and another function that has a woman’s face on it as the icon (I still don’t understand that one). Also the mirror in the bathroom has a square in the middle of it that’s heated. So that when you take a shower, and the room gets all steamy, that square in the middle stays the same so you have a cutout to see yourself in after you’re done! The beds were also kind of different. They’re really hard; it actually doesn’t even feel like they have springs in them. But they are surprisingly good! You think, “Oh wow this is kind of uncomforta… ZZZZZ,” and you go out like a light. Just don’t jump on them... (like one of our members learned **snicker**)

That night some of us went exploring around Sannomiya, which is the town that was closest to us. We split up for dinner because Japanese shops are actually rather small and can’t really accommodate a large group like the one we had. So I went to a small ramen shop and it was basically just like 7 seats or so around a bar looking thing. But behind the bar was the single cook that was operating the whole store. Even with our five people in our small group, we took up most of the space in the restaurant. Then we went back and listened to two singers/guitar players that were performing on the street and just hung out and chatted.

When we got back, my roommate had finally arrived. She’s French! She can’t really speak much English so we had to rely on Japanese as a backup. I had no idea how many countries our students were coming from. We have people from America, England, France, Germany, Australia and all of different Japanese levels.

The next day we had orientation at our school. So we got to see Konan and it’s really pretty! The buildings are all newly rebuilt because there was an earthquake a few years ago and most of them fell down. It was really hot during the day though so it was nice to get into the classrooms, which have air-conditioning. Another thing about Japan is that they only air-condition or heat certain rooms at a time. Therefore, the hallways and such are not air-conditioned. Which I guess makes sense. Japan is very eco-friendly, in every respect. So they don’t bother wasting energy on places that you don’t use or you’re only in for a few minutes at a time.

After the paper-work orientation, we got separated into smaller groups and put with a few Konan students from the regular school to show us around campus. It was great to walk around and chat to them in Japanese while learning about the school and different buildings to use. Some buildings are actually two in one. Like, you’ll walk down building two and there will be a painted line down the floor, and you’re suddenly in building six. Then we ate lunch in the cafeteria and man I wish American cafeterias had food this good! It’s all super cheap (like 280 yen-400 yen) and it’s all so delicious! I had tanuki soba, (I think that was the name) which is basically soba noodles with a triangular sweet egg type thing on top. (So good!) Later that day we had Konan students give us some demonstrations of different clubs (orchestra, kenpo, kendo, etc) and we got to peruse a bit.

We ventured out into the local area that night and went to Mosaic, a mall that was right around the corner. On the way there was a beautiful view of the Kobe port that looked amazing by night. When we got there we only really went in to the very first part, which was the arcade. Games and crane machines galore! Everywhere you look it was colorful and fun looking with prizes from bears to Mickey/Minnie to My Neighbor Totoro plushies and Spirited away soots - WANT! Metcha Kawaii~!

I will continue later! それではまた次回！

Word of the Day: 留学生　「りゅうがくせい」"ryuugakusei," or foreign exchange student.