I'm currently in an internet cafe in downtown Shinjuku, right after being laughed at by the owner for not understanding stuff, it happens a lot.
I've been in Japan for more than a week, now where do I start? From the beginning I guess.
The flight to Vienna was easy and pain-free, even though the two hours felt like a long time it was nothing compared to th following flight.
We did have some problems getting our tickets in Vienna at first (there was some stuff going on about our luggage) but it all got sortened out eventually.
The flight to Japan was 11 hours long and pretty darn tiring. And I was too tense to concentrate on something for more than twenty minutes (so no movie watching for me).
In what would be the middle of the night in Sweden, but in fact 8 o'clock in the morning in Japan. We landed.
The first obvious difference between Japan and Sweden is the heat. You don't notice it in anime and they don't mention it in books, but Japan is a country in the southern part of Asia.
Which makes it pretty darn hot.
And humid.
Like, really humid.
No, you don't understand, I'm talking big time humid here.
Anyways. We met up with our organisation, we are 20 students in total. 3 Swedes, 2 Norweigans, 1 Dane, 9 Germans, 2 Frenchies and 3 Finlanders. The Japanese lady who greeted us was called Terui-san, she's the one responsible for our group.
We then took a bus from Narita Airport to Tokyo.
I quickly spotted another pequliar thing they don't mention about Japan; there's vegetation everywhere. I guess the humid weather makes Japan the ideal place for plants to grow, and boy do they grow. all over the roads, houses and lakes, there are plants. They grow so easily, I bet you could just leave a spot of dirt open overnight and have your own shrubbery the day after.
Then we got into Tokyo.
They say Tokyo is big.
They lie.
Tokyo is waaaaaay big, too big. I saw it with my two eyes but I could'nt believe it.
It's a town big enough to house the inhabitants of a small country, or like 1.5 times the population of Sweden.
I won't waste my time trying to explain the size of Tokyo, It's simply too big to comprehend.
After about an hour, the bus arrived at the destination.
When we got out of the bus, I noticed yet another pequliar thing about Japan.
The noise.
The freaking cicadas won't shut up. And it's not your average annoying noise, It's a deafening noise made by thousands of bugs making a "Vraa-vraaa-vraaa-vraaaaaaaa" sound. And there is no end to it. (You get kind of used to it after a while, accepting the rythm of the sounds. But then suddenly they do it it wrong, like "Vraaa-vraaa-vraaaa-vraaaa-vraaaa-vraaaaaaa" and it drives you crazy).
I should hurry up, I've only got two hours and I've spent like 20 minutes talking about the environment.
The bus had taken us to a school, where we gathered in a classroom and got to present ourselves in Japanese, I did pretty bad (since I was freaking tired) but managed somehow.
Then we met another of our representatives from the organisation: Yuuki (unfortunately a woman and not Yukiteru, but it's still kinda close). And we got to meet Tom, Mica (Micchan) and Nuri. They're 3 other students who have stayed in Japan since February, they are really good at Japanese. I hope I'll be like that later on.
Fast forwarding, we took a train to Shinjuku (leaving our bags behind) and then the subway to Nakano-Sakaue and got to see the language school we'll be going to for the first 3 weeks.
Then we got back to our luggage and all of the host families were waiting for us.
Except mine.
And the 3 other students I'm sharing it with.
For some reason the family could'nt come and pick us up so we had to send our luggage by mail and then take the train and a car ride. It was actually nothing but at the time I was really tired and felt bad so for me it was a harsh adventure.
We finally arrived at like 7 in the evening, which would be like 11 in the morning in Sweden, damn I was tired.
I was however positively surprised by the host family.
They're rich, They live in a mansion.
I live with a german student in our own house on their lot, the girls live in another house in the same lot.
Both of our houses are big enough to host a family of four. The main house is big enough for 20.
So it's a pretty nice family, just a pair of 61-year-olds who grow their own food in a field and have chickens and stuff in cages.
And they have dogs, five of them. The nicest one is named Kuma, he's big and white and never barks. He's blind though, but he manages somehow.
We only get Japanese food, which is kinda cool. I've tried lots of new stuff and most of it is good, though I'm still not used to eating "real food" for breakfeast.
There is one major drawback living with this family though, it's over 2 hours pendling to school. We need to get up at six every morning, get ready and eat breakfeast and then leave the home before seven, walk for 15 minutes to the station and then take the train one station to Kuki, which takes 10 minutes, then we must hurry to get on the train to Shinjuku, where we have to stand for 55 minutes, then we walk from the station for 5 minutes to the metro, wait 5 minutes for the one to Nakano-Sakaue to arrive and then stand on it for 10 minutes and then walk to the school in 10 minutes. This is if we get there in time, miss no train and nothing is delayed. In that case we might lose 20-30 minutes.
I manage, somehow.
School is ok. On the first day we took a test to see which group we belonged to. Since I had'nt slept at all that night (the jet lag still haunted me), I did terribly and got into the beginner's class. Kind of a letdown after being the top student in my Japanese class in Sweden. But later on I've been asked several times by the teacher if I want to move up since this class is too easy for me, but I want to stay since I like the tempo and have made some good friends there.
Talking about friends, I've become good friends with the students sharing my host family. We usually do something togeather from time to time.
The first time we did something was on wednesday, we went to Shibuya. It was awesome. There were people everywhere and stores and stuff. I could'nt stop thinking about The World Ends With You. After some time wandering about, we went into a store called "Book off", naturally there were not only books but also games and anime.
Despite my better judgement, I could'nt stop myself and bought a game, it was Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days. And only for about 3800 yen, which is nothing. I was (and continue to be) so happy.
Oh yeah, I bought my first Shounen Jump before that, I kind of did'nt understand a thing, but I was happy.
On the way home from Shibuya I also Bought Gangan, which is the monthly magazine that publishes Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul eater, awesome. I also got a cool cellphone strap with Edward by buying it. Which was perfect for my new Japanese cellphone. It's way more advanced than my old one, and it is a "basic" model! I might consider starting a diary on it.
I really fell in love with cellphone straps since then and I've got a whole bunch of them now. I feel nerdy (in a good way).
There is a 7-eleven near our host family's house and we went there once. As you know I live quite far away from central Tokyo, so Gaijin are not that usual in those parts. Which explains why during our visit to 7-eleven, we were confronted by three Japanese teenagers.
They had ragged clothes and bleached hair. They made quite some jokes at our expense mostly in Japanese but also in bad English.
They barely knew any English and I think their only knowledge about it comes from movies and posters. So they did things like pointing at my middle area and saying "bigg, bigg" and then laughing like kids.
It was amusing for about 5 seconds.
Talking about other things, the host family showed us the Japanese letters we had written 6 months ago (one of the requirements by the organisation). My Japanese has gotten way better since then and the letter is embarassingly bad. However I was the only one out of the four of us staying there who had'nt been helped by a teacher or a Japanese friend while writing it. So the host family was quite impressed. I'm shining!
We've made two trips with the language school, first we went to the Life security center and got to know what to do in case of a fire/earthquake and evacuation. The place itself was pretty boring but it was fun talking to people and I guess it's good to know what to do.
The other trip was to the Tokyo Edo museum. We got to know about the history of Tokyo which was very interesting. We also bought some weird candy from the gift shop, it was colourful and tasty.
Yesterday I went to Harajuku. There were'nt a lot of interesting people at that particular time but there were some para para dancers and a guy in a pikachu suit. We visited a few stores, including a gothic lolita store ( pretty clothes but now what I'm looking for).
Then we went to a toy store.
I can't remember the name (I think it was something like "Kiddy land" but I'm not sure) but it was like Hamley's, six stories tall and loaded with cool stuff. It was also a 60-year anniversary for Snoopy, so there was and entire floor dedicated to him. I bought a pretty cellphone strap to show my appreciation (Joe Cool hangs around the student union).
Today I was supposed to go to Akihabara, but I think I entered heaven by mistake. There was awsome stuff everywhere, every store was an adventure. I must get back there soon.
Of course, I could'nt help myself and bought a few things. I've got a great excuse for it though.
Since I bought Kingdom Hearts Final Mix Platinum version and Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix. Oh god yes.
I also happened to stumble over Final Fantasy IV, V and VI in their original forms, cheaply. I'll be rich when I take these home to Sweden.
There is a lot more that has happened, but now I need to use the little time I have left to check my Email, I'll get back to you guys soon.
Miss you all, especially you.
