Sunday, September 5, 2010

Post 1, Late but Here

Well, this is day 4 now, but I've finally gotten to taking care of the blog. Between traveling around, jet lag, and recovering from walking, it has taken me until now, but here it is. I suppose a briefing on the trip so far is in order, so I'll go chronologically, as far as I can remember.

Plane Ride

I got through bag checking, customs, the usual deal without anything particularly interesting occurring, making my way onto the plane a little earlier than expected. My seat was next to a Taiwanese couple on their way to Taiwan through Tokyo, and the man (who was sitting directly next to me) seemed talkative, so I had pretty high expectations of the flight. However, when I learned that the purpose of their flight was for the woman to go in for another round of chemotherapy, I moved to an empty seat so that they might have more space to be comfortable. While a window seat, there was no one to talk to really, and so I settled in for the inevitable long, dull ride. The movies that they showed included The Karate Kid (new version), The Joneses (a movie I hadn't heard of with David Duchovny and Demi Moore), Quantum of Solace, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and some episodes of shows I don't know. I worked on at least 15 different crossword puzzles, without being able to finish a single one. It was great...

Arrival

Not terribly interesting, excepting a little delay when I had filled out customs forms in pencil and had to go through the line a second time (I wasn't the only one, thank goodness, so I wasn't "that guy"). I grabbed a water from the first of many vending machines, and slept on the bus ride to our dormitory. There we groggily but politely met and thanked the school representatives who greeted us, and after a snack crawled into the firm, firm beds which we are learning to deal with.


Orientation/Bunkyo Gakuin

Friday was mostly spent being officially greeted by the school, and getting better acquainted with the campus and surrounding area. Don't get me wrong, I am still completely disoriented and lost; just... a little less so. We were shown around the campus buildings by our guide, who spoke softly and would begin explaining the room's functions immediately upon arriving (as opposed to waiting for the rest of the group to arrive as well), but it was too sweltering for me to be bothered by such minor details. In fact, Japan is still in the full swing of its hottest summer on record (meaning at least since 1898), a fact which has been at the forefront of everyone's mind. After the tour and introductory ceremonies (meeting faculty, host families, and some students), we were allowed to retreat to the air conditioning of our dorm until 5.

Subway System

At 5 we were to have our first experience with the subway system, shipping out to the sports stadium Tokyo Dome. The idea was to get a feel for taking the Subway, check out a touristy place, and visit the grocery on the walk back. The Subway, which I have at the time of writing this taken several times now, is actually remarkably easy to use, as long as you know where you are trying to go. Beside the kanji there are English translations for all of the stations and lines, and the maps are intuitive enough where navigation is not really a problem. Armed with my Pasmo card (subway card) I can now get pretty much anywhere in the city in a fairly quick time. The only catch is that the lines shut down shortly after midnight, starting up again at 5am, so you are either out until midnight, or you are out until 5. Every night is a big decision.

Shibuya

Friday night I went out to go see Shibuya with Alrae and Suzanna. Shibuya is kind of known as one of the bigger nightlife areas withing proximity, probably second to Roppongi. I was foolishly unarmed with my camera at the time, but in Shibuya was the largest crowd of people I have ever been in by far, a mixed ocean of the hip, the businesslike, and the bizarre. This was a midnight night, so we basically spent it walking around and gawking like the gaijin (foreigners) that we are, though we were disallowed entry to a nightclub on the grounds of "Japanese Only". We also saw some pretty fantastic arcades there, with multiple floors of fighting games, racing games, crane games, anything you could imagine. It reminded me a bit of a casino, but with all of the money going one way instead of just most of it. It was a close call, but we managed to make the subway that got us home before sunrise.

This is probably enough for the first post, and seeing as I've been sitting at the computer working on it for the last 45 minutes or so I am going to have to get to the rest of the first four days in the sequel, but at least the entries will be a little more balanced for it.

No comments:

Post a Comment