Day 2

Blimey, I've been here for less than two days and it's fantastic so far! I feel stupid knowing no Japanese, I will have to pick it up quickly.

So, since I arrived it's been busy busy busy. Yesterday was hectic to say the least; the plane journey was easy but boring and uncomfortable. Then getting from the airport to the halls was fine and would have been so much harder without the help of Japanese students, as I mentioned below.

Today I was met face to face with Japanese red tape, or at least their love of forms filled out neatly with no crossings out. We went into the university for 9.30 (everyone was late which, we were told by the dean, is very un-Japanese). Then we met some of the students from yesterday who were lovely and helpful who played some games with us. It was really funny, considering there must have been over 100 people in the room, to play these simple games en masse. The first game was 6 people stood at the front and each shouted a different word but at the same time and we had to work out what each person was saying. I was terrible at it, because I know no bloody Japanese, but it was fun. Then a different society got a group of 6 students to stand at the front, gave each of them a cream puff but some of them contained mustard. They would all eat them at the same time and we had to guess who had eaten mustard puffs just by their faces. Simple but very fun to watch!

Then we spent the rest of the day with a tour of the campus, some free sandwiches, lots of presentations about rules we should obey and that sort of thing. Then we spent aaggeess filling out form to do with health insurance and foreign registration. It was a bit of a nightmare but helpfully they went through it step by step with us in English. The big problems for me in the forms were 1) I can't read kanji which some of the forms were entirely written in, 2) it might be 2010 but in emperor years it's 22, 3) my accomodation is called 'Waseda University Nishi Waseda International Student House' which is a bit of a mouthful to say, never mind to write in small boxes on forms that have to be pristine.

So once that was all done I wandered home and had my first encounter with a Japanese supermarket. I know I'll probably look back on this blog in a few months time and cringe, but yeah, I found the supermarket a bit bewildering. It stocked many things I recognised but also a helluva lot that I just didn't have a clue. I was nervous to buy cooking ingredients because I havn't fully scouted out the kitchen yet so I bought some sort of pork bento box (rice with thinly chopped pork in a sauce with sesame seeds and some cabbage, I think it was cabbage) for my tea, plus some milk to make tea (yeeey) and croissants for breakfast. Really Japanese, that.

After this Jessi, Nicole, Haru and me for a wander up to Takadanobaba (a 5 minute walk away!) where we bought some stuff in the 100yen shop then went to a cheap bar where all the drinks were 380yen. I loved the bar; we had to take off our shoes at the entrance and walk around in bare feet and even the staff were just in socks. We were shown to a low Japanese style table with cushions around it. It wasn't very easy on the knees but it was fun. Plus, instead of a waiter taking your order, there was a touch screen with the menu on it - you simply select what everyone wants then send it to be made and they turn up 5 minutes later! Genius.

Tomorrow I get a lie in, thank god. I haven't even started unpacking yet, I need to start making this place more homey. Thanks to everyone who has messaged me or said good luck - I appreciate it!