Marooned.

The weather in Tokyo has been awful for the past many days, probably a week since the start of rainy rainy rain and gloom. Supposedly a typhoon is going to hit Tokyo soon, but I don’t see any reports on it! I hope people are just telling me nonsense, and there will not be a typhoon, because there was the typhoon when we first arrived in Tokyo, early September, and that sucked big time. [Ok, I know. I have another like 30 days in Tokyo to pictorialize - soon! Patience!]

Anyways, I just saw the report, and its going to be sunny on Saturday & Sunday! LOVELY. Especially since Ann & I are planning to go to one of the Tokyo islands, Niijima, this weekend. Lovely!

Ann is my new travel best friend. Today we just went to get our multiple entry permits, with Perttu too, then we booked our flight to South Korea for the 14th Oct, and then booked the Demilitarized Zone tour in Seoul, then we are planning to go to Niijima this weekend. Pure wonderfulness. (:

Ok, time to hit the readings. I haven’t started any readings since this evening, which I’m supposed to finish for tomorrow’s class. I’m so so not going to finish in time. Its one huge stack, and this is not including the second class. Sigh. But I was productive on other fronts, like making dinner, eating, watching some Japanese television, vacuuming my room, taking a bath, washing my sheets, pillowcase, blankets, towel, and gotten price information for future trips – Taiwan!

On another note, the Yen needs to depreciate. I’m running out of money and I hate the rate so badly I don’t want to change the money I have in USD and SGD. Although I was forced to withdraw from my debit card when I absolutely was penniless, and there were no money changers. There is a serious lack of money changers – at all, and with good rates, even less – in Tokyo, I don’t get it! And the bank is taking too long to set up my account, I need some money transferred in from Singapore, don’t they understand! Very broke girl here, in a very expensive city!

Blogging takes so much time!! Especially when I have twentythousand photos to share.

So here it goes, just a short revisit – because I need to sleep. NO MORE WAKING UP LATE! ( I need an alarm clock…) My phone is an idiot because the alarm doesn’t ring when its on silent – like HELLO!!! – so I didn’t hear it the other day, and I missed my first class in Rikkyo, because I woke up exactly at the time my class started, no way I could have made it down and joined them for at least half a class (its only 1.5hours over here).

So back on topic!

We touched down at Narita on Saturday morning, after a near midnight flight the night before from Changi Airport. Mayjean, Shermaine & Na met me at the airport – very late, if I must add – but I love you guys so much for coming!! LOVE. And because I’m vain, that caused me to almost miss my flight because I had to buy something from DFS and there was a long queue!! So I jumped the queue thanks to a very nice Japanese man on his way to Nagoya.

We hurried off to our flight, got chased in, got slightly lost on the A380 because we entered on the 2nd floor, and our seats were on the first floor – got a bit confused because I had no idea there were 2 floors? So with my hugeass backpack and bags, knocked a few passengers on the way to figuring it out – no help from our SIA girls or boys if I must add. So I enjoyed my time in a proper flight with 1.5 meals (0.5 for the snack), lots of movies – nice – and music. Didn’t sleep that much, just couldn’t really fall asleep.

At Narita, we had to wait about an hour for our airport limousine (a normal bus) to take us to our hotel because the earlier one was already fully booked. We killed some time in the airport, checking out the shops, grabbing some snacks. The bus took about slightly less than 2 hours to deposit us right outside our hotel, which was great, no extra walking necessary.

After settling in for a bit, we made our way to get my apartment, got super lost on the way, because addresses and maps are pathetic when you look at how Tokyo’s buildings are. The google maps and stuff are helpful to bring you to that area, but you really really need to get a detailed location before you can find out that its a certain doorway or entrance that doesn’t really proclaim its name or anything. So yes, we walked by the agency several times, and only after asking some kind shop assistants at a nearby outdoor/trekking shop (who printed out a very detailed map for us too!) did we manage to find it.

So along the way to find the agency, we walked from our hotel (Shinjuku Washington – its quite nice! Not very big, but it has everything. I wish I could steal their hair dryer mine’s an idiot because firstly, its a 3 pin plug which can’t be used in Tokyo, and I only have 1 adapter, so go figure, I have a Macbook too. Then I think the voltage is lower in Tokyo, so its blowing a super light breeze even a full speed, I want a typhoon damn it, no time in the morning!! I need a new hairdryer but its such a waste of money, sigh.) we got to see a bit of Tokyo, whilst we were heading there.

A random building in Tokyo, not too sure where I took this or why. But just decided to show you guys anyway. I love how Tokyo has all these exciting signboards/billboards everywhere.

Some restaurants in Tokyo, along the way, they all look so interesting and exciting, makes me just want to go into all of them and try all the delicious food they have. 美味しい！

Thats Pa outside a noodle shop - tsukemen, not really the same as ramen, but almost the same. It just has an interesting decor, with the flag and the lantern and all. Deserved a picture!

Same restaurant, with both my parents this time!

So you see that building on the right. ITS AWESOME. Its so pretty!! I keep forgetting its name though.

Parents with the cool building in the background. Nice.

A very nice temple that was kind of hidden away. The courtyard area was very zen and pretty. Interesting sight. First temple in Tokyo - it was interesting until we got to Kyoto.

So after we got some apartments in mind, we had to go check them out, so we walked around a little bit to kill time, then we made our way to where it was, and checked out a supermarket we saw.

I LOVE JAPANESE SUPERMARKETS. Check out the cooked food area. And this is a tiny tiny supermarket in comparison to the other huge ones at the departmental stores. This supermarket is right opposite the gates when I come out of my train station (Fujimidai) - like less than 30 secs away. But I haven't tried it yet, because its a lot of fried, unhealthy food! But looks good.

Then the apartment dude told us that he didn’t have the keys, so we decided to go have dinner instead.

There in that corner is my dad trying to look at what the ramen man was doing behind the counter. And this is the ramen man cooking! I LOVE RAMEN!!

It was a very random shop we passed by, when we were super hungry and waiting for the agentguy to get the keys for the apartments - miscomm caused us to wait for about 45mins. So yes, this is the best ramen I have ever eaten. THE BEST. ITS AMAZING. I had it only twice, both times with the parents, because its not very cheap, not when I'm trying to save money. ¥900 for the charsiew ramen - but its gigantic, and there is so much charsiew - loveeee. And its such a small little shop, its super old school and cool. I like it. A. Lot.

After seeing the apartment, we headed back to Shinjuku, and saw bright lights along the way to our hotel, and had to stop by to take a look.

Whats Japan/Tokyo if you don't see pachinko shops? Ok I forgot to take the karaoke shops too. But yes, they are everyyywhereee. I want to go try it soon. I wonder what the hell is supposed to happen when you put those metal beads into the machine. Just a lot of noise and smoke when you walk pass one of these. And very very very bright lights.

A night in Shinjuku, near our hotel.

Its always bright and exciting in Tokyo, any day of the week. Mostly in the city centres, like Shinjuku and Ikebukuro.

Bright, enticing signboards for various shops and restaurants. Its just so exciting.

And that is the end to our first day in Japan. Not very fun-filled or activity packed, but I had to run my errands and stuff, but it was interesting to see Tokyo for the first time. Everything here still enthralls me everyday when I walk by, even if its the same stores I pass by every few days on my way to school. Its amazing!!

I love Tokyo. (:

More soon!

And I just got to complain that the Japanese government is sucking my money!! I’ve got to pay so much for national health insurance! I’m very upset. Like more than 2 times than my friends, I don’t understand!!! I think its because no one told me to declare that I have no income – but I think I did say that I didn’t have an income, right? So yes, that sucks, I’m upset. I’m wasting money on insurance I don’t need. Its ¥3,100 a month! LIKE OMG. And I already paid ¥3,500 to the school for some other health insurance thing. AND I have travel insurance. So like, how much more do I need to be insured? I could use that ¥3,100 on groceries, new shoes, new clothes, new bags!!! Hello!

Seeing how I’ve been missing in action for the best of almost 3 weeks. I know I have a lot to fill in! Like tonnes of pictures too. But.. the television is distracting me with baseball, and baseball players – 鳥谷 敬 (Takashi Toritani) from Hanshin Tigers is damn cute, and he’s damn good! I think he hit 2 home runs. The first one brought 2 others back home, leveling the score with the Giants, then he hit another home run. So the Tigers won the Giants 7-6 today, super exciting game. I need to watch baseball live in Japan! Like the Giants at Tokyo Dome, too bad the Tigers are from Osaka – I kind of like them, watched a few games along the way when we were traveling around.

Yes, ok so that was not updating about me being in Japan, but kind of.

Well. I shall update on my apartment! Its more like a room, with an adjoined toilet, and an electric stove & microwave to you people who live anywhere other than Tokyo.

View from the door, as you enter. New flowers, bed, desk. Not enough storage space... AT ALL. I don't have a bookshelf, so my books and papers are going to overflow onto the floor very soon.

View of my room from the bed!

My desk & Tv (with PM Hatoyama on the screen), clothes wardrobe & cabinet at the back.

My toilet! Minimal space, but enough for whatever's necessary.

House plant, Pretty Pink Flowers! I decided that I need a plant in the apartment. (: So I bought one. Its so pretty.

Ok I’m watching the news in Japanese on Hatoyama Yukio stepping in as Prime Minister of Japan today. I didn’t understand what was happening – my Japanese is rudimentary – so as expected, google helped me!

So school has not begun proper, only the orientations and getting us to take the language placement tests. Well, the placement tests were just crazy difficult, and just made me feel as if it was a waste studying it for the past 6 months, because, well I’m probably in the class just above zero. In J0 they learn the real basic of basics, so I guess they won’t put me in that right, I can’t do hiragana and katakana all over again. My brain died during the interview test today, so I started using English for some words, which totally explained the lady’s sympathetic, ‘We think its best we put you in a basic class, to improve your level of Japanese, is that ok?’ Oh wells, not that I need to take any modules in Japanese, so although it was an ego buster, its okay.

Met the other international exchange students who are entering Rikkyo this term, got to know some Japanese students too, when we went for the Nomikai on Monday evening. The other exchange people are really nice, hung out with some of them for the past few days when we see each other in school to get stuff done etc, then we did grocery shopping, Daiso shopping, dinner etc. I spend way too much on groceries, so far its about ¥3500, and that’s not including rice, which I intend to buy tomorrow, cos its cheaper at the other supermarket which I was too lazy to walk to today. An international friends club thing organized the Nomikai for the international exchange people, so we went. Its a drinking party, but the group was too big, so we split into 2 separate groups, and went to 2 different restaurants. The Japanese students were really nice, and they spoke to us in Japanese, mostly, so I was having a real brainy time trying to converse in and understand Japanese – its really tough! Especially because they use casual speech, when all, or most of, what I’ve been studying has been formal speech, so its really different. But it was alright in the end, it was fun!

People sitting around me! Perrtu on the left. Jap girl - forgot her name.. David, and Yuki doing something with her chopsticks.

The table. We had interesting food. A hot pot, deep fried spaghetti, okonomiyaki, fries, chicken wings, and drinks!

Yu & I. (ha. ha.) First year law student.

Me, Yu & Yumie. Yumie brought me around for the school tour part of orientation, and lunch. She's super cute. And tall. And pretty. They're both 19, so young!! (Oh, and under the legal drinking age. So no, they were not drinking. Righttt.)

The other half of the table! The guy on the right, is Travis, from Hawaii, he lives in the dorms at my station too. Part of the group of us who've been home shopping for the past few days. He loves Uniqlo ( he just bought 3 shirts today when we were out), according to Robyn, the other girl from Hawaii.

Me, Amanda & Sara. They're from Canada, but different schools. They're really nice. And Amanda is like kerraazy. Haha, maybe she was just really high. But she's really fun to hang out with. And has cool hair.

Right outside the building the restaurant was in. This is Ikebukuro on a Monday night. Go figure. Its packed at all times, all over central Tokyo. Its freaking amazing.

A standing up bar across the building we were in. Its interesting seeing people just stand around drinking.

Ok, I really need to wash up and go to bed now. I have to be up for College of Business orientation tomorrow morning. I already totally forgot about the library orientation this morning and slept in. Hope its not as boring as the one we had on Monday. Kei was sleeping, whoops, and I was dozing off, so were many of the people around me. Ok night! I’ll update with more on the traveling part tomorrow! Promise!!