Alright, so it's been a really eventful, really busy few days and I haven't had as much time to post as I wanted to, but I'll try and catch up now, starting with the flight from Boston.
Travelling was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I was pretty nervous because since I had missed the last day to use the school's pick up service, I had to get there on my own. Go Suzuki, who coordinates my seminar house, had sent me an email recommending I take the bus and then a taxi, as well as instructions on how to do that, so I wasn't going into it blind, but it was still kind of nerve racking, even though it turned out to be no big deal. The flight to San Francisco was pretty uneventful. I tried to sleep even though I was squished between two people and somebody's baby was perpetually crying.
After we arrived in San Francisco I had about an hour and a half before the last flight, so I just kind of chilled out in the airport. I wouldn't have minded exploring the city a little but there was nowhere near enough time. I met another exchange student going to Japan at the gates and we both talked about how nervous we were. The actual flight was soooo much nicer than the one to San Fran. The seats were comfier, they overfed us with what was actually pretty decent food, and I had a window seat. I also ended up sitting next to a Japanese guy who spoke fluent English. He was going to Japan to meet up with his fiancee and bring her back to the United States. I had to fill out a couple of forms before I got off the plane--a disembarkation card for foreigners and a customs form--and he helped me with both of them, and then showed me where to pick up my luggage once we landed, which was great. The flight went on forever though, and even though they had several in flight movies to pick from, it was never anything you wanted to watch, really. I think I must have seen "water for elephants" about three times. Still, the view as we were flying over Japan was incredible. I still don't know if it's really sunk in that I am physically
in Japan at this point, but it started to right about then.
Anyway, we landed in Kansai International Airport (KIX) around 3:15 Osaka time and everything went off really easily. I was certain that the second I got to the airport there was going to be some crazy problem with my luggage, or they were going to say, "There's been a mistake, you need to go back. And we won't reimburse you for the flight, either." But they barely glanced at my forms. Within fifteen or twenty minutes, I was past customs and checking out the awesome variety of vending machines in the airport. A couple of Japanese girls stopped me and asked me to fill out some kind of survey saying why I was coming to Japan and where I was from, etc. They gave me a hard candy afterward as thanks. Another thing I'd been noticing was that whenever I mentioned Kansai Gaidai to a Japanese person, like the guy that sat next to me on the flight, or the customs officers, or the girls with the survey, they had all heard of it. When I wrote down "Kansai Gaidai" on the survey, I heard the girls whisper to each other, "Kansai Gaidai!" "Heeeee..." (which is kind of like saying "Ohhh" or "wow" I think. It sounds like a really long "Hey").
I had been a little worried about finding the limousine bus to Hirakata, but it was literally right outside the airport. There was a machine to buy tickets from and it had an option to display in English, so it was really easy to use. The bus ride was really, really really long but it was nice because it gave me a chance to stop stressing and do a little bit of sight-seeing. I was literally glued to the window the entire ride. I must have looked a little strange because as we drove through Osaka and later Hirakata, Japanese people on the streets kept staring back at me. One guy was leaning out the window of his truck with his mouth hanging open. I've heard that this can be kind of a common treatment for foreigners.
When I got dropped off at the bus station, there was a taxi apparently waiting for me. I think the school must have called it, which was a huge relief, because I had thought I was going to have to walk to the train station with all my luggage. The bus operator and the taxi driver were both really nice and helped me load all my luggage into the trunk, and I was off. The taxi driver was very sweet and pointed out all of the important landmarks we passed, and (I think) was explaining to me that Kansai Gaidai's location had moved around a lot, this used to be library, this used to be a dormitory, etc. Although I couldn't understand everything and I was too exhausted to say anything more intelligent than "Kirei..." (pretty) or "Muzukashisoo..." (seems complicated). He helped me take my luggage inside when we got to the dorms and the taxi ride only ended up costing me like 1380 yen, which is around 15 US dollars I think. The bus ride was 2000 yen, so the whole trip wasn't as costly as I was worried about at all.
Inside I met Otoosan (basically, dad), who's the caretaker of the house, and Kaito, one of the RAs, as well as a few exchange students. They got me my room key and everyone helped me carry my luggage upstairs. I met my permanent roommate by accidentally waking her up, but she was cool about it. By then it was about 7ish, and the rest of the night was pretty uneventful. I pretty much did all my unpacking, took a much-needed shower and then sat around in the lounge with a bunch of other students chatting. Everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming, and they're all pretty social too. I think on the first night I was so tired that I forgot most of the names I learned, but I've had plenty of time to relearn them from now. I also briefly met Okaasan (mom) but I haven't seen much of her since, although she seemed very sweet. I didn't stay long though, and by ten o'clock I pretty much crashed. We sleep on Japanese-style futons in the rooms, which are sooooo comfy. It's like three layers of super soft mattress and a pillow that feels kind of like a beanbag. I was out the second I laid down.
The rooms are adorable by the way--They're very small but we have huge closets with hangers and drawers inside for all our clothes. We're supposed to roll up the futons and put them inside when we're not sleeping, but I don't think anyone has been. I promised myself I would start once orientation week was over. We also have a table to go in the middle of our floor, but since we have a third temporary roommate who'll be moving out in a couple of days (and hence another futon) we just keep it in the back area of the room, which is a desk/study area separated from the bedroom by sliding paper doors. There's a desk, desk chair, lamp, shelves and drawers for each of us, which is pretty sweet. There are also windows with a nice view of the residential neighborhood, but they've been closed lately because it's been raining pretty hard.
I was warned that night that the next day would be pretty crazy. Everyone here has been filling out forms and paying fees and taking placement tests for several days, and I had to cram everything into a couple of days. I woke up early and followed everyone to the campus, which is a decent walk of about 15-25 minutes. It was recommended that I buy a bike within the next couple of days. There were more of those awesome vending machines on campus by the way. There's a juice one, one that sells coffee and one that sells instant noodles. I'm not really sure how those last two work, but it's still pretty cool. There were a couple of orientation speeches including a women's orientation where they warned us about guys who grope girls or try to take upskirt photos or expose themselves. Apparently this is very common, which was surprising to me. I had heard of it before but didn't realize it was so widespread, and Japan just seems so much safer than Boston, where the worst thing that's happened to me is being yelled at/flirted with by drunk guys on late night subways. After the orientations, I took my laptop to get registered and checked my mailbox, filled out some forms, payed some fees, etc. I met a couple of exchange students in the computer lab and we grabbed lunch at the McDonald's on campus. I know it's really lame and stereotypical of Americans that I went to Japan and the first thing I ate was a cheeseburger at McDonald's, but it was cheap and fast and everyone said it tasted really, really different so I should try it for sure.
And you know what? It tasted exactly the same.
After that we explored a little, looked at the cafeteria and the convenience store on campus. They sell phones there that everyone's buying and I might end up picking up too, since it would make my life easier and they're honestly not a bad deal. There's an atm next to mcdonald's too which is convenient. The food at the cafeteria looks sooo yummy and cheap. After was an orientation where our seminar house staff introduced themselves. Ours was definitely the cutest, Kaito played his ukulele while the other two ra's and Otoosan hula danced. I made plans with the girls to go shopping for essentials later at night, but I had to stay at school longer than everyone else to take my placement test. I was a little worried about finding my way back to the dorms by myself, since I'd only gone anywhere with people so far, but I ran into three exchange students walking home from Kansai Gaidai and asked them if I could follow them back to the dorms. They were actually going out to eat, but they invited me along and one of the girls offered to walk me back to Seminar House 1 afterwards, which was really nice of her. And the restaurant we went to was SO GOOD and cheap, I got yakisoba (fried noodles with vegetables and bacon), and my first ever legal drink, which was a peach chouhai (I think). It tasted like fruity vodka/beer kind of. Afterwards the girl from Seminar House 1, Anna, walked me home and came with us to go shopping. Lots of instant noodles, bread and jam/strawberry waffles for breakfast. Afterwards I hung out in the lounge with everyone for a while then crashed.
Yesterday was the best though, there was an opening ceremony in the morning and then a welcome lunch where I got to try the cafeteria food. Sushi, sashimi, fresh fruit, sandwiches, pork buns and some kind of noodle soup with I think fish eggs in it but I wasn't sure. Anyway everything was delicious. I explored the campus a little with some other students and grabbed my ID. I also found out which classes I'm in, and I ended up getting into the Sumi-E class I wanted which was awesome. A couple of girls were looking for people to go to karaoke with them, so I decided to go because that was one of the things I definitely wanted to try here. About six of us went and it was so much fun and only about 80 yen per half hour. They also serve drinks and food there, and it went by so fast I could easily see spending an entire night there. We sang our hearts out to Abba, the Backstreet Boys and Jennifer Lopez. Afterwards we explored downtown Hirakata a bit which is a much bigger city than I was expecting. It reminded me a lot of downtown Boston but the streets were so much narrower. We wanted to try purikura but couldn't find it anywhere, and ended up going out to eat. We split a big order of sushi, salad and shabu-shabu, which is where they give you raw meat and tempura that's not fully fried yet and you boil a pot of water on your table and dip the tempura and meat in so it cooks. You then dip it in a special sauce (and usually raw egg) and eat it. It was delicious. I also tried octopus sushi, which had a wierd, rubbery texture but didn't taste very strong. I mostly wanted to try it so I could say I did. It looked kind of creepy.
After dinner we headed back on the bus, and myself and one of the girls stopped by a bar called Cafe Istanbul and had a few beers. We also met a few other seminar house students and did tequila shots with them, so by the time we got back to the dorms I was a little bit tipsy but I stayed quiet and respectful so I wouldn't disturb the neighborhood. I did end up eating some of the food I saved for this weekend but I think it'll be fine. Also now I've been to my first bar. I pretty much went to sleep right when I got back though.
Sooo that's the story of my first few days here. Today was pretty uneventful because a typhoon was supposed to hit us, but I went shopping/exploring. In the dorms we played games like ninja and had a dance party. That's all and I'll try to update more in the future!
