Konnichiwa Nihon! (Part 2)

January 8 (first full day in Japan):

I had to get up at 6 this morning. I hadn't slept well because I kept waking up every   2 hours. My internal clock was all messed up because it had been light outside for my entire 16 hours of flying since we always stayed ahead of whatever timezone was currently dark.

After I got dressed, Yukon called me in for a breakfast of miso soup, pickled daikon, and these fried egg things filled with thousands of tiny fish... Yuko told me I was eating my soup impolitely lol because I wasn't picking up the bowl when I ate the tofu cubes.

She made Miyabi and me 2 onigiri too, but I was so full that she wrapped them up in a furoshiki for me to take for lunch.

Then I left to catch the train. Yuko had to take Miyabi to school and Ken was at work already so I had to find my way to school by myself. After what happened at Narita, I was sure I'd get lost so I left early. 

(Cute drain cover by my host family's place)

It was raining but I got on my bike and rode to the station. I followed the map Yuko had drawn for me and found it easily. I parked my bike and was almost inside when I remembered what Yuko had told me about needing to pay 100 yen every day to park my bike and realized I hadn't paid.

Freaking out that the bike would get towed, I walked all the way back and moved it.

The guys working at the bike parking found someone who could speak English to help me. Except he definitely didn't speak English...

I got a paper and parked my bike and he told me to pay when I returned.

I went in and bought my ticket for the JR to Kanayama. All the people working there were nice and helpful so I got on the right train. At Kanayama, I bought another ticket for the subway and took that to Yagoto Nisseki, the station by Nanzan. 

On the subway, I sat was sitting between two guys studying my kanji and looking at the map of how to get to Nanzan from the station, when the guy next to me asked if I was a foreign student at Nanzan.

It turns out he was a student at Nanzan! His name was Ryuskei and he was a tour guide for foreign students later on in the day. He told me to get in his group. Then he asked if I wanted to walk to school together!

And he walked me to Nanzan! Which was so awesome because I probably would have gotten lost without him. He brought me to the CJS building and told them my ne was Keito and they showed me where to go.

It turns out I was an hour early! But then another girl showed up. She and I spoke in Japanese for a bit and then switched to English. Soon we had a whole table of Americans speaking English. :/ I found out that out of everyone who had chosen a homestay, I had the farthest commute. 

Then was the placement exam. It got harder as it went on so you were just supposed to go as far as you could. I got to question 50/80 but I ended up guessing a bunch after number 20. For a lot of them I could read all the kanji but I hadn't learned the grammar yet so that kind of sucked.

After the exam, I went with three other girls to the convenience store Lawson and completed the first item on my list!!! I bought a fruit punch Fanta. It was soooo good!! 

Then we went to one of the like 10 cafeterias on campus and ate lunch. I had my rice balls :)

(Salmon and some weird brown seaweed like vegetable)

We went to the bathroom in the cafeteria and it was ALL squatty potties! Omg. So of course I used one. Another ToDo item checked off! I totally woulda taken a picture but, you know, I'm trying to keep this a PG-13 blog guys...

It wasn't as hard as I thought either. I felt so accomplished when I was done. :)

We walked around in the rain after we ate, exploring campus. It was so pretty! I really liked that the Japanese students had started already because we got to see them all in class and walking around!

(These babies are freaking everywhere)

Then was the entrance ceremony. The president/priest gave a pretty funny speech. He's German but also speaks Japanese and English. Then we met other faculty and got huge packets of information.

Then all the tour guides came in to take us on the campus tour. I saw Ryuskei again but my group was put with two Japanese girls (some of the tour guides were American), Aya and Yohoka. They were both sophomores and SO nice! They spoke to us in Japanese the whole time so I got a LOT of Japanese practice. We saw the library and this cool tatami room and a bunch of other places.

Then we went back to another building for the welcome party. We each got a glass and a choice of teas or sodas to fill it with. I chose orange tea and was about to drink it when Aya told me not to.

We all did a giant "kanpai" and then drank.

There was SOO much food! They brought out these super cute cakes at the end too that were really good! They were strawberry, vanilla, and green tea.

Aya and Yokoha talked to Rana, Emma, and me some more. 

(Yokoha emailed this picture to me. It's Aya, some girl from last semester whose name I didn't get, Rana, me, Yokoha, Emma)

Then we all left together.

Aya and Yokoha helped us use the subway. Aya and I were the only ones who went all the way to Kanayama. So I got to talk to her a bunch in Japanese.. Whenever she said a word I didn't know and she didn't know how to explain it in English, she'd pull out her dictionary app on her phone and get a translation for me! 

At Kanayama, Aya went the opposite direction but she walked me over to where I caught the train to Owari Ichinomiya and waited with me until the train came. It was so nice!

When I got to Ichinomiya, I went outside and saw these awesome illuminations!

It was pouring rain still. I went to go get my bike but it wasn't there! I backtracked like three times going up and down the entire freaking bike parking area. The workers probably thought I was nuts, but they just politely greeted me each time.

Finally, I couldn't find it anywhere and I was FREAKING out! I also couldn't find the keychain with the house and bike key Yuko had given me. I hoped I had left it in the bike basket but I wasn't sure.

So I went to one of the workers and asked him in terrible Japanese to use his phone. At first he said he didn't have a phone for me to use, but then I think he saw how worried I was because he pulled out his cell phone. I gave him my host family's number and he let me talk to Yuko. I told her I couldn't find the bike or the keys. Then she talked to the worker for forever. Finally he gave me back the phone and get ready for this guys...

Yuko told me I was on the wrong side of the station. Fml.

So I went back around to the other side and found my bike with the keys in the basket! I was soooo happy!

I started riding home in the rain.

Oh btw everyone in Japan uses umbrellas when it's raining, so when we were doing the campus tour in the rain, the Japanese students kept asking us foreigners why we didn't have umbrellas.

I guess rain jackets aren't a thing in Japan. They're so much easier though!

Anyway, I got lost on my way home. I turned down the wrong street or something and got turned around. Then I saw a sign for the station so I turned away from it to go towards home, but I had actually turned the opposite direction from my host family's house.

Finally I was so disoriented, soaked, and freezing that I stopped at Ichinomiya Gym to ask inside for help. I had trouble standing my bike up outside so this guy taking a smoke came over to help me stand it up. 

I went inside but there was no one there, so I went back out to ask the guy smoking for help. He was really nice and looked at the map Yuko had drawn me. He wasn't sure where the things on the map were so he called Yuko and talked to her. Then he gave me the phone. Yuko told me I was on the wrong side of the station again. Smoker dude showed me how to get back to the station and I went back.

I stopped at a Lawson's next to the station to ask for directions to the big superstore next to my host family's apartment complex. The dude there helped me out and after that I got back home easily.

As I was entering the apartment complex, this old lady was trying to get in. I let her in and she thanked me and explained she lost her key. Then she started using words I didn't know and rambling on about stuff and motioned me over to the elevator, but I didn't want to get lost in the building so I told her I was going over to my place. She said okay, but I felt bad leaving her by the elevators.

When I got in, Miyabi was waiting for me. I was soaked head to toe and shivering. Yuko let me get in the shower right away. My legs were bright red like I'd been badly burned. Miyabi brought me a hair dryer so I could dry my hair.

Then we had dinner. It was near with a vegetable that looked like pasta, more miso soup, more rice, more pickled daikon. Such authentic Japanese food! But we had chocolate for dessert. :)

Ken didn't get home till 10 pm! When he did he helped me get the wifi working on my computer. And he was like "So you got lost today?"

I said I did and he said, "That's good. It was good experience for you."

Ummm no, not okay dude.