hairfish

My lovely room in the glorious morning sunshine

I’m so tired I can barely see straight. You’ll be hearing a lot about my tiredness in the coming days, so you’ve been warned. Yesterday was a good day as I got home for the first time by myself without help and didn’t get lost. Well, to be fair, I walked about a block and a half away from my house but once I realized what I had done, I found my way back, so I got a little lost but not really. My walk home is about fifteen minutes (or less) from the bus stop, and within the span of fifteen minutes, all the mostquitos in Koshigaya had their way with my legs.

My legs are covered in huge, bright vermillion welts. They look like really nasty hickeys. This will make for very interesting lunch room talk, for example: ‘What happened to you?’ Answer: “I was molested by mostquitos.” As you all know or may not know, classes have started on this side of the world and I must admit, I’m sort of underwhelmed. However, I can assure you it’s just shock and the anxiety of feeling like a freshman even though I’m not. I forgot what it feels like to be the new kid in school and I was quickly reminded Monday morning. I hide out in the library, catching up on emails and being generally shy and mousy.

I only have one class on Monday (and Wednesday and Friday), thank Goodness since I have three Tuesday and Thursday, and it was history and I was reminded of high school. I don’t like to be reminded of high school, at all. The professor has written two books on Japanese history and is a very knowledgable, insightful person so that makes the class much more palatable for me. It’s dealing specifically with Japanese history after World War II to present day, and that is just my cup of tea. Prior to school, I had a run in with an ATM that was completely in Japanese. I couldn’t understand why it refused to give me my money until my host mother explained I was trying to take out 80,000 Yen (that’s a little less than 800 USD) and you can only take out 10,000 Yen. As if I needed 80,000 Yen…

Got my alien registration card so I don’t get scruffled up by the police and whatnot, but mainly so I could aquire the new love of my life, my softbank prepaid keitai (cell phone)

Cutest little phone ever. I still need to decorate it though!

Lucky me, one of Hayleigh’s friends who is a native of Tokyo took us to Roppongi to get our keitais. This is when I learned how evil Roppongi is. Think of New York’s Time Square with a dash of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile thrown in the middle of Tokyo. That is Roppongi. There is a reason it is called the gaijin ghetto…because it is. Every comfort from home (ie the States) you are missing, is right in Ropponigi. It’s overwhelming and loud in a way that other parts of the city aren’t. Especially living in a small suburb in Saitama, I’m just not used to that madness. Neither are my pockets. Anyways, SoftBank somehow had puureepaido’s out of stock so we were directed to the wonderous store that is Donkey Hotei Don Quixote.

If you are familar with Brandsmart USA, that is exactly what Donkey Hotei Don Quixote is, but thoroughly Japanese. We had to wait about an hour, but we left with our phones. All in all, it cost me about 76 USD for a 3G phone and 30,000 YEN worth of talk time (which I’ve since discovered is about 30 minutes of talk time. Oy). Oh, I also get free calls and messaging to other SoftBank users and unlimited mail to everyone else for 300 YEN a month. Japan is FULL of win.

Today, however, was frustrating. Someone got hit by the train on the Chiyoda line which is the line I take to get home. I left school at 3:30, got to the metro at 3:45 and got home to Koshigaya, around ten minutes to seven. I also got lost once, had to pay for another ticket after my first ticket was voided from the train accident. And I really do hope that person is okay. I tried checking the news but I couldn’t find very much on what exactly happened. My frustration didn’t stem from the accident but I was more upset about getting lost than anything. I hate getting lost. When I get lost, I feel as though I’m not grasping life here well enough and it makes just want to pack my things and go home.

But then my host mom and sisters show up and we go to a tutoring session together and I meet the funniest Japanese man ever, who cracks some jokes with me and makes me feel welcomed even though I stumble and fumble over my Japanese. And we have conveyor belt sushi and I eat until I burst and the girls beg to go to the conbini for some aisu, which I decline as usual, but opt for some chocolate and marvel at how expensive it is here. I walk in my room and my laundry is washed and folded to perfection as if my clothing were origami. I toss my futon out and read over my first few assignments with heavy eyelids.

And in the midst of my fustrations, I remember everyday I am here is an adventure, a challenge I’m trying to take on fearlessly, and I am comforted by the fact that even when I feel like I didn’t pass a test or if I’m being to hard on myself, I have a home to come to and people who are happy to see me and they’ve only known me for less than a week. That’s what makes this worth it.

Oh, Tokyo!