TokyoOrly!?

(Sidenote: I wrote this downstairs since we share internet connection and dinners almost ready so i know i said pictures throughout this thing but im wayyyyyy too tired/lazy/hungry to go downstairs, edit them, and upload them. SORRY LOL)

Hey everyone! I’ve made it to Tokyo!

Gomen ne for not updating sooner but there has been no time! Where to start? SO MUCH! Has happened it’s kind of ridiculous….

The flight was about 10hrs from Seatac airport, it wasn’t bad at all. Time flew by really fast they had an interactive tv for every seat that had movies, games, music, interactive maps and a lot more stuff. I watched slumdog millionare (SO GOOD), Twilight (EDWARD CULLEN!!!!!), Doubt (which actually wasn’t that good) and the first half of Australia. Also sweet jeebus they fed us SO much snack, dinner, desert, snack, breakfast! It was actually pretty decent too considering most airplane food is crap.

When I got to Narita Airport it was 5pm the next day. I was kinda nervous since CIEE said they would meet us outside the gate but I didn’t know outside the gate meant after customs, after immigration and after we got our baggage so I was kind of freaking out. But I met up with them after baggage claim and they shuffled me onto the bus with a bunch of other kids and we went to the airport hotel. Ah side nite the airport has a freaking mall in it! I’m also proud to say the first thing I bought in Japan is a grande matcha frappacino from starbucks! Matcha (green tea) is SO much better in Japan. After that I got shuffled on a bus to the airport hotel.

Heres a picture of the hotel from my room…

Heres a picture of me being looking grippa legit in my yukata! Sugoi desu ne?

That night was pretty boring, my flight got in later so I didn’t get a chance to go to the mall near the airport. Also can I say jetlag in Japan is totally different then the jetlag I’m used to, instead of being really tired all the time you just wake up at 3am and can’t go back to sleep which sucks hella.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel. A lot of it was Japanese food but some of it was American. Yogurt is wayyyy better in Japan. After we checked out we broke up into 2 groups and headed towards Yotsuya where Sophia University Jouchi Daigaku is. Our University is in SUCH an awesome location its right by everything! Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku,Akiharaba, Roppongi, downtown Tokyo.

Heres a pic…

We checked into our hotel after an orientation at Sophia. One thing to note, Japanese people LOVE, 7-11 and Am-pm but definitely 7-11, I mean it even has its own bank. You can do EVERYTHING at 7-11, even pay your bills.

That night we went to this really nice restaurant for dinner. Omfg they fed us soooo much! I wish I brought my camera! I swear like 10 courses, there was stir-fry, fried chicken and French fries (odd I know, we were like LOL@sterotypical American food but the fried chicken was more like tempura), sushi shrimp tempura rolls, fried eggplant and tofu, bacon wrapped tater tots (weird…REALLY weird but oishiii desu anyway), edaname, this noodle salad dish, mini hot dogs, and some more stuff I can’t remember. When dinner was over we took the train back to the hotel… THE TRAIN WE RODE THE TRAIN!!!!!! LOL

SOOOOOOO EXCITING!!! The train system in Tokyo looks really difficult but as long as you know where you need to go, you can find your way. Its sooo crowded.

That night was free time so me and a group of peoples went to Shinjuku to go to the bars. A lot of people stayed in Yotsuya because they didn’t want to take the train but you only live once right? SO BRIGHT SOOOO MANY LIGHTS! Again, I didn’t bring my camera cause me drinking is a hazard and I was NOT trying to break it on my first official night. The bar was mad fun, we met some other foreigners there but it was also easy to mingle with the Japanese people too. Drinks aren’t too bad about $6-7 for a mixed drink about 4-5$ for beer but still expensive. Since we had to wake up at 7am the next morning and since the trains stop running at about 1ish we headed back early.

Next day we had more boring orientation at Sophia and then met our homestay families. OMFG MY FAMILY IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FREAKING CUTE. I LOOOOOOVE THEM. They are the Ito family and they have a mom, a dad and 2 kids one who is 1 year old and named Momo.. MOMO!! How freaking cute is that!? The other is a boy 3 named Akisama who is obsessed with Pokemon (he makes his parents TiVo it for him hahaha)

Akisama desu!!! Kawaiii TOTEMO KAWAIIIIIIIII NE?!?! We call him A-kun (pronounced Akkun).

They speak okay English but they try mostly to speak in Japanese for me and my other roommate because they know we are learning. I’ll take more pictures of them later. They live in Kawaguchi-shi which is just 30min by subway away from our campus (I thought it would be an 60-90 minutes so I’m happy). My room is sooooo cool!

Heres a pic of it….

Under the table there is a heater where you can put your feet to warm up.

Our host mom cooked us the BEST dinner last night Sukiyaki beef with lots of veggies, tofu and miso soup! She also gave us a raw egg in a bowl to dip the sukiyaki in, it sounds weird but omfg its GOOD! EVERYTHING HERE IS GOOD. Breakfast she cooked us eggs, dim sum (freaking DIM SUM FOR BREAKFAST OMFG) and miso, also she put out the best bread (which she made) and gave us home made apple jam to put on it. I’m going to get soooo fat living here.

Today me and my roommate went to Shibuya the fashion district I wanted to buy EVERYTHING! We went to Shibuya 109 which is a huge store with like 100 clothes shops in it all for girls (like 2 guy stores lol) it has 7 floors. But LOL there was so much Engrish going on there was a store called ‘Titty’LOL who names a store that? It had really cute clothes though. I didn’t buy anything there though. Also they play a lot of American rap/r&b music in the stores there. I heard Chris brown, rihanna, Lil Wanye, Keri Hilson, and as I was passing by this Japanese Hiphop store I heard Gucci Mane, which is really random haha.

ALL the girls wear heels which is so weird to me considering how much walking they must do but I’m going to have to buy some soon. I only brought one pair!!!!!

Vending machines in Japan are amazing! You can buy hot drinks in red vending machines and cold drinks in the blue ones. They also have vending machines for cigarettes which makes since considering how much people smoke here. Not enough to get annoying though, but you can smoke in most restaurants and all the clubs and bars.

Tomorrow me and my roommate are going to go to Harajuku!

I would write more but I’m so tired!

Monday I get a cell phone! Classes don’t start for another 2 weeks though hahahaha@everyone in school.

March 21, 2009. Japan, nerddding it up. 9 comments.