September 02. 2004 21:19

First aquintances

I was right. Japan smells different. It smells a bit dusty, like it would need some fresh air (at least based on our dorm). But it sounds really pleasant. Right now the crickets are having a concert outside my window ^_^ (And now an ambulance went by.)

Ken from the International Office wasn't here today, so my person to rely on was Heidi, who's from our school and has been here since spring. It was really nice that she was there to support me because I've lost most of my Japanese during the summer and the second person I talked to, the dorm keeper lady, didn't speak English at all. It was a pain trying to understand what she was saying about the lock and the room and all... *sigh* But Heidi was nice and came to pick me up from the dorm and took me to the school. I went to the International Office to fill a couple of papers (and send one email, after which I noticed both my mailboxes were full of spam and I had to delete it). Then the female officer (Tamiya-san, I guess) took me around the campus in place of Ken-san, and didn't tell me much that I couldn't have figured out myself. It was nice anyway. We went to pay my rent for the first month and she showed me the library, which was interesting.

Some of the campus buildings look very worn out, but it still seems like a luxurious place. Through the campus goes a small (artificial) river, which leads to a carp pond around the amphitheatre stage. There are several vending machines for refreshments around and by the forest in the back of the campus is a fence for some chicken and deer. They keep deer just so that they can draw them. I have to say, I've never heard of a place like this beyond the stories of rich English or American boarding schools.

I didn't get much out of the campus area yet, other than that the story manga students have really cool drawings at their desks and that the library has a massive collection of manga and some anime. After Heidi finished the things she was doing at the school we went to the local shops to buy some food and other utensils (like Pocky ^_^). I bought my first vending machine drink, a Coca Cola C2 in a silly ~0,33 l aluminium bottle. It seems to be "new calorie off", but it tasted like normal Coke. Then we went to the dorm, Heidi took a shower and I had an embarrassing hassle trying to explain this Japanese girl that I can't figure out how the futon works, and then we ate. Heidi is a vegetarian, so we had rice, mushrooms and these really nice fish rolls. It seems I'll eat here lots of things I wouldn't normally eat, like mushrooms. But it's a good experience, that, too.

Now I'm in my room, supposed to be going to bed, but my mind wandered off so I'm writing this. The dorm is quite nice, I like the room very much (even though the kotatsu is the only furniture) and the wooden hallways are nice. And there're sliding windows and front door and the same kind of door knob lock you can see in anime in the room doors, like they have in Chobits for example. The kitchen is a matter of it's own, though. According to Heidi it's always full of dirty dishes and banana flies and there used to be crockroaches. There was old foodstuff left in my cabinet, and the previous tenant left quite a while ago... I threw it almost all away. But she did leave me very nice plastic packs, which was extremely nice of her. Even though I'm not sure if she didn't just abandon them as she couldn't take them with... Anyway, now I just need to get a plate, a mug, chopsticks and a frying pan. A kettle is a bonus, I think. Tomorrow, after I see Ken-san, I'll go wandering around the city centre, so perhaps I'll catch some of those there. Heidi showed me some nice spots on the map, including a Book-Off, which will be first on my list of places to visit tomorrow ^_^ (Book-Off sells used books and CDs.)

So, I guess it's time to finally go to bed, after I visit the toilet with spiderweb-thin toilet paper. Well, there's no fear of getting too little sleep, because at the moment, I have no alarm clock ^_^