September 08. 2004 20:38

Weather conditions and stuff

These airconditioners are so good that it frightens me. You can quite well get cold inside when it's 25 degrees out. But I have to say, they are really nice. Until now I was afraid to keep the air conditioning in my room on for the night so that I wouldn't get a cold. But now I tried and my room is nice and cool. Occasionally it blows straight to my feet and then it feels cold, but if I keep out of the "wind", it's okay.

Yesterday two other exchange students came, Tim from Glasgow and this guy from Taiwan. Tim is going to photography and the other boy, whose name is too difficult to remember, is going to humanities. We went to the alien registration office together and then around to a few places in the city, and then we went to spend time at the library until Tim and Ken-san went to pick up another girl from Glasgow. There was a taifoon going by the north-west coast of Japan last night, so her flight was reorganized and they couldn't get a taxi to pick her up. I was asked to go along and I was quite willing, until the storm the taifoon caused in here got so strong that I felt like it was nicer to stay home.

It was a kind of a strange feeling to watch the news about how this taifoon wrecked the coast of Japan, and actually be in the same country. I'm glad the taifoons don't reach this far in the mainland. The storm we had here because of the taifoon wasn't much bigger than a big storm in Finland. The wind was quite hard (but very warm all the time) and most of the time there was rain, but that's it.

Rather than causing danger, the storm disturbed my plans for the day. Even now my food locker is almost completely empty. There's just one packet of soba in there. I've been pushing and pushing going to the convenient store ever since when I came... Most of the time it's because I come so late from taking care of some other business, but sometimes it's just because I'm lazy. So most of the time I'm a bit hugry because I don't eat well. Goes well with this "whithering away 10 kilos" plan, right? :P Yesterday I was supposed to finally go and get some rice because I don't have any food left, but the storm kept me inside. I took my laptop to the Internet at the International Office just before the storm broke out, and when I got back home it seemed like I shouldn't go out anymore. Then I just ate the first packet of soba I had, leaving one left for the morning. Plain soba with no flavouring isn't very good... Even though I tried to flavour it a bit with the "do not eat" bag inside the packet x_x There were two and I honestly thought it was spice! Bleah. Didn't die, though. It's difficult to make food when all the instructions on the packets are in Japanese... :P

I bought a sketchbook from the school art store yesterday. Yay! Now I have something to draw on ^__^ I tried it this morning and it didn't go perfectly along with my pencil, but it's okay. There were Copic Markers in the store as well, and my hands were itching to buy some, but then I thought it would be better to wait until I got and account here so I wouldn't be just depending on my cash. They were only 380 yen (2,90 e) here, when they are 5-6 euros at home! ^___^ But depending on cash brings me to cashing my travellers cheques. The bank was a pleasant place. There was a good-looking young man in a suit waiting by the door if you had any questions and the women at the counter were very polite. They talked clearly and showed what they were talking about with their hands, so even though I didn't understand the words, it was very clear. When I left, the man in the suit bowed deeper than anyone so far. It felt really good.

Oh yeah, then I was supposed to tell you, since I've been reporting what I buy, that I bought a Fruits Basket artbook. It feels like everything I buy here is Fruits Basket... But that's only because I can't find anything else! There has been one Inu-Yasha CD, that's all. I could've bought a random artbook, but I didn't have enough money with me. There haven't even been CLAMP artbooks around, only one poster collection, which is surprising. Well, I'm not in a hurry. I'm gonna be here for almost 5 months ^_^

...

Aww... Just now I was reading the notebook in the survival kit my friends gave me when I left home... It made me miss all of them. I won't be seeing them for 5 months ;_; Now I feel like crying.

Sometimes, in this country where I don't regognize any places and where I have to think really hard to understand what everyone is saying, I miss the "easiness" of home. I wouldn't have to walk through the convenient store 2 times to find rice and salt. I could watch TV and understand more than half of the plot. I could talk to anyone on the street. I wouldn't be so lost and would know how to ask "where is the nearest store where I can buy an adapter?". I would know if the food I buy is ready-to-eat or just pre-heated. Instead of sitting here alone in my room, I could spend the evenings hanging out with my friends. I really hope I will meet people I can hang out with at school...

Since school hasn't started yet, life is actually quite boring. I'm a bit concerned about my monetary situation, so I don't feel like sightseeing or shopping. There's no Internet in the dorm yet (but they're trying to get one, there's already a pink wire in my room), so I can even surf. I'm just sitting here with my computer, and most of my files are back home. I can only write this diary or go through my photos. (Just a while ago I noticed there were lots of old photos still on my memory card.) Maybe I should start just wandering around... That might be nice. Or maybe I should get a book I could read. The only problem is that the library has no English books so I have to get to a big bookstore. I've been watching TV to learn some Japanese, but in the long run it gets boring because I don't know what's on and I can't get into it too well. I tried to find a TV guide in the Net today, but it's surprisingly hard, and my laptop doesn't even have Japanese language support installed. I found out that Inu-Yasha comes someday at 19, so I checked what was on today at 19, and it was Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water. That was nice. I had already seen the episode (it was 25 or something), but it was still nice to watch. But I really think I have to get something I can do tomorrow... Other than sit inside and wonder -_-