Curiouser and Curiouser!

Wow, I love Japan! The people, the food, the transportation, everything! So much has happened I don't know where to start. And it's only been a couple days. I would like to start by describing my lodgings, but I want to use pictures for that. Right now the room is a little messy. I have a temporary roommate, Min, whose suitcase and clothes are lying about. Min will be moving to live with a home-stay family in a week or so. I will really miss her. Min is Korean and speaks Japanese almost fluently, but only a little English. We manage. She is very sweet. I have met soo many people while I've been here. People from Virginia, New York, Texas, Oregon, and Ohio. Meeting Dean from Ohio was confusing. He was talking to Min in Japanese and then he turned to me and said, "Ohio!" But I thought he was saying "Ohayoo!" which means "Good morning!" in Japanese, so I said, "Ohayoo!" right back to him, even though it was evening. He gave me a weird look. Anyway, I've also met people from Australia, Thailand, and Germany. I met a Mario from Mexico and a Mario from Austria. I had fun introducing them to each other.

Yesterday, I went with a group of students to downtown Hirakata. We had lunch and toured some of the shops. There was a 99 yen shop, which is the equivalent to the American dollar store. I got some onigiri (rice balls) for breakfast the next day. For lunch we went to a soba restaurant, where I had udon (hot noodle soup).

Today, we walked to campus (20-30 minutes). We were given a tour. Even though it's winter and nothing is green, the campus is gorgeous. I can't wait to see it in the spring. I'll take pictures then, so you can all see Kansai Gaidai looking its best. The only thing marring the beautiful Kansai campus was the Makudo (or MacDonalds). Yes, that's right, a MacDonalds, on campus. We had lunch on campus, but decided that the cafeteria would be best. And the food was dirt cheap. 210 yen (~ 2 dollars) for a good sized bowl of donbiri (mine had scrambled eggs and pork over rice). Yum! After lunch we had a banking session. Which was really complicated. We're required to set up an account at a Japanese bank, so that Kansai can directly deposit our food stipend and eventually our security deposit refunds. Unfortunately, this bank account won't be opened for another three weeks, so we have to pay for our own food until then. Three weeks makes up almost a quarter of my time here. *rolls eyes* Furthermore to open this account, we had to fill out FIVE different forms...And they were ALL in Japanese. Luckily, we had some help filling them out. After that it was time for Language Lab orientation and turning in my laptop registration form. Okay, enough of the boring stuff and back to talking about my blatantly favorite subject: FOOD.

This evening I went with some friends to Top World, the local grocery store, in order to buy dinner. Here is Min, Noto, and Dave picking out their dinner:

And here is what I got to eat. Itadakimas!

Haha! Just kidding! I'm not that brave. But they are rather pretty. Don't you think? Anyway, here was my real meal:

It's sashimi, sushi, and something else I don't know. On the top we have egg (yellow), eel (brown), and shrimp. I couldn't find anyone who could identify the grayish one, but it tasted like pickled herring to me. On the bottom is the sushi. On the bottom right is rice in fried dough pockets. Totemo oishii! (Very delicious!)

p.s. For those wondering why I haven't been on Skype, my laptop doesn't have Internet, yet. I'm using the dorm's computer lab because my laptop needs to go through registration procedures, and I still need to purchase an Ethernet cord. There isn't any wireless. :(