It’s nearly the end of friday which means I’ve already spent two full days in Japan! There was lots of stuff to be done and there is even more stuff remaining, but I’d like to talk a bit about what has happened already.
There’s not much to say about wednesday as it was our day of arrival. When we arrived, we were briefly introduced to the dorm facilities like the shared kitchens and the resident assistants (RA’s) which are there to help us in case of any questions or trouble. After the introduction, I went to bed early without eating much and only drinking some grape Fanta I bought from the local vending machine to prepare for the next day.
Thursday was supposed to be a relaxation day without anything to do, but with an onsetting shortage of toilet paper, literally zero food in my possession and low-running batteries, I headed out at around noon to find
After downloading an offline map of the area and planning a route, I confidently headed out, only to be stopped a minute later by the onslaught of heat and humidity. The temperature is not that bad actually, but at the time it was like 31°C and humidity was around 90%. After the first ten minutes of walking, I was already drenched in sweat. That’s fine usually, but sweating in this case just didn’t work due to the high humidity. Whatever, just need to get used to it I guess.
The first stop was Edion, an electronics store where I bought the USB-C charger. All my devices run on USB-C so just getting a single good one with 60W of power was enough. I didn’t find it at first so I asked the store clerk and he gave 110% in trying to understand me and guide me to the chargers section.
After that, I went to the nearest FamilyMart to buy some toilet paper, food and drinks. I bought some lemon soda which tasted like energy drink and a ham/tuna sandwich.
FamilyMart is a convenience store, also called Kombini (コンビニ), where you can buy almost everything you need for your daily life. They often have cheap, prepared meals and some are even open 24/7. I’ve been buying my food there for the last two days. Although it’s kinda cheap, I want to start cooking for myself very soon because only eating curry, sandwiches and onigiri doesn’t sound too healthy in the long run.
With all of the basic necessaries taken care of, I went back to rest, took a shower and passed the time doing literally nothing except maybe unpacking and arranging all of my stuff.
The second day was more eventful than the first. There was a planned shopping tour which was guided by our resident assistants. We stopped at a drug store to buy detergent and other hygiene-related products and at Daiso, a 100yen-store for basic things like kitchenware.
After a few additional trips to some stores in the vicinity for things like stationery, I got back to my room at around 4pm. There was a welcome party planned for 6pm so I used the remaining two hours productively and learned to properly write kana cause I am actually really shit at handwriting and need a lot of practice.
The welcome party in the evening was certainly the best thing that happened during these first two days. We got together in the common room with like 40 people and received some more information on dorm rules and etiquette which was mostly common sense anyway. After this, we had access to a prepared buffet filled to the brim with delicacies like cold pizza, cold fries or chicken nuggets and lots of tea, Pepsi and water. We got together in small groups and started talking after finishing our meal. This was the first time you really came into contact with lots of people.
The first questions to be answered were always your name and where you’re from. Although I could only remember like half of the names, remembering countries was way easier. We mostly spoke English and there were people from the US, Australia, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Italy, France and basically every other country you can imagine. We had a good time talking and playing Bullshit and after the event, we went outside for some handheld firework.
I could give a lengthy explanation, but just see for yourself.
