The First Day

Despite having been up for over 26 hours the previous day(s) I woke this morning at 6:30am after about 8 hours of sleep. Alex got up a short while later and we decided to go out. The weather is wet and cold here. We're in the rainy season so rain is to be expected, but the average temperatures for this time of year should be low 70's, not low 60's. We walked about a block to the local McDonald's and had breakfast. A number 2 at McDonald's in Japan is not a double quarter pounder but is instead a fried shrimp sandwich.

After we returned to the apartments for a bit some of the guys from Prescott came by and invited us to come with them to the local shopping mall. We headed out with most of the study abroad group minus Mariko, Tonya, and the students that had yet to arrive. It was about a mile walk to the mall through a bit of a rural area. The mall itself is a lot like an American one. In fact it reminded me greatly of a smaller version of the Mall at Millenia in Orlando. Alex and myself split off and wandered around the mall's largest store, Jusco, for a while. Jusco can be compared to a multi-story Super Walmart, it literally has everything. Alex got a new camera in the store's electronics department and then we met up with the group again. It didn't take us long though to wander off on our own again and we headed into the mall's arcade. The arcade consisted mostly crane games with photo booths taking up the entire back third of the area.

Shibata Neighborhood and rice paddies

We headed back into the mall and I heard someone yell my name, I turned to see Mariko and Tonya. They joined us and we went back to Jusco and talked with the local cellphone dealer about temporary phones for our stay. It was fun to watch both parties patch together enough of each other's language to get a conversation across. We decided to ask Professor Brown or one of the Japanese students to come back with us later to help. Then we headed up to the food court and tried out the Baskin Robbins there. Mariko wanted Green Tea ice cream that she had heard about. I ended up with a Guava Frozen Smoothy, ever since Hawaii I've been in love with Guava. One thing I should mention here, customer service in Japan is top notch, everywhere you go, even at an ice cream shop, all the employees are very nice, helpful, charming in every way. They also thank you for your service every time. Its a definite difference from the American south (Florida especially) where customer service is subpar at best.

On our way back to the apartments we stopped by two stores. One was Hard Off (yes, its called Hard Off, I giggle every time I see it) The bottom floor is for books and dvd's and tons of anime I'd love to watch but can't understand. The top floor has all kinds of used electronics, everything from old TV's to Super Famicoms. They even had a new in box Super Famicom. I'll definitely be back there before I leave for personal souvenirs. The other place we stopped was a 100 yen Store, which would be like a Dollar Store, for a few essentials and school supplies.

We came back and rested for a bit before we gathered a larger group, now including three guys from Prescott; Seth, Robbie, and Mike. We went looking for food and found a Chinese restaurant. They sat us upstairs in a smaller diner area that was empty apart from us. The general consensus is that they put us up their because they assumed we were typical noisy Americans. They were probably right. The food was delicious, I had a dinner that included ramen, a small salad, and a sort of beef main dish. I tried my best to eat it all, but I'm terrible with chop sticks.

Tomorrow we have our first day at Keiwa. We're meeting at 10am for an orientation of the campus. It will be my first experience with Japanese college life, I can't wait.