Full First Days

I am going to try and catch everyone up on my first few days of being in Japan, and also so I can remember, because I am starting to forget already DANG.

So, yesterday (the 22nd), Kim and I woke up early (mostly because of jetlag and the fact that we went to bed fairly early the night before). We are staying at this really great business hotel, which is a hotel chain called Toyoko Inn (which I think I already said last time), and they have good breakfasts in the morning. They have Onigiri rice balls and bread, salad (for breakfast) and macaroni salad (for breakfast?), along with salami and miso soup. We ate everything because it was free. Also, there was this guy who I think was from India who just ate the jelly right out of the little container. He also ate about ten little bread rolls.

We then headed over to the department store near where our hotel is, because I had to buy a new suitcase (since my other one broke). I am now the proud owner of a red, rolly suitcase, which is very Japanese-y, if you know what I mean.

Doesn't it look GOOD?!?!









After that, we went to go and meet with our realtor, and to go and see the apartment that we are trying to rent. Our realtor, Saito-san, was surprisingly very young and very pretty. And funny. And nice. She drove us to the apartment. It was really hot so we didn't spend a lot of time in there, but enough to know that we like it.














Ok, so the pictures aren't very good, but I will take more later once we move in, which will hopefully be soon. We are talking with the IUC tomorrow and then with the realtor again, so hopefully we can get everything sorted out in the next couple of days. My room is the best. Duh.

We headed back to the hotel after that, feeling a lot better, but also hungry, so we stopped by the Conbini and got some food. Kim got a "cocktail partner," which is essentially just a mix drink in a can. She ended up getting really tipsy and tired and passed out after half the can. It was completely awesome.



She managed to wake up a couple of hours later, just in time to go and find some more food to eat. We decided earlier that day that we wanted to have yakiniku (korean barbecue) for dinner, which is exactly what we did. We had really great meat and lots of kim chi, too.
After that we pretty much passed out.

NEXT DAY: August 23rd.

We woke up at 5:00 a.m. and have been up ever since. We had breakfast again downstairs and there was this disgusting guy coughing in the lobby the whole time, and it seriously sounded like he was going to die. At least if he had he would have stopped COUGHING.

We then went to meet my friend Yukari, who I haven't seen in a really long time! Yukari used to go to UM, and then graduated and moved back to Tokyo. We met in Akihabara because both Kim and I needed adapters for our computers (there aren't any 3-pronged outlets here, so far as I can tell), so we decided to go to Akihabara, which is where you can find almost any electronic, nerdy, or perverted thing that is produced by Japan. I'm not sure why we went there, seeing as it was really far away for both Kim and I AND Yukari, but... I didn't think of that.

Then we headed down to Yokohama, and Minato Mirai to get a better picture of our school and the area around it. It's really pretty and I took some pictures but since adding pictures on here is really annoying, I will post them later. We walked around Minato Mirai for a while, and then headed to a Hokkaido-style Curry Soup restaurant that Kim had found online. It took us about 30 minutes of walking and a ten minute cab ride to finally get there, and the whole time it was only about a 5 minute walk from Yokohama station, we just ended up losing our way and getting lost and getting strange directions from lots of different people. But the curry soup was AMAZING, so it was worth it.

After that, we went to Karaoke for a couple of hours, which was the first time in 8 months that I've done that. Oh, karaoke, I've missed you so. Yukari and Kim and I had a lot of fun there, too. Fun fun fun. Then, we took some Puri-kura and headed back to the hotel, after saying goodbye to Yukari.

SIDE STORY BY KIM: On the train some nasty old dude was picking his nose like he was on some sort of treasure hunt...After completely BURYING his knuckles up his nose for about 3o seconds he flicked his boogers all over the train. Then later I saw a loogie on the floor of the train station. Who needs diet pills when gross Japanese old men are around to kill my appetite?

We headed back to the hotel, and decided that we needed to stay one more day here, just in case we can't get everything set up with the apartment tomorrow. The woman at the front desk also initiated me as an official MEMBER OF THE TOYOKO INN CLUB! This means that, for the small sum of 1,500 yen, I am now able to get awesome discounts on Sundays, Holidays, and then 10th of every month, as well as having a much simpler reservation process the next time I stay at a Toyoko Inn. Also, after I have stayed 10 nights in a Toyoko Inn, I am able to stay for free for one night anywhere in the country. And there are Toyoko Inns pretty much everywhere, so this is great. I wish I had gotten this before!

We tried to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but we are both too tired. I can't believe I had the energy to even write all of this blog out. I am trying to will myself to stay awake past 8 p.m., but I'm not sure how well it will work. We have to go and speak with the IUC tomorrow! Hopefully tomorrow will be a busy day, because that will mean signing of contracts and (hopefully) moving in to apartments!! Wish us luck!!

If we do move in to the apartment, we probably won't have steady internet for quite a while. But DON'T WORRY. I will use Internet Cafes or something to keep everyone posted, and to continue to remind myself!

See you all later!