The Road Less Traveled

My First Full Day…

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 | Lifestyle | No Comments

So, my first full day in Japan was completed successfully. Everything went well. The placement test went well, the campus tour went well, the fingerprint registration for the dorm went well… heck, even walking all around town for hours and destroying my feet went well. So well that I think I might never be able to walk again… New shoes + tons of walking = pain.

Other than that, though, I’m having a good time so far. Since it’s late (not actually, but I’m a bit jet lagged), I don’t feel like writing anymore. Instead, have some unexplained pictures!

Placement Test & Cafeteria Food

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 | Food, Japanese | No Comments

So I’m done with the first part of my placement test; the final part, an interview with the teachers, is tomorrow morning at 9:15am. All-in-all, I think the test went very well. I did quite horribly on the kanji section (I got 6, I think, out of 25 or so… yeah), but that’s actually expected. I did very well on the verb and adjective conjugations, and the general grammar section seemed to be mostly stuff I knew as well.

Finally around 11am I was able to go and get something to eat for lunch… I was pretty hungry. Breakfast consisted of a slice of toast, a hard boiled egg, and a small salad. Anyway, a bunch of people from our group decided to eat at McDonald’s for lunch, a couple of us thought that was retarded, and ended up eating in the cafeteria. In America, this may actually be a toss up.. often, McDonald’s food and cafeteria food are on the same general level of crappiness. However, this is absolutely not true of the cafeteria here. The food was very good, and worth the 470￥ (about USD $4.50) that it cost. And it was a good bit of food as well.

It was a bit funny how it worked though… generally, cafeterias in America are a buffet-style thing, or at most you go and tell a person what you want and they make it and give it to you. Not here. When you walk into the cafeteria, there’s a display showing all the different meals you can get, with their names and prices. Then there is a vending machine… you put money in, and (no, it doesn’t give you your food ) after pressing a button, it gives you a ticket for the meal you want. You then present this to the cafeteria worker in the right line and they give you your food.

Definitely worth the 470￥. Now I have to go back to the Center for International Programs for a campus tour. Yay.

Tags: Food, test, tour

I’m finally here.

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 | General, Lifestyle | No Comments

So I’m in Japan. We got here last night about 6pm local time (that’s 5am EST), and got to Chubu University at about 8pm. By the time we got into the dorms and everything, it was pm, and I was in bed by 11. I didn’t sleep on the flight so that I wouldn’t be jet lagged. This strategy actually seems to have worked a bit… hopefully it stays that way. Anyway, as I write this post, I still don’t have internet access. I have to register my computer for access, or something, here in the next few days. There are computers upstairs in the lounge which I can use, though, so hopefully I’ll be able to post this before I have access on my laptop.

In any case, everything seems to be going well so far. It’s about 6:45 am as I write this. I’ve been up since about 5:30am, but that’s not too bad, right? Breakfast, if I recall correctly, begins at 7:30am, and at 9:15am, I have my placement test for what level of class I’ll be in. Fun stuff, right? I wish they could’ve put it at least another day later or something… Whatever, I guess. It shouldn’t be too bad.

So my schedule for the day looks something like this:

9:15am – 12:00pm : Placement Test
1:30pm – 3:00pm : Campus Tour
5:30pm – 6:00pm : Dormitory Fingerprint Registration

I don’t know what we’ll be doing in the off times (probably eating), but that’s all that’s scheduled for today. Tomorrow I have interviews (the final part of the placement test) and orientation for the university.

The rest of the week looks pretty similar. Then next week, on monday, classes start. Yay for that. In any case, that’s about all for now. I’ll post more as it happens. Oh yeah, here’s some pictures of my dorm… (The comforter on my bed, by the way, is awesomely comfortable. I love it)