An update

So, I’ve been here for 2 weeks, or thereabouts. It’s generally pretty neat. I like it. I’m getting mildly disillusioned about being here, though; A lot of the classes are boring and/or half-assed attempts and teaching, I was hoping for more, but the Japanese language courses are good, and I have them for 9 hours/week. Also very good. The people at iHouse are pretty fun (some of them like the concept of all you can drink a lot more than I do, though) I’m settling in, I like my room, I wish the Internet didn’t have everything you could think of blocked, I miss Kat, but it’s all pretty cool. I’ve been putting that scholarship to work, my guitar setup:

It cost I’d say about 210$. That’s for a nice Les Paul copy, a 15 watt amp (both used) a wah pedal, a nice copy of the Big Muff overdrive pedal, 2 large and 1 tiny patch cord and a guitar strap. I’d say that’s pretty nice!

I’ve been going frequently to Hawkstown (a shopping centre near the Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome, where the Baseball team the SoftBank Hawks play) as it has a Toys R Us. I love Toys R Us in Japan. I got an infrared controlled Artoo unit, and everything there is just so cool! Here’s a picture of the river on the way there:

There’s a pedestrian bridge on the way to hawkstown, so you can look over the road. Here’s what it looks like:

On Saturday it was Tim (from Delaware) and Hansen (also from Delaware)’s birthdays. I went with Tim, as Hansen was taking people to all you can drink and bars. We went to hard rock cafe (they rock the 13$ Caesar salad hard!) Since it was Tim’s birthday he got a free desert, a button with his picture on it, a hard rock cafe pin, and 20% off his meal. Here’s a picture of him being happy:

On Saturday we had actually been planning to go to a Fireworks festival, but it was postponed cos of rain, and happened Sunday. It was basically closed of streets PACKED with people, and there were people selling food, everywhere! Here’s some of them:

It was the most intense fireworks EVER! they lasted for an hour and 3 minutes, apparently 7700 of them were set off. By the end one’s whole field of view was filled by fireworks, it was CAMPING INTENSE! Here’s a picture!

Hi all!

So, I’m in Japan. Here’s some of the story so far:

I got on the airbus at 1:30 AM on the 29th, I arrived at approximately 8 AM on the 29th. There was an uneventful airbus trip, and uneventful flight to Chicago. Everything went according to plan. I then had a 5 hour stop over in Chicago O’hare. It’s a pretty nice airport, it has unreliable wi-fi that I had to pay for. It was only 7.00$ for the whole time, so that’ ok. I met up with Joel, and we waited for the plane. Interspersed with that were a few emotional online conversations and a phone call with Kat. Joel and I got on the plane and settled in for 13:37 of flying to Japan. outside the window it looked just like the training program for the matrix, completely white, but here’s how a picture of it turned out:

The plane ride was basically uneventful. I read a wonderful letter that Kat wrote me. Funnily enough neither my mother, nor I had remembered to tell the airline I’m vegetarian, but luckily they were able to find meals and snacks for me that were vegetarian (one was vegan, actually) Joel and I got to move to “economy plus” because my TV/Audio control thing was broken. They get more leg room. Also all the seats have TVs on the back, with about 8 bad TV channels. I did however get to watch Over the Hedge. It was great. I enjoyed that Steve Carell was in it, and the subtle commentary on suburban life was cool, but not preachy.

We arrived later at Kansai Osaka! We met Marc. I checked my bags, talked to Kat a bit on free wi-fi. Then got on the plane. Here’s a view of the plane:

That flight was short, and uneventful, though the inflight radio had a Japanese fellow, playing generic blues on the Shamisen, and singing the Chushingura along with it. AMAZING! I was met, a little late at the airport, cos I came into a different terminal than my ticket said. After a subway ride we walked, for about 15 mins with all our luggage to the iHouse. They then explained how you’re basically on your own for everything there. I went into my room. I didn’t have a username for the internet, and there’s no phone in the room. 10,000 Km from Kat and my family, and no way to talk to them, sore shoulders, in Japan, on my own. For the next about 16 hours I was wither crying or on the verge of tears. Fun. It got better. I met people, now I have almost functional internet (Steam, Torrents, Soulseek, Limewire, and voice over MSN and video over MSN are blocked) In any case, here’s my room:

Here’s when you look up the street out my window:

Here’s a street near where I live, not a main one, but a big one, it’s on the way to some cool electronics/video game stores:

That sums up my introduction to Japan, still got about a weeks worth of pictures to post. I got a bike and a sweet guitar setup, and 2300$ of scholarships…more on all that later.