3. yet another week later.
ok, so it looks like sunday might become my day for updating. let's see how long this lasts.
if memory serves, the last entry ended upon our arrival at the dorm. we'd arrived safely and were feeling good (:D) then we had to sit around for a bit while the manager got around to us. this was fine and we got to talk to elva, one of the other ANU semester students (:D) when the manager got back to us, he was carrying a plastic bag for each of us, which he handed out and then took us to our rooms.
which are well set out. bed, desk, mini bathroom, toilet, cupboard, fridge, air conditioning unit ect. small but really well put together (:DDD) so i sat down and opened the packet the manager had given us. suddenly life didn't seem so good. it was a bewildering array of papers and forms and all sorts of stuff about separate bills and payment methods and all the fun bureaucracy that we would have to go through to be able to live here for the next four months. i was tired and overwhelmed (D:)
then there was ring at my doorbell, and who was it but eleanor! she'd arrived the previous day and had come to say hello (<3) we talked for a bit, but it wasn't long before there was another ring on my doorbell and simi entered the room. Yay! (:DD) i was feeling much better and we talked for awhile. then eleanor and simi left for unpacking purposes. which i did before going over to eleanor's room to find out how to set up the futon on the bed. simi was already there. so it lead to another lot of talking (:D) until eleanor got a phone call from the manager requesting she go downstairs.
working on the assumption that we would all get this phone call but that simi and i wouldn't be able to get to our rooms in time, we all went down together and waited as the rest of the semester students who had arrived slowly joined our group. then we got a message from the manager (translated into english by a taiwanese resident) saying that when we get our electricity bills he would take us to the convenience store and show us how to pay them. back we went up to our rooms to sort out our beds before going down for dinner.
it was pretty exciting and memorable. not because it was our first meal there, but because we got to play with fire (:D) it was udon noodles and meat and vegies and all sorts of good stuff in a pot that we put on a stand and lit a flame under until it was cooked to our satisfaction (:D) my main thought was that we would never have been allowed to do something like that at an ANU catered dorm. another good thing about the meals here is that there's no set time for doing it. breakfast is from 6:30 to 8:30 and dinner is from 6:30 to 11:00. this is good as it means you don't have to schedule your days around being back in time to eat (:D)
anyway, after dinner most of us went out to check out the 100 yen stores and find out where there's a close shopping district. the 100 yen stored were closed (D:) so we consoled ourselves by buying delicious waffles (:D) then it was decided that a group photo was in order and i tried (and failed) to do it with people's cameras. a lovely couple saw this and offered to take our picture for us. not only did they succeed, but they were french!! so i tried (and somewhat succeeded) in having a conversation with them, which made me feel good (:DD)
what made me feel better, however, is how we found a small supermarket that was going to close in 15 mins on our way back to the dorm (:D) we ran in and did some basic, necessary shopping. it's kinda hard to think of a place as home when it doesn't have toilet paper! we were out of there a couple of minutes before closing time (phew) and were on our merry way back home, tired and satisfied, almost ready to confront uni the next day. only i realised i didn't have an alarm clock- how was i going to get up? eleanor offered to ring my doorbell when she woke up (<3)
she did so, and we got ready, had breakfast, and realised that we hadn't seen simi yet. we were meeting for the bus soon, so i went up to her room and rang the doorbell. i got a slight shock when caitlin's sleepy voice came to me from behind her. turns out caitlin had arrived at about 3 am and had called simi to let her in and sleep on the floor. neither of them had been awake, but they were in time to throw on some clothes and meet us to catch the bus. caitlin would be coming later, however, since she hadn't been expected until the next day and alternate arrangements had been made.
which brings us to our first day on campus. we met in the lobby at 8:30 to catch the 9:08 bus from the station (it's amazing- the buses here actually arrive and leave when they say they will!!!) the bus ride was 350 yen and took 40 mins, but is still pretty convenient. we arrived in time to find the room we were supposed to be in for our 10:00 start and met the belgium girls who are also doing semester in japan and kanazawa university. then the teacher arrived and the real fun began.
that's right, the morning was taken up filling out forms. remember the packet the dorm manager gave us on our arrival which made me depressed with all the forms and bureaucracy? well that morning made me feel a whole lot better. the kanazawa staff walked us through it and had even filled out the parts that didn't require it to be written by us specifically (<3) the good feeling continued when the showed us where to have lunch. the cafeteria here is made of win, with cheap, good food (:D) then there's the post office, which allows me to take out money from my NAB account (:D) and the bookstore (<3) (even is it is all in japanese).
the good feeling didn't last into the afternoon, though. that was taken up with our second placement test (D:) it seems the one we took in canberra wasn't enough and we needed to take another one. so we were split up according to whether we wanted to take the easy one or the hard one. easy one for me, and it highlighted just how many kanji i had managed to forget over the past year and a bit of not doing written japanese. this was the topic of our conversation as we made our way to the bus stop back to the station. we said goodby to elva since she was on her way to get a bike for the commute. good luck to her.
another 350 yen later and we were preparing to buy our 4 month bus passes. this involved going to the bus centre, lining up for ages, filling out a form entirely in kanji (thank you amber for helping us with it) and then handing it in to the lady over the counter. it also involved a bit over 40000 yen. i was planning to put it on the credit card, but was told that they only accepted cash. simi, who was going to put it on the mastercard, was in the same position. we were slightly bemused that a place which handled such large sums of money didn't have card facilities, but accepted it and planned to go in the next morning before we caught the bus to uni.
then began my hunt for a power adapter. this was an important issue for me. see, i kinda forgot to bring one from australia. and then i assumed i'd be able to get one fairly easily over here, being japan and all. not so much. the problem was compounded by the troubles i was having with my computer and the internet. the system here is that the internet goes through a cord from the phone. after getting the cord from the manager, i plugged it into my computer, into the phone and was planning to use what little battery i had left to send an email home assuring mum that i was safe. my computer didn't acknowledge the fact that it had an internet connection (D':) i ran to eleanor's, who came to help, but was baffled (D:) so i told to manager.
he came later that night, when i had had my shower and was wearing my pajamas. i hastily threw on a robe and let him in. he looked at my computer, made sure the cords were connected and was baffled. so he called for elva to come. she was equally baffled. and then my battery ran out. so i really needed an adapter. hence why i was looking for one that wednesday after the placement test. only it turns out they're not so easy to find (D:) even for me.
i though it would have less trouble than the people who were pretty much the same position. they had adapters, but theirs didn't have an earth wire input since japan doesn't often have an earth wire hole. their laptop cords, however, had an earth wire. so they needed to find an adapter that would allow them to plug a three-prong plug into a two-prong hole. me? the earth wire for my laptop cord had fallen off the day i was packing. so i was pretty confident. what's that saying? pride comes before a fall?
i went into the information centre at the station and asked them. they directed me to a department building. so off we went to find it. 20 mins walk later and we were there, asking where to find the adapters. we were directed to the travel section. apparently they usually stocked them, but they'd sold out at that time. of course (D:) after getting embarrassed by the low bows of apology the sales assistants were giving us, we left the store and made our way back to the dorm. on the way, however, we discovered that the 100 yen stores were open and had a grand old time buying stuff that we needed for our rooms for cheap (:D) only i forgot to get an alarm clock (oops)
which meant the next morning i was again woken by eleanor (<3) and had breakfast. then simi and i left before the others to get our bus passes before we caught the bus. fi came along to keep us company (<3) due to us having filled out the forms the previous afternoon, it being too early in the morning for there to be much of a line and the fact that we'd been forewarned and gotten the cash out the previous day, we got our passes no problem. Excellent (:DDDD) it took a bit of adjustment when we realised that the passes we had just spent so much money on were only valid for trips to and from the uni, but a quick mental calculation told us we'd still made a saving. and this way we didn't have to worry about having exactly 350 yen every morning and afternoon (:D)
this began our second day of pre-uni campus. the one where we were told about the courses we could take and our options for choosing them. elva was a bit late since she'd gotten lost on her bike. we got folders- pink for the girls, green for the boys ( i wanted to switch, but donal and simon were having none of it D:) it had a list of what we were allowed to do and a brief syllabus of the courses. then we were told which level of japanese we had been put in based on our ANU placement test. there was some confusion about this, since the levels didn't seem to add up to the abilities of the people. eleanor and i, who had taken the basic test, had been placed in C2 while caitlin, donal and julia, who had all done higher levels of japanese at the ANU and taken the harder test, were only placed in C1. what to do? in the end it was decided that we would wait until the results of the kanazawa test we had taken on wednesday came through.
another cheap and delicious lunch at the cafeteria and we met up to be taken to city hall and registered as alien residents. oh the thrill of waiting around for a couple of hours until your number gets called and then going up to sign two slips of paper before waiting again for everyone else to do the same. although it was a bit embarrassing for me. remember how i told you that i failed at writing my name a few times on the landing slip, which then got stapled into my passport? well the man who was in charge of our registration frowned at it for a bit before going off and photocopying it. so now and forever more there is a piece of paper withing the japanese bureaucracy proving this failing of mine (sigh D:).
anyway, we finally got out of there and had the rest of the afternoon to kill. caitlin- who also needed a power adapter- was keen to go out to the only electronics store we'd heard of. yamada denki. i was a bit tired, so i gave her money to buy me one if she found them. then those of us who weren't going to yamada denki made our way back to the dorm- once again via the 100 yen store for those who hadn't been the previous day. i was short on money- having given caitlin the rest of it- so i didn't get much. just some replacement coat hangers (the first lot i got had been to big for the cupboard) and a bottle-opener key ring. i decided against getting an alarm clock (sorry eleanor!! i love you. really!) fun times were then had at the japanese supermarket exclaiming over differences and similarities to australian supermarkets (alcohol really is cheaper, btw). back at the dorm we found the others. they'd found the bus stop to catch the bus out to yamada denki but had been to tired to actually make the trip. so they'd come home. a consensus was reached that, since friday was a half day, we'd go in the afternoon.
that night we got the email with the results from our kanazawa placement exam. this caused no less discussion than the previous announcement of our results. some stuff had changed but not much. simon was moved from B to C1, elva was moved from E to D, the rest of us were put into C1. there was a footnote saying that eleanor and i had scored well enough in the test to be put into C2 but we'd failed the kanji section so hard they'd downgraded us. fun discussion that led to. we decided to talk to the teachers on friday.
friday, it transpires, was also the day for our entrance ceremony. this involved wearing nice clothes and had been the subject of much discussion once we'd found out about it. but dress up we did. after being woken up by eleanor again (<3 <3 <3) the day began. not too well, it turned out, since we had to be at uni at 9:00 instead of 8:00 and people kept having to go up to their rooms for last minute forgotten items. this meant we didn't leave the dorm until 7:50 and had to fast walk/run to distance to the station. painful, since nice clothes often don't go with comfortable shoes. but we did it and found our way to the correct place by the correct time. Woot (:D)
before the ceremony started, the teacher again told us about the results of our placement test. some discussion ensued, whereupon he convinced us to go to the first C1 class and then decide. so the compromise was reached.
the entrance ceremony involved us doing jikoshoukai (self-introduction) to the japanese teachers and the japanese teachers, in tern, doing jikoshoukai while telling us to study hard. i don't really remember most of their names. that lasted an hour and then we set up to sign up for mobiles!!!!
yay japnaese mobiles!!!! the man from softbank (the only company in japan that allows pre-paid phones instead of 1 year contracts) gave out model phones for us to try and then handed out forms to fill in. i had to fill mine in again because i did a fail not only with my name (lol) but also with the dorm's address (D:) there were some moments of anxiety, though. it turns out we should have our alien registration card before we're allowed to sign up. we'd only gone into city hall the previous day and so our card wouldn't be ready for a month. after some complex negotiation on the part of the softbank man and his company, it was decided that if we filled out a specific page in our passport and photocopied it with something else, we could get it with a week or two. turns out that, while australian passports have the page, belgium passports don't. could anything else be done? no- he'd already gotten all the concession he could from his company. the belgium girls were not impressed, but didn't have a choice. until the teacher asked us all if we were over 20 (the legal age for being able to sign a contract in japan). she seemed rather surprised when people actually put up their hands. including most of the belgium girls. oh dear- what to do? forget waiting for a phone- would they be able to get one at all? yes, said the softbank man after some thought. even though their parents weren't there to be a guarantor, he would countersign for them. woot. extra good news for them was that this meant they didn't need the alien registration card and could get it within the next couple of weeks like the rest of us. don't you just love a happy ending? (:DDDDD)
this brought us to lunchtime. instead of going to the cafeteria, we decided to take advantage of the half day and walk down to a restaurant the teacher had told us about. pleasant walk- lots of cherry blossoms. but our mind was more on food. so we found the restaurant and ate delicious delicious food stuffs. very good (:DDDDDDDD) we were more in a mood to appreciate beauty then, so we went down to the river and spent a while taking pictures of cherry blossoms. when that was done, we found our way to uniqlo. this is a store kind of like target and it has clothes sizes that westerners can generally fit in. all it did for me was prove once and for all that i really am too big for japan (D:)
but the others had fun and they had a bench there, so i say down and read my book and waited for them to finish. most of them had packed for a canberran spring and summer and so really didn't have enough warm clothes. i'm glad they found stuff that fit them (:D) this was followed to a trip next door to jusco. a mini mall that can can to all you cheap needs. the boys got western pillows, since they decided they didn't like the small, hard pillow things that came with the futon. simi got a hair brush. caitlin checked out the electronics section for adapters. people came and left and had a grand old time. i rather liked the soft serve ice creams in various flavours they had and which a few of us partook of.
then, tried but content, we made our way back to uni on weary feet. there was a bit of a debate about whether or not to catch a bus. some of us were worried our bus passes wouldn't work whereas others hadn't got theirs yet and wanted the convenience. in the end the walk happened, our feet protesting in their uncomfortable shoes all the way. at the station, eleanor got her bus pass and showed us the awesome book/manga/stationary store she and caitlin had found on wednesday while we had been getting (or trying to get) bus passes. then we made the trek back home. by the time we got back to the dorm none of us really felt up to going to yamada denki that day. so we rescheduled for saturday morning. oh yeah, and i borrowed a power adapter from eleanor, told the manager, who then got julia (from ANU) to come to my room and see what was wrong. she fixed the problem by turning the internet cord around so that the part that had previously gone into the phone now went into the computer. apparently that makes a difference. But hey, even if I didn't understand how, I now had internet (:DDDDD)
needing to squeal to someone, i went up to simi's room. she had been letting me use her internet over the last few days to contact home (<3) eleanor was already there, so the three of us stayed up until the wee hours chatting to each other.
we didn't put off going to yamada denki again on the saturday morning. we actually went!! eleanor woke me up (for the last time :P) dorm breakfast was skipped by a couple of us and instead was bought from the bread shop at the station. very delicious. then came a walk to daiwa department store and a bit of a wait for the next bus to come. we got free tissues and booklets and a safety band from people handing them out. yay free stuff (:D) i ran across the road to take a picture of a bank advertisement. finally, the bus came and we were on our way to the outskirts of the city and possible the only place that would allow any of us to use our electronics. amber proved that we couldn't use our bus passes for the trip (D:)
in the end, i didn't get an adapter for my computer. i got a new cord which connected from the power box to a japanese wall. yay for internationally standard plug sizes!! (:DD) i got another one so i could charge my camera battery and finally an adapter (yes, they had them) just in case i'd forgotten an electrical appliance and felt stupid. besides, if there's anything this experience has taught me, it's that having an adapter is a good thing (:P) once these necessary chores were out of the way, the fun really began. it was a big store, after all (;D) i consider myself to have been rather restrained, really. other than the necessary electronics, i only got a cute screen cleaner in the shape of a cake (mmmmmm...... cake) and a couple of dvds. one of which was "the nightmare before christmas" in japanese- songs and all!! (:DDDD) only thing i forgot to buy was an alarm clock.... oops (:P)
back to the dorm to dump our new purchases and then on a bus to kenrokuen, a pretty famous garden with awesome cherry blossoms. some tasty stall food for a late lunch and lots of photos taken, despite the poor lighting due to the cloud cover. it's always cloudy in kanazawa! back on a bus to the station and we were satisfied with what had happened that day- included the realisation that we had used our bus passes to get to and from kenrokuen without any problem!! sweetness. at the station we explored another department store with lots of cute stuff. shopping really is a big thing here. simi and i lost eleanor and caitin when we stopped to but a tshirt. then we went up to the record store and was impressed by the range of music, even though they didn't have any merchandise (D:)
back to the dorm and our feet were well and truley informing us that they were not happy with what we had put them through that day after the uncomfortable shoe experiment of the previous day. dinner time then up to my room. simi joined me there and we had a few hours of talking until close to midnight. we agreed to try and sort out the laundry situation the next day and then go out for a movie. i actually thought to download an alarm clock application so simi wouldn't have to wake me up the next morning and we said good night.
which brings us to sunday. i woke up earlier than i'd expected and so spent a while getting ready and writing the beginning of my blog post before going down to the german bakery for breakfast. i'm sorry to report that the japanese do don't know the proper meaning of an ice chocolate. Or a croissant. then a wander back to the dorm and a meet up with simi to try out the laundry, as explained by caitlin. this was not fun (DDDDD:) it did not work. it would fill and soak and stop and annoy us without cause. meanwhile, i was writing the blog post and then it got lost and then i had to start again (D:) but the laundry still wasn't happening. in the end i managed the post you got last week and something happened with the laundry. we met in the lobby to discuss movies and the like. i was more than ready to get away from here and go see one, but i was still worried about the laundry. then simi came to my rescue. she had been out most of the afternoon and so felt she should stay behind for her laundry. i asked her if she could take my clothes out of the dryer when they were done and she said yes (<3) so i went and saw liar game with fi and julia, which was amazing and pretty and fantastic and completely got rid of my frustrations from the rest of the day (<3 :DDDD)
we met the others for dinner after the movie. there seemed to have been a bit of a drama with the boys' laundry and so they were late enough to make us sweat, but got there. we decided on burgers for dinner, since we wanted western food. got a little lost on the way but managed to get there 5 mins before the shop closed. the lovely people served us anyway (<3) and we went home with good food (:D)
anyway, that's brought us up to date enough to be only a week behind and the others are waiting for me downstairs to go to a museum. i haven't read over this post or anything, so please forgive the mistakes. must go, will try and get you up to date asap <3 you all, even if i only have one guestbook entry :P
