Eeee...

Fell pretty fucking far behind on this thing...
I should be studying for the placement test tomorrow morning, but it's been several days and this is my journal basically.  I can type a lot more quickly than I can write, so I figure I'll actually get it done sooner this way than writing everything down.


Explored the area around my school.  Pretty awesome.  Nice little park nearby.  Found a little market that sold a lot of american brands and things (including the kind of pasta my family gets!), beer, wine, and cheese.  It was pretty swell.  Met some other gaijins.  Went home.

THEN CAME NIGHTTIME

First nomihoudai! W00T!  For those of you that don't know, nomihoudai is where you pay so much to get all-you-can-drink for a certain period of time.  The place we went to also had a karaoke machine.  Our group consisted of 15 foreigners and 4 Japanese people.  19 people is quite a few for this kind of event (at least I think so, and at least for the size of the room we had that night!).  Shit was awesome.  A few rounds of beer later, pretty much everyone was getting pretty into the karaoke.  I don't think I made too much of an ass of myself, and this makes me very very happy.  Already looking forward to the next venture of this.

I keep forgetting I'm legal drinking age.  Next time I go to a restaurant I think I'm just gonna order a beer for the hell of it.  Just because I can.

Oh, that was two days ago, for the record.

Yesterday was kind of a throw away day.  I spent pretty much the entire time in my room convincing myself I was gonna study for the Japanese placement test.  Suffice it to say, I didn't get too much studying done.  I didn't realize it was for "respect for the elderly day" (a national holiday) so my dorm wasn't serving dinner.  This was actually kind of a blessing because it got me to go explore the area around my dorm more than I already had.  I just went a different direction than I had walked before and looked around.  Cool stuff litters this area, I love it.  It's especially magical and mysterious looking at night, making my dinner-time stroll all that much more enjoyable.  Found a haircut place.  I think I'll probably wander around there again sometime soon and check out the prices for future reference.  I'm terrified of my lack of haircut-related vocabulary.  Eventually I found a Famima.  They're exactly like they are in america, just with more actually Japanese brands and stuff.  I grabbed some soba noodles and a milk tea and was on my way.  I wandered a little more (took some pictures too!) before heading back home.  I found a 7-11 (which was oddly close to the fami-ma), which should be handy in the future, I believe.  For a cheap container of soba noodles I got at a famima, that shit was delicious.  And there was a lot!  I was full (but I still wanted more) when I finished.

Hold on everyone, I'm still wearing my pants and I don't know why...

Having had fun last night, I thought I'd take another stroll this morning to pass the time before my orientation.  Took yet another path and explored more of Musashi Koganei.  One of the first stores I came across was a Gaming store with a Blazblue poster in the window.  Actually, the entirety of all the windows was completely covered in various posters and things.  I couldn't see inside.  It might've been closed for all I know.  I decided I'd go in later because I was just starting my adventure and I actually wanted to see more before inspecting the finer details of the first areas.  I don't regret it.  This place is so fucking awesome, you guys.  Fancy-pants Japanese shops surrounded by small modern apartments, more traditional japanese houses with rusted sheds in the yards, and even a typical graveyard packed into a small space near several houses.

When it was time to go, I finally headed over to school.  Orientation consisted of "Hi, we're gonna talk to you for an hour or two, HERE'S A MILLION PAPERS!"  My friend and I have decided we're going to take a regular Japanese course this semester, and then we can take the intensive Japanese course next semester (which is an EIGHT UNIT CLASS).  But this all depends on how well tomorrow goes.  We also made a pact that if one of us places better than the other, we're going to talk to a counselor and tell them "Oh, I think this is a mistake, I'd like to take a lower course" and get into the same class as the other person.  We realized today that one of us is better at reading and writing and one of us is better at speaking and listening.  If you put us together, WE'RE A FULLY FUNCTIONING NIHONJIN.  This may be a SLIGHT (read: POWERFUL) overestimation of our talents, but still.  After the tour, we got into, like, group things with some Japanese students of Sophia.  They took us on a short tour of the campus and had us introduce ourselves to one another.  Shit was fun, met some people from ALL over the place in that group.  England, French Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, England, Korea, America, and Japan all represented in one small group.  We exchanged names for facebook and the people with cell phones exchanged information.  A group like that will be handy to have later on.  It's just another opportunity to make friends too~ (D'AWWWWW)

So I basically cut both my ankles right on the achilles tendon RIGHT before my trip.  All this walking has prevented either cut from closing.  In fact, today I got blood all over my socks.  They hurt like crazy and it's pretty awful... BUT MY BAND-AIDS STAYED ON TODAY! :D

After all our tour stuff was over, my friends and I met up and headed over to a nearby raamen place.  This place is famous for its tomato raamen (a dish of raamen with a tomato base broth and tomato chunks in it).  THAT SHIT WAS SOOOO GOOD OH MY GOD.  If you are ever in the Tokyo area, specifically Yotsuya, FIND THIS TOMATO RAAMEN PLACE.  It was delicious, I cannot stress that enough.

I'm still not used to humidity.  It's just that sticky feeling at the end of the day that coats your whole body.  I don't hate it, it's just something I'm really not used to.  Apparently there are only a couple more weeks of it anyway, so I guess there's no real need to get used to it anyway...

I still haven't bought a clock.  I also need to get a shit ton of papers and cards ASAP.  Classes to sign up for, a test to take...  Wait, when did I get so busy?  I should also buy a handkerchief or something.  The amount I sweat just walking or STANDING is ridiculous.  I don't mind it personally, but it's pretty disgusting for other people to see/have to deal with on a crowded train.

I'll upload pictures in another post or something, I should really get to work now...

PEACE  (<lol)