Reality is starting to sink in

Yesterday was filled with orientation meetings and paperwork. They require so much paper work to do anything here, it's crazy. After a meeting we had to go to this room to draw a number for the registration lottery. Yeah, they do their registration as a lottery, so you put your hand in a box filled with numbers and hope for the best and then the next day you register in the order of the numbers drawn. Never heard of a school doing this and if you ask me it's pretty stupid. Of course, I drew number 284. The guy before me drew 13 and the girl after me got 24. Are ya kidding me? I think there was about 500 numbers so I guess it could be worse. 

My only problem is that I am here finishing up my last terms at my school back home so I need to only take history classes to fulfill my graduation requirements so I need to get into the history classes they have to offer. If I don't it would defeat the purpose of coming here cos although I am here for the life experience I am here first for school and credit cos this program is so expensive! It's going to suck me dry, pretty much already has. Hopefully it will all work out. I just need to be more positive about this whole experience. I'm sure I will start to feel better as the days past but right now the transition is hard. 

After I drew my "lucky" number I found a girl that's staying in my dorm and she invited me to go to the cafeteria to eat lunch with some people. There was about 8 of us and as we were in line to get food one of the guys, looked at me and said, "Oh my god we're in Japan, what the hell did I just get myself into, I don't know any Japanese!" I about gave him a hug because I was thinking the same thing. Turns out almost everyone in my group doesn't know any Japanese and were feeling the same way as me. This pretty much saved my ass yesterday. I just hung out with them all day in between meetings and I felt so much better than the day before. 

One thing that is crazy is that almost every person I have met is 20 years old. I was told this is because they are doing things the "right" way, meaning that most people study abroad their junior year of college because I guess most people go to college right after graduating high school. They are all amazed that I am 29. Almost in disbelief. I told this one guy how old I was his reaction was something along the lines of, "What! Are you serious! Oh my god!" and then I hit him and told him 29 isn't old and he said he thought I was about 25. Then he told me that I don't look young but I don't look 29 so that's why he placed me at 25. I kind of stood there wondering if I should say thank you or punch him. I'm not judging them because they are younger, I'm just not on the same level as them in some ways. I'd say academically we're all pretty smart but as far as the life experience that makes us wiser, well I have some years on them. 

I've also noticed that a lot of the guys I have met have made it seem like one of the reasons they picked Japan is to meet hot Japanese women. Oh yeah and whoever told me that Japan hates cleavage and boobs and to not wear low cut shirts and dresses is a damn liar. A lot of the girls, international and Japanese, are wearing short shorts, dresses and skirts and low cut shirts. I haven't really been out of my school's area yet so maybe it's a different story.

 Yesterday when I was in the cafeteria I was able to actually finally eat some Japanese food. The miso soup was amazing, I have never liked it before but this stuff was delicious. I was also able to eat some type of vegetarian dish and some soft serve soy ice cream. I'm going to have a hell of a time eating here, I can tell already. I don't eat meat and everything seems to be pretty meat heavy. I eat fish but haven't seem much of it yet. I was invited to out to sushi with one group and then for Karaoke with another group but I passed on both because I am still pretty jet lagged. I have no desire to party here or drink and it seems that's all a lot of people want to do here. I'm here to study not to party. The drinking age is 20 here so I guess that's where the age things plays a part. I've been able to drink for so long that partying to me isn't the same as it is to them because it's new. I kind of feel like I have been there and done that already, ya know? 

The cars here are insane! They are really small and look like boxes and the driver seat is on the other side. All of them have TVs on the dashboard and everyone watches TV as they drive. Japan doesn't seem like a very safe place to drive in at all. It cost 3,000 dollars just to get a license. Oh yeah and let me touch on bicycles. OK, this shit is crazy. When you buy a bike you have to register it. You must always carry your registration on you when you're riding your bike. If a cop pulls you over and you don't have it, they will impound your bike! Yes, you heard me right, they impound bikes here.

 Also, every place that you go, whether it be school, the grocery store, the bank, all of these places have designated bike parking areas that you must park in. So you must have a valid sticker on your bike while you're parked there because if you don't your bike will be impounded. If you get caught biking under the influence you can be arrested. I guess driving and biking under the influence is seen as one in the same. Crazy. Also, biking here is pretty dangerous because cyclists never have the right away, ever. I was thinking about getting a bike but I'm a klutz with bad luck so maybe I shouldn't. They also have quiet hours here. From 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. you are supposed to be real quiet whether you're inside or out. Japanese houses have no insulation so when you're walking outside of someones house talking loudly they can hear everything you are saying so it's really disrespectful to be loud after 10 p.m.

 My seminar house (dorm) is located in a small cute neighborhood. I plan to post pictures in this blog soon so you can see some of the things I am talking about. The houses are so awesome. My dorm unit has 4 rooms, two double rooms and two singles. I was lucky enough to get a single room thanks to my insomnia. So there's 6 girls including me in the unit. The unit consists of all of our rooms, a kitchen and a living area with a TV and couch. It's pretty cute. No alcohol is allowed in any of the dorms, if you get caught with it you can be kicked out. It's fine with me but it is pretty weird to have rules cos I have been living on my own for so long with no rules. But it's only for 4 months so I'll get by. There seems to be a lot of people who were here last term so it's been good to talk to them about what to expect. It seems the work load is heavy and they said your time here flys by. One thing I am nervous about is the Japanese spoken language and reading and writing classes that I am required to take. Japanese is a hard language but the older you get the harder it is to retain any language so hopefully I do OK. I'm trying to think if there's anything else I wanted to say today...This was a long one. 

I'm keeping this blog to let you all know what's up on my side of the world but also to help me get through this experience. I hope it's not too boring and if it is well, stop reading it! Ha! Till next time...Oh wait, they have a cell phone here that turns into a robot! I'm serious! Oh and vending machines are everywhere with anything from Ramen to soda to beer. And Japanese television is crazy. All they do is make fun of people and make bad music videos and soap operas and crazy commercials.