ABBY DAY 2

Ugh, I woke up so early. I blame the jetlag, which hit my like a sack of hammers first thing in the morning. So I got up and talked to some cool folks on the internets for a while, then I got around to taking a shower. Which was complicated. The showers are on the other side of the dorm from the bedrooms. This means that after I showered, I had to walk through the common room, the main hall, past the entrance and the dorm manager’s office, up the stairs, and to my room in a towel, toting all my shower things.

The shower itself was a challenge. I busted out my flippie floppies and rolled out. The showers for guys and girls are in separate rooms, but in the girls’ room, there are 4 showers with a detachable nozzle shower and some smaller nozzle at the bottom, which I was told was used to steam the shower with hot water. Another girl was there with me and we faced the challenge together, but in separate showers. In the end it wasn’t all that different, except that I hadn’t brought soap, so that was a bummer. Getting a hot shower was AWESOME and I would advise each of you readers to take one at your nearest convenience.

Then I brushed my teeth (also AWESOME) and went down for our dorm meeting. We learned all about Ontakesan Dorm, which is a pretty cool place, then we all took a tour of the neighborhood that ended at the train station. Apparently Maria and I accidentally jumped the turnstile on the way, so we messed up our tickets, whoops. It wasn’t so bad, we just had to talk to the train security officer. We got on and went to the city hall so Paul could show us where we can get our Alien Registration card. Then we went back on the train and rode to a stop where we got off and walked to our campus. It’s a bit of a hike, but not too bad. Just a bit confusing.

We got a tour of the campus and then took a break for lunch. Maria and I wandered around with Matt, who also lives in Ontakesan, and we went to a convenience store for a while until the ramen shop opened at 11. I got a grape Fanta at the store, and it was huge! 450 ml! Then we got delicious miso ramen with a bunch of other TUJ students. From there we moseyed into the lecture hall to begin the REAL orientation. Which was LONG. And you don’t want to hear about it. UGH. Suffice to say, we know many things now that are essential to our wellbeing. Oh, but I will say that the student council president is this baller Asian dude who's like, a bro or something, he was totally awesome. During the computer lab part of the orientation, I was able to sneak onto Facebook for a bit and say hello to people.

By the time orientation was done (noon to 5:30 PM!) it was dark. It’s really hard to tell your route in the dark, but luckily we had Chris (one of their OL’s) to guide the way. When we got back, we decided to run to the 100 Yen store and the grocery store to pick up some essentials. I got a little lunch box, some thumb tacks, throat drops (I’m getting sick), soap (hooray!) some soup mix, and some pork buns for dinner. And now I am typing this.