Arrival into Tokyo!

Konichiwa Minasan,

Well on the 31st of March I flew out of Sin City at 11pm! It was a 10hr flight which went damn fast. I think i just slept in and out of it. But at 6:30am we were in Tokyo. I was flying with Natalie, who i am living next door to in uni housing. And also the Yamanshi peeps were on the flight...won't be long till we meet up with those guys/girls.

After arriving we found our taxi driver. We caught the taxi, which was expensive but saved us so many dramas. After sorting out immigration and baggage we ended up at the Komaba International Students House at 10am. The dorm is nice and so are our rooms. Its a basic room with bed, desk, shelves etc. BUT, the bathroom is like stepping into a space shuttle cockpit. I kid you not...I was so sad, I like my bathroom big. :( But, after adding extras such as a mat, towels and stuff it looks more homey.

The first day saw Natalie and myself treking through Shibuya and Harajuku for food and things for the rooms. We found 100 yen stores, then also saw the massive department store at Tokyu. Its massive with 9 floors on one side, then 8 on another and 8 on the other side. Crazy stuff I say.
But, you would never believe the food area in the basement...it puts the DJ's food hall in the city to shame I tell you. Its a wonderland of food. Stalls everywhere and then the supermarket section. The confectionary and cakes section makes you just want to cry its so beautiful. Everything is so intricatley done and the colour is gorgeous. I will have to take photos because words do not describe this. Australia....shame...shame...where is your hot looking food???

The service in the department stores is also damn good. They help you in every way even though they speak jack all english. But, hey I need that because my Japanese is poor. With the few vocabs I know I can get around, But DAMN I have a long way to go.

I also went for a run through the neighbourhood. Far out so many streets within streets that are within streets. The roads are also extremely thin. I have no idea how cars get through....its amazing how efficient everything is. I'm impressed. Like on the train tracks the workers actually work fulltime, not like the crap in Oz that sits there with beer in hand doing nothing. And I have parks where I live. I actually live right next to Shibuya, which is a massive suburb in Tokyo. Famous for fashion and nightlife apparently. And yep I met a guy that owns this hip hop shop with "normal" size clothes, plus some pretty cool brands. Me likey...my wallet doesnt though..haha. Shibuya is massive high rise with more billboards then I have ever seen in my life and massive TV screens on the buildings. Its NUTS! I also am right next to Tokyo Uni and Komaba park which is currently filled with the cherry blossom trees. These trees are beautiful, its something all in itself that is indescribable. I will post pictures after the cherry blossom party on Sunday. The district I live in is called Komaba, which has high rise and houses...its a mixture, but I am just off from the high rise, so its quieter here. Its good...best of both worlds.

Oh and its currently cold here. By cold I mean 15 degrees by day and freaking freezing at night. And they call this Spring, what a load of caca. It better get warmer, else I going to freeze over! But the falling cherry blossoms look like snow, its so awesome.

To be a foreigner here is also a pain in terms of paper work. There is a tone to do and it never ends, we dont get everything official pretty much for like 3 weeks. So no mobile for another week or two. Its a pain, but what can you do? I have Gaijin (foreigner) orientation at Tokyo Institute of Technology (TiTech) tomorrow, so finally I can see my uni. The uni is 40min from where I live, so its just like home with all the travel. I'll let you know about the uni once I start. Apparently the cherry blossoms there are even more beautiful!

And I'll also post pics of the crazy toilets I find. Yes I will track these toilets down and attempt to discifer how they work and document. HAHA. Everything here is in Japanese, and I mean like things such as detergent, foods, washing liquids etc. I have a massive headache trying to work out what is what and if its what I want. But there are so many brands from home like panteen pro-v, cornflakes etc....but the lables are all in japanese, so with the little I know, the katakana these use, the colours and pictures somehow I work it out. Hopefully I got the right softner for my clothes and its not something dodgy...like bleach...oh god please be what I wanted!

Anyway, thats part one for today. I'm about to do a seperate blog entry on food, but I'll leave that for tomorrow. Take care everyone and feel free to post anything you want to ask or say! Just don't be a biatch and its all good.

chooksta
xoxo