My Feet Is My Only Carriage

I find it hard to believe I've only had two full days in Japan so far. I woke up early this morning, again, as my jetlag (and general exhaustion at the end of our very full days of orientation) has me going to bed at about 10 PM and getting up at about 6 AM. Sounds impressive, but mostly it just really distorts time for someone who is naturally a night owl.

I arrived at my dorm on Sunday night at 11:30 PM local time. After several hours of delays on both my flight out of Memphis and my flight out of Detroit, I ended up in Japan a lot later than I expected. The flight was very long. The last few hours of it were fairly miserable as everyone else was asleep, they were no longer showing movies, and I was trapped in the middle seat, unable to get up and move around. But it was good to get off and walk out into the chill night air of Osaka.

I went to my room and fell into a restless sleep after being greeted and shown around by my dorm managers (who stayed up late waiting for me and even had kocha, or milk tea, waiting for me when I arrived). I woke up at 4 AM that morning and watched the sun rising outside my window. (I even have a little video of it!)



It's very beautiful here. The mountains can be seen in the distance on all sides and the air is clear and cool. I spent the first morning organizing my room, which is very spacious and has two windows, as I was lucky enough to get a slightly-more-swanky-than-average corner room. I have already vowed to fill it with Hello Kitty trinkets and capsule toys. Here's a few more pictures:


As for the past few days, all I've done is orientate. On Monday we went to Osaka and the Osaka Dome (a huge indoor baseball field) and saw the Ritsumeikan opening ceremony for the semester (along with 18,000 Japanese Ritsumeikan undergrads and graduates). It was fairly boring for the first half, mostly dry speeches in drolling Japanese from old men, but the second half they brought out dancers and taiko drums and cheerleaders and their "American football team", which is apparently number one in it's league, but I tell you, every guy in it looks like they weigh about 150 lbs. Haha.

Yesterday was the placement test. I felt really nervous about it, and the listening section went terribly, but the rest was fairly simple. I feel like I'll be placed within my level, which is probably mid-range or lower. Today is the speaking test, so we'll see how that goes... After the placement test, yesterday, though we just had a long day of being guided around campus and various facilities at the college and afterwards a friend of mine and I went to the "Suupa" which is the Supermarket, and I bought food. Yay food. Now it is time for my shower (and I finally have towels!) so I bid you all adieu until next time.