JAPAN!!! YOKOSO (welcome)

HELLO FROM JAPAN ALL!

I've made it all the way. The flight was long and very boring. The best part was finally showing up in Nagoya where I met a lot of new friends from Hokkaido University. They were all friendly and eventually asked where I was staying and I mentioned Hokusei... Ehhhhh? they said "Hokusei is our rivals" in broken engrish. In fact, everything is in engrish..!

Coming in Nagoya.. alone was fun! No one spoke english and everyone was facinated with my blonde hair. The best part was finding my connecting flight.

Here's what I saw when I tried to find my connecting United Flight.



After getting there we were met by a friendly green bus



The fun and games didn't stop there! After arriving we were given a futon and bedding and were shoved in little dorm rooms and thus the day ended.... Ahhh YATA!

The next day we were given our first Japanese meal..

Qoo, Green Tea, Meat thingy, Potato Salad, Tempura, 2 strips of Salmon, Vegie stuff, Melon, Corn Meal, and yes Rice always rice here.

Next was a placement exam which was hard to say the least. 2 1/2 hours of pain remembering lessons learned 3-4 months ago... Funny how you forget it all and then all of a sudden it comes back.. Too bad it came back in the form of a test!

The fun part was next. Lunchie! 1 bowl of Ramen= 120 yen and good ramen too! However we (the LC Folks) got to meet new friends!

Then orientation started and we were led like a herd of cow around this twisty and small university. I should say that Hokusei isn't big at all. It's small but the people are fun. School in Japan starts in Two weeks on the Japanese schedule so this pack is known to get "packed out."

Money was given next and this school is all business! Based on your host family location you're given the exact amount for a bus pass and train pass. Mine was a lot of yen in comparison because I guess my host family lives far away.. ... we'll see! This is the richest I'll probabally be in a while.. ne?



All is well now in our little house. Tomorrow we will meet our host family. I will get my luggage finally! And all will be well... I hope. I can't say that I'm not nervous because I'm very nervous! Who knows what will happen tomorrow.. I hope someone shows up.. I'm eager to meet them .

My first impresson of Japan is that I feel totally safe and pampered here. Nothing here goes unexplained without great pictures or signs. People are facinating..! They don't run away from you they just want to talk and get to know you. If you speak a little Japanese they listen intently and thus when someone says there's a "communication gap" it's really only with words and grammer. I feel like I can communicate well here as long as I use my hands, face, and basic knowledge of Japanese. I know I'll get better later on. For now these people are very friendly and constantly check up on me. I feel good, I feel happy, and when I thought I'd get lost I didn't these people, who might not even know English, try hard to make you feel a part of their culture. Maybe I'm speaking too early.. who knows.. It's a land of unlimitless opportunity. I hope as I go along I can accomplish my goals here and come away with a pure idea of who these people are.

But until then, here's "ja-ne" from Japan.

~j-san