Nihon Des!

Yesterday while boarding the Narita Express from Narita to Tokyo, I found it ridiculous that I didn't know how to use the locker system for luggage in the train. I had to ask some locals for the proper way to use it. The Japanese are indeed advanced in technology, and a girl from the third world barely knew how to keep up! I also got lost when I arrived in the Shinjuku platform. There were so many exits!

From the more rural part of Japan I traveled alone to the city, with Life in Technicolor and 42 playing on the background. It felt like I was inside a music video, and I tried to take it all in. What's a girl got to do? A week ago (and for almost 3 years in college) there was nothing to think about but deadlines and exams, and all so suddenly they are gone like balloons in the sky. The scene was all so surreal and mind-blowing altogether, it was just like yesteryear that I imagined it to happen.

Today, all the many international students met up for an orientation. They gave away packets full of how to's, rule books, things we needed to do just before classes start next next week.

And then we went out for a campus tour here at Waseda. The school is very pretty. There were pine trees and conifers around!

The architecture looks more European than Japanese to me. I just can't quite figure out how it is possible that almost all trees here are trimmed very well.

I am also beginning to converse in Nihongo. Compared to the other international students, my Japanese could be considered very very basic. But it's such a fulfillment when people sort of understand what I'm trying to say.