東京 ①

7/25

今日は東京行きです!

I got up around 6 am, as usual, but this time I went and did all of my laundry. None of which ever got dry in those stupid dryers. I think I’m probably just going to handwash and linedry everything at the main campus, because I’m tired of wasting all my coins on washer/dryers that don’t do shit and are too small anyway.

I sent an e-mail to エリック's friend Izawa-san yesterday, and I got a reply today. He’s certainly a funny guy…

After lots of standing around, sweating, and dragging out various farewells and photo-taking, we finally hit the road.

We made a stop on this huge shopping center as we crossed Tokyo Bay called Umi-hotaru, where, at long last, I was able to have my first Starbucks in 2 weeks =D
They had a nice kaitenzushi place, and the view of Tokyo Bay was quite incredible. Sadly, my camera was still kaputs.

After we got back on the road...

Natsuko-san, one of the R.As, made a show of pretending to me our Japanese Tour Guide, using all this over-the-top service industry 敬語, which was really funny.

Long drive to Tokyo, but after we piled out of the busses and dragged our heavy-ass luggage once again through the streets, we got to the dorms...

THANK FRIGGIN' GAWD!!!!

Everything is brand-spankin' new, as the dorms only just opened around 2 weeks ago, and while everything is still really tiny and slightly more cramped than us Gaijin are used to, is very space-efficient, with two bunkbeds on either side, and a desk underneath with INTERNET(!!!!)

We had an orientation dinner later that evening on campus, and it was also insanely well prepared with little dishes of every conceivable inclination, including sushi and these rice balls wrapped in leaves that I always see in Dim Sum restaurants.

This was also the official mixing of the two program groups: Those from the Oregon program (6 weeks/Kamogawa) and the "independents" who have a four-week program that lacks the Kamogawa section and homestay.

Mr. Awkward sat with me, along with a few of the IND students. There was this really obnoxious girl there who was apparently a former 4-Channer (lurker/participant of the infamous 4chan forum) and was poking fun at Mr. Awkward for being a "B-tard"...whatever the hell that is. Although I myself spend obscene amounts of time on teh Internets, I've apparently managed to come this far without even knowing about some of this stuff. Hell, I only even knew about Annonymous because it got noted on one the blogs I usually read due to its "War on Scientology" campaign. Sometimes I don't even feel like I belong in my generation...

...anyway, there were a number of 4chan terms being thrown about that were meaningless to me, so I just kind of kept my neutrality. He looked a little disgusted.

After dinner I left with Mr. Awkward to go find a LAN cable. We proceeded to walk around for the next hour or so and get exactly no where, and then get lost. And we couldn't seem to find a place that sold LAN cables. We came upon a group of high school girls, and Mr. Awkward managed to explain to them our situation, so they were leading us back. After a while it occured to me that our dorms were not on the "Waseda Campus", and when I asked them again, I realized they were taking us, probably, to the old International Dorms, wherever on campus they were, and so luckily I had a map with me and was able to point to where we were.

Turns out, we'd been wandering up and down Waseda Ave half the time, I'd say no less than three or four blocks from the little side street leading to our dormitories.

Figures. But! At least we managed to find a Starbucks =)