First day of Japanese class AND the top of Chiba!!

Today was my first day of class! I set my alarm for 6:40am but I woke up at 4:50am by myself, couldn't believe it. I have set my alarm nearly every day on this trip but I always wake up before it goes off, even if I am very tired. It's magical.

I got ready for school, ate some rice cereal, and left! I had packed my backpack the night before with all of my textbooks (just in case), tons of maps and directions in Japanese that my host parents printed out for me (so, so thankful for this!), and a few snacks/keys/moneys/my camera/etc.

I asked for directions probably 15 or 20 times this morning, haha. But my Japanese worked! I communicated and understood everything necessary, but still felt the need to double-check a few times if I was on the right train or in the right part of the station, or on the right street, haha. Japanese people are VERY accommodating. I think I say, "Ano, sumimasen..." (Um, excuse me...) about 50 times per day here. :) But people always help! And I just ask for directions, so it's not too much of an inconvenience for them, I think.

Anyways, I walked through the beautiful park on the way to Toyocho station, crossed some roads, tunnels, and bridges, and arrived ~20 minutes later at the station. The station was SO BUSY OMG, business people everywhere rushing around and it was just like highly populated Tokyo on tv. I was really grateful that I needed to travel away from the center of Tokyo, because that meant that my train was not jam-packed. All of the trains coming in to Tokyo were ridiculously full. I tried to take some photos but I didn't want the poor people on the train to feel like they were in a zoo exhibit for my photo-taking pleasure. I'm sure the manindensha (jam-packed train) was uncomfortable enough. Even so, I couldn't resist a few pictures for the sake of public knowledge aka this blog.

I switched trains at Nishi-funabashi which was a little challenging but I did it. :) Then I arrived at Kaihin Makuhari, the station in Chiba near my school. I walked to the IES Center, which was too bad because I wasn't supposed to go there at all. ;) So I left there and walked to KUIS and tried to find my classroom. I did it well from memory, I think.

Class was pretty great! My teacher on MTW is Yokono-sensei, and my teacher on TF is Aratake-sensei, from UNC. The people in my class are shy to raise their hands, which makes me sad. I'm sure sometimes they know the answer. But I can't stand 20-30 seconds of silence, so I often raise my hand. Yokono-sensei is very good at giving dramatic examples of new vocabulary, and she seems friendly and nice. :) We have a 2-chapter test every Monday and quizzes every day. Whew... tonight's homework was rather easy. We had to write two sentences using the grammar we were taught today and memorize a boatload of kanji. Fortunately, I had seen some of the kanji before and memorized them in my earlier classes. It's still a bit hard to write all of them, though! I will practice again tomorrow on the train.

After class, I did my homework in the hall while I waited for the 2nd-year IES class to get out. I have more friends in that class and my other classmates left to go do boring things or go home. I definitely didn't want to go home, since the apartment is usually empty until 7pm or so. So Robato-san (Robert) and I ate lunch in the cafeteria. We tried to find the other people but they didn't show up. Lamesauce. But our food was really cool! Here is a picture of both of our meals. Mine is the one with the giant chocolate chip bread in it. :) My plate was about $3. Nice.

Then Robato-san and I went to the SALC (Self-Access Learning Center), a language-learning center on the KUIS campus. Unfortunately, it was so fun in there that we barely got our work done. :) So after an hour of procrastinating from our homework with email and chatting with other students, we decided to go exploring outside. I got an iced coffee from the vending machines and perked up quickly! Then Robato-san indulged my fantasy of climbing to the tops of the highest buildings. It was quite exciting, although the office buildings didn't have any public viewing windows at the top. Zan nen. :(

But then I suggested we go to the top of the highest building in the area and we did! It was a hotel so I was like oooooooooo, I bet they will let us look out of the top windows. :D Turns out, the hotel had FIFTY FLOORS OH SNAP. The elevator went so fast that our ears popped. Here is a picture of the hotel from far away, which I took on my train ride home today.

When we got to the top, we discovered it was a restaurant and asked in Japanese if it would be okay to take pictures out of the window. They (hesitantly, we now know) said yes so we did. THE VIEW WAS SO COOL. I couldn't believe it, it was like my wildest Tokyo dreams coming true. I have a weird obsession with tall buildings, so this was really amazing to me. You can see the huge difference between the Chiba (today's photos) and Tokyo (yesterday's photos) cities from above. Chiba has big buildings but it is not nearly as crowded (or awesome, in my opinion) as inner Tokyo, as seen from the Tokyo Tower. It's nice that Chiba has so many parks and lots of nature, although Tokyo has its fair share of nature for such a big city. This isn't the tallest building in Tokyo, but I asked a hotel worker and it IS the tallest building in Chiba! I was so glad that I got to see it for free. :D Here are some photos of the view.

(We went to that beach the first night I was in Japan! And huge fireworks came from the Marines baseball stadium. The Japanese LOVE baseball. :D)

I saw a bug. :) All the way up there, 50 floors high! What's it doing up there?  誰も知らない。

After taking these few pictures, the owner of the restaurant got frustrated with us and asked us to leave (but in a VERY nice way, except with an angry face).  I had to ask for clarification because his Japanese was too complex (a way of being nice, I think?). We felt bad but it was strange that were were kicked out because there was no one in the restaurant; people were just cleaning the tables and such. Anyway, after that, Robato-san got on the train for his house to go do his homework, and I went to the stores to explore more. I bought some souvenirs, studied a little in the mall, and then walked to the station.

I was heading the wrong way to go to the station and a man who I had seen in the mall earlier started talking to me and asking me if I was okay. I said I was going to the station and he pointed out to me that I was going in the opposite direction (which was helpful, but I wouldn't have minded figuring it out on my own). It was very nice of him to help me but we were in a place where there were few people around and I was getting really uncomfortable with that guy. So I said, "I'm going now" and hurried towards the station. I'm sure he had nothing but good intentions but our orientation packet said that if we ever feel uncomfortable, leave immediately, even if it's rude. I feel a little bad, but I didn't want to be in an area outside the mall alone with a strange guy. Fortunately, about 40 feet from where I had been, there were lots of children, parents, and business people, so I felt safe again and got on my train. I'm sure my mom will read this and freak out but FEAR NOT. I know what to do in various situations, and Japan is incredibly safe.

My host family does laundry either once or twice every day here! But they have a small washer and it has a drying function too. It's convenient, because you just put the clothes and soap in, then let it do everything for 3  hours. Then it's all dry and ready to go. :)

Here are some pictures from yesterday that I forgot to put up. We went to Asakusa, a famous shrine and market area in old Tokyo. It was gorgeous.

I am soooooooooooo tired again. I'm always tired here, it seems. Good thing there is coffee in all of the vending machines. :) Oyasumi!