Well, before anything else, Happy Birthday Dad! ^^

The week so far has been a bit odd. Since language school hasn’t started and I don’t really have any responsibilities in my lab yet, I’ve been at a bit of a loose end with myself trying to adjust to being here in any meaningful sense. The start of the week was characterised somewhat aptly by the weather turning to complete rubbish, some heavy rain and general storminess going on. Tuesday was particularly bad, actually.

Mostly I’ve just been chatting to people online, or mucking about on my computer (did you know that Microsoft is now doing peer-to-peer file sharing?) in between making runs to get food, or supplies from the 100yen shop. While it’s been somewhat nice to just vegetate for a while, it doesn’t feel like it’s really coming from any sense of need for rest like it usually does. More like, my brain just refuses to accept what the hell I’m doing here and do anything productive, despite my having the time for it. It’s made me feel quite disconnected.

I have had moments that punctuate this doldrum, however. I had some dinner with Mark on Monday (Japanese curry) and I’ve run into Stefan a few times on my walks. Yesterday I actually went to Shinjuku with Stefan for a good portion of the afternoon, but the weather was rubbish the whole time, so it wasn’t really terribly exciting, despite some stellar examples of Engrish. Today’s notable events included actually going into university, having my graduate school orientation, a library tour and attending a lab meeting. I got to hear everyone’s reports on what they’re currently doing, mostly in English, then chat with people afterwards for quite a while. I also had dinner tonight with one of my labmates at the main university cafeteria, which was kind of cool. ^^

In other completely unrelated news, I got to see the photos from my friend Jenny’s wedding in Seattle yesterday. It made me extremely happy and sad at the same time – I am very happy for her and for the happiness that is so obviously reflected from the photographs, but also sad that I couldn’t be there to share that with her. It’s hard being in a different part of the world from the people that you care about, unable to share in their lives in the way that you would were you in the same city. I know that as I get older and visit more places, have those significant connections with more people, this problem is only going to get worse. Being in a long distance relationship doesn’t really help with that feeling either, it’s a constant reminder of exactly how intense the feeling of missing out on people you care about’s lives really is.

Still, what can you do?

This weekend was pretty laid back, despite the still-far-too-early mornings. I managed to get some sleep, even if I was a little dopier than usual to start off the days. I went downstairs after lying in bed yesterday morning, wondering when my sleep was going to make me wake up at more ‘normal’ times. I had a bit of a chat with Mark in the common area downstairs, arranging to have dinner later, before heading out to start my exploring for the day.

First up was finding the local 100yen store, which has all kinds of food, snacks and useful bits and bobs for about NZ$1.25. Not bad! I managed to get a few basic things like some washcloths, washing powder, some string, some scissors… bits and pieces that you always end up needing but are never worth taking with you. I also managed to get some basic groceries – bread, juice, etc. No cheese, though. I’ll have to go to a supermarket for that, although I hear it’s absurdly expensive here. Anyway, after that I head back to the dorm to unpack my haul.

Back at the dorm I had a bit of lunch, then took stock of my money for a bit – there aren’t really as many places here that take credit cards as I thought there would be. Also, my feet have some serious blisters – I’m certainly not in the mode of walking around everywhere, that’s for sure. They’ll turn into some regular callouses soon enough I guess, but in the mean time they look kind of nasty.

Despite my feet’s protests, I then went to Shibuya to have another wander around there for a few hours. I was trying to make a mental map of the place and I did manage to find almost all the places I saw with Stefan earlier this week. My wanderings eventually culminated in an electronics shop, where I proceeded to get the right kind of plug adapter before heading abck to the dorm. I don’t think I’d be able to give you directions to anywhere yet, but I figure if I keep going there eventually I should be able to orient myself pretty well.

One thing I noticed while I was walking around actually was the people. I mean, I know there are these stereotypes about Asian people being (by and large) short and thin… but seriously, I can see why that’s a stereotype, particularly for the women that were walking around Shibuya today. I’m sure after I’ve been here for a while I’ll have a more discerning eye for the kinds of people, but right now it kinda feels like I’m in a country full of people as scrawny as myself, which is kind of neat. ^^

Back at the dorm I ended up just answering a whole lot of email before heading out to dinner with Mark. I ended up taking another walk down to the 100yen shop with him, since he didn’t know where it was. We also noted a whole lot of little side streets that are probably going to make the trip a lot shorter once we figure out how to navigate them! Mark also invited me out to practice some cricket with his buddies today, which I thought sounded like a bit of fun and somewhat nostalgic, I haven’t done that in a while!

After talking to Anastasia online all morning, it was a quick shower and running out the door to get the train out to Kita-Senjuu, where I was meeting Mark. In my rush I didn’t take his phone-number, which turned out to be something of a problem when I arrived and couldn’t find the meeting place. I wandered around, looking in vain for a while and slightly cursing my lack of cellphone. In the end I gave up, it was well past when I was due to meet him. No cricket for me this weekend. I had some McDonalds (the Teriyaki McBurger, heh) and just wandered around a little before heading back to the dorm and jumping on my computer for the rest of the afternoon, reading some manga online and talking with people back in NZ. I set up a few bits of software, then re-watched the start of Tantei Gakuen Q (Detective Academy Q) to unwind.

Oh yeah, my second earthquake was today. I don’t think I posted about the first one, which was earlier in the week, but so far it looks like they’re going to be a bit more of a regular (if minor) occurrence. I’ve been in a bunch of earthquakes in NZ, so they don’t really bug me out all that much, but I know that there are a lot of people in the dorms that have never experienced earthquakes before, so it’ll be a bit of an adjustment for them!

So, these past couple of days have been characterised by a lot of necessary paperwork. Contrary to one reading of the title of my post, this was not, in fact, welcome. However, can’t be helped – there’s always a lot of paperwork when you move countries.

Anyway, yesterday I got the train directions to campus from the dorm office, then headed over with plenty of time so I could have a look around first. This was really cool, I just wandered around looking at the buildings and so on, trying to soak in the atmosphere. It was a bit surreal walking up to courtyard in front of the Yasuda Auditorium, because it’s so iconic. I’ve read a lot of manga and seen quite a few anime that have that building in it and in a lot of ways it has become something of a symbol for Tokyo University. After looking around for a while I then went to my laboratory to meet up with everyone. There seem to be about a dozen people in the lab although they weren’t all there and as per usual I’m going to have to work hard to remember everyone’s names. I thought trying to remember Western names was bad… at least I’m used to hearing them! Anyway, my tutor’s name is Tatsuya, and we got started on doing all the paperwork that comes with being a new student… or something. Lots of paperwork, including all the application material for going to language school. Eventually with more paperwork in hand, I headed back to the dorm and ran into Mark, one of my Kiwi compatriots and agreed to have some dinner later on. I then ran into Stefan again and we talked for a bit before heading out into Shibuya for a while to have another look around. When I got back to the dorm I had pizza with Mark in his room and ended up having a fairly extended discussion on all kinds of things from philosophy to religion to general life plans. After that I had another quick look in the “free stuff” sections of the dorm, then crashed out.

Today after I got up I did (you guessed it) more paperwork! This time it was dorm paperwork, so after that I head downstairs to hand it in before heading out with Stefan to the local government office. Not the one we had so much fun getting to in Shibuya, mind. Another smaller one that’s a lot closer (we still managed to get a little turned around, but not much). When we got there we got a bunch of certificates that said we’re officially allowed to live here, since it seems most of the paperwork we’re filling out for university and bank accounts and the like require at least a copy of one of those. Makes sense, I guess. Anyway, after a bite to eat I headed into campus to go to the lab for more paperwork processing. Since a lot of it is in Japanese, or requires speaking to someone that speaks no English (or close enough that it makes no difference), Tatsuya has been indispensable. I ended up reading through a bunch of the “welcome new students” documentation while I was waiting for Tatsuya to get out of a meeting, it seems like there are a few holes in places but nothing too serious. I was feeling a bit dopey after reading through so many regulations and things for a while, but I got through it. After that Tatsuya and I went to the post office to set up my bank account for the scholarship money, then to the Engineering International Office to sort out some other paperwork. Will it ever end?

From there we went to the lab meeting, where I got to introduce myself to everyone. This was pretty novel, as it was really me cementing my new identity as ‘Xander’. I can’t remember, have I explained why I’m Xander here in Japan and not Leith? If I haven’t, someone let me know, suffice to say fo rnow, it’s easier for me. After my introduction I didn’t understand a lot for a while, but that’s ok, I’ll get to the understanding-Japanese part later on. That’s part of the point of being here, right? After the meeting I went and got a temporary student ID card and keys to the laboratory, which aren’t like keys I’m used to, which in itself is kind of neat. Little things being different as well as big things, that is. Oh, I also got a whole bunch of free kitchen stuff, which was pretty novel… for some reason they were getting rid of plates and bowls and so on – sweet deal for me! Speaking of sweet deals, tonight was the welcome party for me and another temporary lab member, Ken. We went to a local restaurant, had a bunch of drinks and food and since I’m new, I didn’t have to pay for anything – bonus! I had fun there, even if I didn’t understand pretty much any of the conversations except for when they tried to speak in English for me. ^^; Ah well. From there it was back to the lab to pick up my free kitchen stuff, then back to the dorm… man am I tired. Time to crash.

Sleep last night was pretty average, but this is largely due to do the decided lack of bedding. Not quite what I wanted after such a long day on the way here, but hey, it should get better once I have actual bedding sorted out. After getting up I had the fun job of working out how to operate the shower. The bathroom here is actually just the size of the shower – the sink in there is on a hinge, so when you want to use the toilet, it takes up the showerspace, and when you want to shower, it sits over top of the toilet. I guess it’s efficient in space and so on, but boy is it weird. After that it was have some sandwiches (I have a very little fridge in my room for storage of such things) and have a view outside from the fifth floor on my little balcony.

Today was a pretty full day, mostly with Stefan again. We walked around Shibuya a whole lot, looking for places that Stefan knew. We went to the post office there, had Wendy’s for lunch (that was so weird… smoking section inside and I had the teriyaki burger), then took a bus to the foreign office. Actually that in itself was a bit of a mission: first we got a bit lost, asked for directions and eventually found the right bus, then get on it, then we took the bus too far because the English directions on our paperwork were wrong, so we had to bus back again to get there. Oops! Anyway, we eventually made it to the right office and filled out our paperwork for alien registration (yes, I’m an alien!) and compulsory insurance. After that, we headed back to Shibuya and had some Chinese for a late lunch. We wandered around looking into shops and picking up bits and pieces that we both needed – bedding, power converters (seems to be the same as the US here, actually), some shoes for me, etc. We also stopped into a manga shop that Stefan knew of called Mandarake, which was like manga/anime geek heaven. I felt a bit lucky that I didn’t really have that much money on me, or it would have disappeared into the shop pretty rapidly! Anyway, we trained back to the dorm then parted ways.

After that I raided all the “free (read: discarded) stuff” sections on each floor of the dormitory, seeing what kind of useful stuff there was. I managed to pick up some floor mats, an extra rubbish bin, a folding chair for on my balcony, an extra pillow, a big cushion and a little television/vcr combo that was next to a pile of VHS tapes. Score! So, I then set up my room nominally, at least until I get some decorations. There are some shelves that I’m eyeing up as well, but might take some fixing. After dinner I spent a bit of time trying to get the tv to work, to no avail… I might just end up putting it back in the pile of discarded stuff on my floor. Dinner was again raiding the local convenience store, this time for drinks, sushi, sandwiches, chips and melon bread. Melon bread (or melon-pan) is something that crops up an awful lot in pop-culture references as one of those ubiquitous snacks for Japanese people, particularly young people, so I was dying to find out what it was actually like.

Verdict: delicious.

So, the last couple of days, in a nutshell: madness.

Yesterday I was an extremely busy guy and did a whole lot of running around. I got a bit of a late, groggy start, doing some money juggling before I started shifting all of my stuff downstairs, clearing out the upstairs room of everything I’d put in there. Given that I’d been more or less living out of my suitcases, this wasn’t too hard. I called the computer shop and confirmed that I could pick up my laptop this afternoon. Not all of the issues I’d highlighted have been fixed, but at this point it’s just ridiculous – the day before I leave the country? Come on.

Anyway, after that I talked to NZQA on the phone, finding out what kind of documentation I’m going to need to sort out with regards to my student loan so they don’t start charging me tons of interest. Then began the fun job of sorting all of my clothes and other crap, trying to fit everything into my suitcases. I’m thinking I should have just left more stuff in the US, that would have made things so much easier.

After doing that for a while, I went into town and had coffee with Mickey, who I hadn’t seen in a few years. Somewhat ironically, he’s actually based out of New York now, although we never managed to get together for anything while I was over in the US. Note to self: try to get up to NYC at some point next time I’m in the US for a while. It was good having a catch-up with him, although in the end it did still feel a bit brief – we’re both busy I guess. Hopefully I’ll see him again sooner rather than later, but with this whole Japan thing I’m doing, who knows when I’m going to be seeing all the people around the world I know next!

From there it was a bit of running about: pick up my laptop case for my new laptop, go pick up my old laptop, then head back to Dad’s place to get back to it. Grandma and Grandad stopped over briefly, it was good to see them one more time before I left the country – I made sure to see a whole lot of them while I was in NZ this time around, so it was a nice little moment of send off, I guess. ^^

After that I talked to Anastasia online briefly, before going over my documents and realising that the luggage restriction is, in fact, 20kg total, not for each of two bags, which is the usual. Holy crap. This involved a complete re-pack of my luggage, including an entire suitcase worth of stuff to send back to Anastasia and I’s place in Florida. I needed to really figure out what was my bare minimum of stuff to take! There were also a few things which I will hopefully get mailed to me here in Japan as well.

After/during all of this repacking, Rach showed up and brought me dinner (pizza), which was awesome. She stuck around to help me out and chat a bit, then give me a lift over to Dace’s place later when I was done, which was quite a bit later than I was expecting… stupid having to repack everything. Ugh, airlines. Anyway, Dace had a bed set up for me and everything, and came down for a short chat before crashing out in his room. I didn’t actually get any sleep at all that night, so I spent some time cleaning up Angelina instead. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the network to play nice, so there was some stuff left on the hard drive… hopefully at some point I’ll be able to retrieve those files or wipe them off properly, although I have no idea when the hell that’s going to be.

So, horrifically early in the morning (as is usual for flights out of NZ, sigh) my brother and I set out for the airport. I’m soemwhat glad that no one buggered themselves getting up that early in the morning to come see me off, I would have felt bad if they had. I got all my baggage checked properly and so on, then headed over to the waiting area with the other Monbugakusho scholars from Canterbury. Coincidentally, my mate Will from Canterbury was also there. He’s coming over to Japan on exchange to a university in Saitama (which is just north of Tokyo) for a year, so that should be another friendly face that I’ll be able to see semi-regularly. Anyway, turns out that the other Monbusho scholars and I are all stuck next to each other all the way to Japan – so off we went. First up to Auckland, remarkably short and uneventful, as that flight always is. The flight to Japan was moderately unpleasant – I didn’t sleep at all when I thought I was going to, and the Air NZ food continues to hate me, giving me an upset stomach. In the end I watched a few movies: Bee Movie (pretty funny, but glad I didn’t go to the cinema for it), Alvin and the Chipmunks (ditto) and No Country for Old Men (although I missed the last three minutes, on the whole I was mostly underwhelmed by this… not for any particular reason, it just didn’t really do it for me).

Arrival in Japan involved a fair amount of waiting in line for customs, but I’m so used to doing that for going to the US that it’s just become another one of the necessary evils of travel. I long for a world where time spent in airports has nothing to do with security or waiting for someone to briefly look at your passport before waving you through. I didn’t have any issues with the immigration officer either, everything just went smoothly and then I was through. I teamed up with Stefan, one of the other scholars, at this point because he actually knew what he was doing – he’s lived in Japan before and is pretty fluent in Japanese as well. We stopped at a convenience store in the airport for some water, snacks (onigiri!) and some stuff to settle my stomach. Then it was on to the trains, crammed on with our luggage… I can tell you, lugging those up and down stairs in train stations when we needed to change trains was not pleasant. Once we got to the last station, we ended up walking around a bit and repeatedly asking directions to the dorm… at this point it’s in the evening in Japan, so it’s not as simple as grabbing a passing student. Once more I feel very lucky to have had Stefan with me at this point – he was able to ask for directions in Japanese. We eventually got to the dorm and checked in, although the people at the office weren’t terribly happy with either of us for checking in so late in the day… apparently we were supposed to check in earlier, despite having the timing for all of that arranged for us. Anyway, sorted. A quick run to the local convenience store for some dinner later, then I was ready to crash.

With the lack of sleep the night before and no sleep on the plane, this has been one hell of an April Fools’ Day. Despite the day, I have come to realise this is not a joke: I’m actually, finally here.