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.