Once I put down my bags and was shown past the windowless halls of the dorm and shower rooms, things began to open up. The lounges and kitchens on the ground level were very spacious and there I met some of the about fifty students currently in residence. I quickly got a taste of the international character of the school after meeting Roberto from Ireland, Travis from the U.S., On and Sherry from Singapore, and Declan himself from Australia.
The heavy rain Tuesday morning still made it difficult to get a feel of my surroundings aside from the homes and stores close to the narrow streetsDSpent the morning assessing my needs (food, room, everyday things) since the rain basically restricted my activities to settling in and shopping anyways. The student village has all the kind of amenities I was looking for in my accommodation but availability may be a concern. On the positive side, the kitchen has all the appliances, there are plenty of washrooms and showers, two high definition televisions with cable, and the laundry facilities are there as well including irons and an ironing board. On the other hand, I'm not sure whether there are enough utensils, pots and dishes to be shared, refrigerator space is a concern, and there was only one computer available for the 50 students in the residence to share. @
It wasn't until about 11:00 before I finally ventured outdoors by which time the rain slowed down enough to make my umbrella unnecessary. The great thing, to start with, is that everywhere I needed to go was within walking distance. On the way to the school, I found and stopped by the nearby 100-Yen store, which still had a fair bit of water spilling off its steps. The store was about four times as large as the (Canadian) Dollar stores I was used to back home. It was certainly a sign of how much the trading relationship has grown between Japan with China and Korea, at least in terms of cheaper household goods.
By the time I reached the school itself, a ten-minute walk away, it was just before noon, so I decided to drop by the Woodpecker Cafe, the local restaurant on campus, for lunch. The place looks more spacious inside than I first thought and there was a fair mix of students and locals coming in for the noon hour. I noticed too that non-smoking laws don't apply to restaurants here. The lunch set I ordered, composed of miso soup, salad, fried fish and rice, was a good deal with the coffee it came with.
{The price of coffee is one of those things Japan has a notorious reputation. The regular price at the restaurant is 300 yen though with the lunch set it was half that. Of course, with the dominance of Starbucks, it seems that a $3/300 yen coffee is normal these days. However, I don't think that it's a matter of the Japanese pricing coffee without regard to how much it is elsewhere. It wouldn't surprise me if it is the same price it's been for 30, 40, or maybe 50 years. When my parents took me to Japan the first time in 1975, a can of pop was 100 yen. Today, it is 120 yen. However, back then, a Canadian dollar was worth about 300 yen. Today, it's worth about 83 yen. When it comes to everyday things that have been here all this time, it wouldn't surprise me if the price hasn't changed at all. Movies have cost 1800 yen for as long as I can remember and a cheap restaurant set meal, between 500-1000 yen.}.
I took a brief walk-around the main building, Aoi Hall, where I was told I would be taking my classes. From the outside, it was not too impressive since, it was later explained to me, the building used to be a foundry factory. I also located Declan in the building and had a brief discussion about my plans for the next couple of days before my program was officially to begin. I was being considerate since he agreed for me to have a day off the program in February for the Sapporo Snow Festival, to make up for but he had no immediate needs so I was free to settle down. I also felt a little rude to Jon Walden, the admissions coordinator, who happened by but neither he nor I didn't want to interrupt the conversation I was having with Declan (chalk it up to Japanese politeness, even for a Canadian and a Brit).
The first thing I needed to do was to locate a post office to send some gifts my mother prepared to send to relatives and
friends in country. Using a map the school provided me of the area, I located the post office 5 minutes away near the
JR station passing by a supermarket, a relatively small golf driving range, and a
theatre which I won't go into further detail. Sending out the packages would have taken less time if I had realized sooner
that I was in a line-up for financial services, not postal (post offices here do a lot more than send mail). While there,
I realized I was going to have to start thinking about sending Christmas cards back home, as well as learn about sending
New Year's cards to my Japanese friends and relatives.
Finally, it was time to go shopping, working my way back towards the school then walking another half kilometre to the
Seiyu supermarket and department store. After a quick walk through the store's housewares, I figured I needed only some
stick-on coathooks for my bare-wall room. Walking through the supermarket itself would take a lot more time. Since I could
spend the rest of the week there trying to figure out the food, and small storage space, I decided to stick to basics for
my groceries meaning rice, fruit, vegetables, udon stuff, and curry sauce cubes. Breakfast was one thing
I wasn't sure about (hence I brought a dozen packets of instant oatmeal) but settling for some giant toast bread with
butter and melon spread from tubes would be fine. I had to search for wheat bread and the average milk fat content looked
to be about 3.5%.
I looked around for some personal hygiene needs and noticed two things - dental floss here is at least three times more
expensive and the sale prices had a smiley face 'Rollback' written on it. The cashier confirmed that Walmart had bought
into the Seiyu franchise in Japan.
Despite lugging the groceries a good kilometre back to the village and putting them away, I still managed to go out for
more. Besides, I had more storage space in the kitchen than I thought and I needed a pair of slippers. I went the other
direction this time which felt a bit strange since everything I knew about the city beforehand was between the
train station and student village.
Walking in the now dark narrow and busy street didn't help. Still, it only took about 10 minutes to reach the
'Feel News'(?) store (mall?) where I picked up a few more things and comparison shopped. It was evident prices were going
to be fairly consistent around here, and a small 50 meter spool of floss was still going to cost me 500 yen.
It didn't stop me from making a stop at the 100 yen Daisou store before it closed to pick up a few more housewares. Maybe a
good reason not to come in there so late is the playing of 'Auld Lang Syne' before its 8:00 closing. It reminds me of the
'Itchy and Scratchy' fantasy land employee who asked the Simpsons kill him to be free from a entertainment room for grown-
ups that celebrates New Year's Eve every hour.
At least, by getting in so late, the kitchen was free for me to cook some udon for dinner. Not surprisingly, between the
jet lag and run-around, I was in bed soon after. Still, a fairly productive start but the sooner I finish taking care of
these basics, the sooner I'll feel settled in.