Dienstag, 2. April 2013

Ramen, shops and lots of paper

All of this is based on what I experience and doesn't necessarily describe the true nature of Japan/japanese people.



First things first:
I slept great. Despite the hard futon, but it was quiet, warm (and maybe I was just dead tired?).
Second thing:
It was freezing cold in my apartement.
Third thing:
I have absolurly no jetlag (I'm not even tired during the day), probably because I slept at the perfect time in the airplane and have matched up with the japanese time quite easily because of that.

The morning started with a litte walk around the blog. I just walked down a random street and returned some time later, prepared myself and met my three tutors at 9am.
We went to the university to get myself enrolled there, I got to wear public slippers for the first time and we visited the International Affairs Office for some documents.
We went to the town hall to put my adress on my alian registration card, get my insurance and get my pension forumlar (yep, need to pay for a never happening japanese pension).
Short: it started with a lot of paper.

So we all were hungry and thought about food first thing once we were in the car.
My tutors recommended Ramen, so we went. I got a huge bowl with noodles, soup, meat, kamaboko (pressed fish meat that looks funny [mine looked like a sakura flower]) and seaweed. Also some Gyouza (some kind of dumpling with vegetables and meat inside) and a bowl of rice. It was very tasty, even though I probably still need to get used to slurping the noodles in without making a mess from the splashing soup.
Fun fact: In Japan there are many american restaurants. I saw Mc Donalds and KFC, I heard that Subway and Burger King are also there. My tutors also declared a restaurant called "Big Brother" as american, but that seems to be from Malaysia...

We went shopping afterwards, getting things for cleaning, stuff like toilet paper and tissues, some cooking utensils and a new electricity converter (because I can obviously write to you today). And I have to say, there is really a lot of interesting stuff in this shops.
The electricity shop was simply gigantic (and this isn't even a big town like Tôkyô) and had all kinds of funny stuff. The drug store was like a super market, only missing animal food (and it had a vending machine for little plastic guns in the entrance ôo). And the Hyaku Yen Shop (100 ¥ Shop) had such beautiful soup bowls that I wondered why I had bought such a small one for 259¥ instead of a big and nice one for 100¥.
Fun Fact: If it isn't food, make-up or electronics, then you should always look in a Hyaku Yen Shop first, because they have almost everything there, but simply for 100¥ instead of 200¥ or more.

We then tried  to figure out my classes, how my air conditioner works (and now it is just the right temperature) and what we will do tomorrow.
Oh and I seem to look extremly old in comparison to my tutors...
We are pretty much the same age, but MY landlord saw us four and asked me, if I wanted to look after my students. She obviously thought I was the teacher of my tutors. Well, she was extremly emberassed and we had a good laugh about it. Well, the smallest of my tutors didn't find it that funny, too (she barely reaches my chest in height), but nobody was angry at anybody.

Maybe I will try to find that Hyaku Yen Shop by foot now, I still need stuff like wrapping paper and a stool and bowl for my shower. 

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