Japan: the Beginning

I stink.

This little fact comes first just because it's been on my mind all day.

Let me rewind for just a bit, and make a proper intro. This is my travel blog, where I blog about different places I travel to. And I meant different - if I wanted to say "various", I would have done so. The first episode was Syria, some years ago. Nothing interesting happened in the meantime. This time, I'm in Japan. I got a scholarship to come here and stay for a spell, and I accepted. Today is still the same day that I landed on Narita Airport, one of two airports that service Tokyo. But don't be misled into thinking that it's a Tokyo airport - it takes about an hour with a fast train to get to the city. And you pass a lot of cities on the way.

The flight, including the transfer time, took from 9 am to 8 am, which comes down to about 16 hours. Then there's an hour of monkeying about the airport, waiting for your luggage (actually, waiting for a friend's luggage - I spotted mine the moment I walked up to the baggage snail, err, train), waiting in lines, doing paperwork...

Doing paperwork is extremely important in Japan, as I will discover... Make that "As I have discovered, and you are about to.". (I'm a programmer, I'm allowed to have two periods. (Don't quote this out of context.)) But the highlight of the airport experience was a guy whose job was, when a lot of people came to the immigration queue at the same time, to hold up a paper saying "The End of the Line" at the end of the line.

Having reached Tokyo, I followed instructions, and got a cab to my school. There I met my tutor, who took care of me for the better part of the day (which was mostly spent doing district office paperwork, post office paperwork, dormitory paperwork, insurance paperwork, and probably couple of other paperworks I forgot about). He was great and I'd never have managed without him. He speaks English.

In the process, we passed Shibuya couple of times. The intersection is really as amazing in real life as people tell you it is. And the Tokyo transport system is even more confusing than I imagined. I think I will have to take courses.

Speaking of which, I will have orientation courses. And I was told last year there was actually a course in how to get to the campus. Held on the campus. One month after the classes have started. My guide said that kind of thing is rather normal.

We also went to BicCamera, but I was too indecisive about my keitai. Their mobile phones are bloody huge, the smallest among them would be about the size of the biggest brick back home. I kid you not. You know, back where I used to live, people put their earpiece to their ears, and stretched their mouthpiece toward their mouths, and there would still be another unspannable two inches? Well, there's a two-inch gap here as well - but in the other direction. Anyway, I didn't yet get it, but I think I'll get a cheap one, that kind of reminds me of the Apple design. And it doesn't flip, pop, snap, or make any other hip-hoppy action. It's huge. But at least it's slender.

Unlike me. If you know me, you know I have a couple of grams extra (with "couple" being a metasyntactic variable, here meaning "four thousands or so). I'm a giant here :) But not as big I thought I would be. Not all Japanese are tiny, contrary to what you might have heard.

Anyway. In the afternoon, I crashed in my room. My room is some 13 spartan square meters large, and I guess I'm not getting an iMac as I thought, simply because it will not fit. I will elaborate graphically, once my camera is up and running.

It was a real dilemma: crash or shower. In the end, crashing won, by virtue of there being no soap or shampoo or towel to be found. (My luggage is still in transit, I hope it will arrive by the time I'm back from Manga Kissa...) But not by a large margin, as there was no bedding either. So, one short doze on a 2.5-inch mattress, I decided to check a) what time it was (8pm), b) what's up with my suitcase (nothing much), and c) if I can buy some basic toiletries, maybe even breakfast. So I went out, and then decided I want to get a camera ASAP (even while not quite knowing which computer I'm going to get), then I went to find a net cafe. Which is where you find me now, my devoted readers (I know it's only the first installment, but it's gotten a bit large, kind of to the point I recognise true dedication in those who managed not to quit by now).

So, I did buy a camera. In the end, I decided against Sony, but it took multiple arguments to sway me (no Mac support, no English translation, no standards...), and even that with difficulty. So I'm now a proud owner of Olympus 1060. Or I hope I am. I.e. I would love to still be a proud owner once I understand what it is precisely that I have bought. But it looked nice on the shelf.

Anyway, I'm off. I need to catch a konbini in the next 36 minutes, or my shower will wait another smelly day.