TheLeong.com

Well today was a busy busy day. Woke up around 6:30 to the annoying ringing of my newly purchased \1000 Kamen Rider Blade alarm clock (I needed a clock!). It’s an old-school analog clock, with an actual bell for the alarm. Scared the crap out of me when it went off.

First attempt at my total 45 minute commute. It’s not bad, except for the walking in the heat and humidity. I think once the weather gets a little cooler I’ll be fine. Also lugged my laptop around all day, which I’m not going to do much, and once I get intenet in the dorm, I don’t think I’ll ever do it. Also bought a 3-month train pass (teiki) from my station at Baraki Nakayama to Kaihim-Makuhari where school is at. Since it was between two different train/subway lines, I could only pay with a View credit card or cash. I haven’t ever heard of view, so it would have to be cash. The total was \23,320 (around $200). And yes, I had that much cash with me. I was planning on paying for a cell phone with that, but it’s OK.

Class placements: we all sat in a room while Tsutsui-sensei read our names and Japanese level placements out loud to everyone. Pretty nerve wracking. No one cried (at least not in the room). I was put in JP401, the highest one they have. I’ve been studying this stuff for about…..6 years, but the test was hard and I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if I was in 301. But ah well, I’m just that good. 7 people are in the class, including me. Fun times. Class was long, not too difficult. This begins the 2 weeks of “Survival Japanese.” You could call it a Nihongo Bootcamp. Tomorrow we’re supposed to go to some person’s house or something weird like that.

Afterwards, had a 2 hour long session where Shin-san of IES tried to explain the AU pricing plans and etc. Long and confusing. They were only allowing people to have this one model of a Sony phone, in either baby blue or yellow. That was no good. Me, Adam, and Dan Lee decided to go to another store and get different phone models. One of the Japanese girls came with us to translate and stuff. Long story short: it was a waste of time to go elsewhere, we couldn’t do it, and they didn’t have the phone color I wanted (blue). We ended up walking back to the school, where Shin-san and the AU guys still were. I signed up for the phone I wanted, but in crimson red instead. It’s OK I guess, but I wanted blue. Ah well. It’s still a better phone than the one they were originally offering. Should actually get the thing tomorrow.

If I write Blog entries about everyting I do everyday, it’s going to get really really long. I dunno…..do people even want to read about all of this, or should I just post really weird or cool stuff (I’m asking this to the 5 or so people who read this. I don’t even think my parents do. Need to tell them the address). Anyway, ate dinner at the dorm (Salisbury steak or something like that), now I’m reading e-mails I downloaded with the 10 minutes of internet I got when I plugged in at the IES center. I’ll take my computer on Wednesday again and send/receive mail and post these few blog entries. Signed up for internet and a rental TV here in the dorm. Hopefully I’ll have that soon and I can have the internet at home.

That’s all for tonight. If you read this whole entry, you deserve a cookie.