First week in Japan

Hmm, well that was fun trying to figure out which Japanese link would take me to log in in order to post!

I have arrived in Hirakata City, Osaka, Japan!

The plane flight over was uneventful. No major turbulence, baggage didn't drop down from the overhead compartment onto my head, no food ended up in my lap...
When we arrived I met four others on my same flight and we talkatively loaded into a huge bus for the hour and a half bus ride to our Seminar Houses (dorms) near the Kansai Gaidai University. I was pleasantly surprised to find out living arrangements were very clean and that tatami mats were soft! Also, we have rice paper sliding doors that are just beautiful when the sunshine comes through in the early morning hours. And I do mean early as I'm still slightly jet lagged!

This week has been comprised mostly of orientation and trying to be as friendly as possible to the other 435 exchange students. We got a lecture about getting beer out of the vending machine at night and drinking in public, separating our trash into five different containers (pet bottles, plastics, cans, burnables, & glass), and how to avoid jail.

This afternoon I went to a hyakkin shopu, which is a $1 store and registered myself as an alien in Osaka.

I mentioned earlier that there are beer vending machines. I feel that I should add there are also ramen vending machines, coffee vending machines, and the normal fruit juice vending machines. Some houses have them in their yard so as we walk our thirty minutes back from campus and we just happened to be thirsty... handy!

Hope everybody back home is doing well!