My waking up on Wednesday morning wasn’t exactly ideal… I managed to forget to change the time on my phone’s clock to Tokyo time, meaning it was still set for Sydney time. So even though I wanted my alarm to go off at 6:30 I got woken up at 4:30. Not the best way to start a day… But I managed to cram in 2 more hours sleep after changing the time to Tokyo time.
Waking up, take two. This time my alarm goes off as expected at 6:30! Relief on my part. Managed to shower and make myself semi-presentable (To the best of my ability) while taking photos of the dorm. Excuse the mess. After which I met the other Australian students down in the lobby by the elevator and we went to the cafeteria for our first breakfast of the orientation. Breakfasts weren’t the best meals of the orientation stay, that’s for sure. But since I skimped on the details of the cafeteria set-up on the last entry, I should do that here.
It was a self-serve cafeteria, much like anything you’ve seen on movies of American schools. The food was damn good for cafeteria food, and we had little meal tickets for every meal of every day while we stayed, so we didn’t have to pay for it (I guess that’s part of where all that money goes to…). All I remember of our first breakfast was the lack of appetite in just about all of us, and the nice egg we ate… until you got to the center and there was a prawn in the middle. Just about everyone left them unfinished. Looking back they were pretty good breakfasts though. Just at the time I was used to the simple and light breakfast, which included no more than cereal, toast and milk. Even the bread they had was sweet!
After breakfast we went to the classroom for a run through of the PIEE rules and guidelines by the staff. Incredibly dull. I guess it had to be done, but reading a book along with teachers is never fun, I’m sure you all know the feeling. This went on for about 2 hours (Or more, I can’t remember). We got short 5 minute breaks at points… but 5 minutes is hardly enough to do anything.
After the dullness of the rules we had a ‘Cultural Experience’ where a Hogaku group by the name of ひびき (‘Hibiki’) performed a short concert for us. It was a great experience, and it was nice to get a taste of the more traditional side of Japan’s culture. After the performance we got to try out some of the instruments they brought with them, including Koto, Shamisen and Shakuhachi. I tried out the Koto and Shakuhachi; both of which were notably difficult! The Shakuhachi more than the Koto, for sure. Alistair was surprisingly adept at playing the shakuhachi though! Many props to him.
After the performance we went down on the lift to the bottom floor and Craig managed to shut someone out of the lift as they ran for the door and flailed their arms around. The second of many… Lunchtime in the cafeteria was busy, in a word. Most of the crowd were little kids, so I assumed there was some school outing or something… It was quite the sight. I regret not taking any photos (And of course, missing every single photo opportunity of the salmon! I wonder if anyone got any…).
After lunch we wandered about and Craig started shouting ‘見て、見て！’ (Look, Look!) at the top of his lungs. Which soon developed to ‘見て、見て！変な外人！’ (Look, Look! Crazy Foreigner!) by no time. This got the desired effect of lots of stares, mostly from the little kids that were everywhere. Some of them were surprisingly rather nasty stares. He ended up writing ‘おかしいがいじん’ (Funny/Strange Foreigner) on his nametag beside his name.
Japanese lessons after this, which dealt with self-introductions; more revision. Nothing all that interesting to write about the whole thing, really. It was more of the same from the day before, just not as interesting or fun. After the lessons was dinner time and I actually remember what I ate! I had deep fried white fish or something along those lines. It was really delicious and went down really well after a long day. I think Noriko, one of the returnees sat with us this time. And at some point the discussion turned to Sumo wrestlers since there was a Sumo match on the TV in the cafeteria. This was also the start of the ごちそうさまでした (‘It was a real feast!’) episode, too. Craig started writing the word on a napkin and placing it on his tray after every meal. After you finish eating, you put the tray onto a conveyer belt like contraption that sends it back into the kitchen. I’m pretty sure he did this for every meal until we left.
After dinner we were walking back to the dorms when Craig and Samantha started skipping. Some older Japanese guys and girls were behind them and I’m almost certain one of the guys remarked ‘What the fuck!?’ (In English) to which one of the girls replied ‘Skippu! Skippu!’ and then they started mimicking the skipping in parody. Something we had a good laugh over for the majority of the night that remained…
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