Day 1 - Konichiwa Osaka!

Konichiwa Osaka!


The plane ride from Dallas to Osaka wasn't too bad for a 14 hour flight. I was able to sleep a fair bit and watch a few episodes of house, and I got the window seat which is always awesome. We practiced a bit of our Japanese with the hostesses (all we could really ask for was "Orangy Juicu" so I moved over to English when I felt like changing it up) and other than that it was pretty uneventful. There was a Japanese guy a few seats down from us who would sniff all the food we got on the plane like a little rat which I thought was pretty funny. After every meal he'd play his DS Lite for a few hours which for some reason I thought was kinda cool.

After landing we went through customs, where the helpful customs mascot Customs-San informed us not to "Pet the drug dog on face." We got our luggage, exchanged some moneys, and went to go meet Mr. Tuoc who would take us to the dorms. After about an hour bus ride we arrived at the train station and met up with some of the students from the labs. Not too much was said because their English was about as bad as our Japanese, but eventually someone managed to let us know we were going to drive to the Dorms. One of the cars only had room for 1 so I volunteered and naturally tried getting into the driver's seat, just another thing I'll need to get used to.

On the way to the dorms the opening theme song for Bleach was playing on the radio. I started humming it and the guy in the car was very surprised that I knew it. I believe his words were "oooooh you know?!" The ride to the dorm wasn't too long, which was good because we were all pretty exhausted.

We got to our dorm, Satsuki-ga-oka, where we met the dorm parents. They're basically these two old people who live in the dorm and, in a surprising plot twist, speak no english. The dorm dad started calling out our names to give us the keys, which took a bit since no one was used to hearing their name in Japanese, and then we all went to our rooms to put our stuff down.

After putting our stuff down the dorm parents (I really should find out their names) gave us a tour of the dormitory. At some point very early on in the tour I became the unofficial translater, partly because of my Japanese prowess, but also due to the two months of nonverbal communications training I got in Korea. They serve dinner and breakfast downstairs, and the showers are open from 6:30-midnight. We were a bit worried at first when they showed us the communal shower, but thankfully there were a couple private ones across the hall--we can save our destruction of the Japanese Ego for another time.

I think the dorm dad took a liking to me on our tour. On our tour of the showers I said "ii desu ne," which basically means "this is good!" I can't really tell if it's because I said something funny, I said something I didn't mean to say, or the atmosphere was simply conducive to it, but the dorm dad gave me a strong slap on the ass and started laughing. Either I did something right, or said something horribly wrong, and given the circumstances I hope it was the former.

After the walkthrough we went downstairs for dinner: rice, beef stew, salad, grapes, and green tea. Dinner was pretty good, we saw some of the other people that live in the dorm. Gonna take a bit of time to get used to the tea though.

After dinner we decided to walk around the area nearby the dorm. There's a convenience store just across the street where I was reunited with my good friend Crunky


considered buying some Sake


but settled on Mama's Happy Choice



We went a bit further, passed some vending machines that sold beer (yes, it's as awesome as it sounds), and saw a few restaurants and stores before turning back.

There's a locker at the front of the dorm where you put your shoes since you're not supposed to wear them inside (they give you slippers that are too small instead). Unfortunately my shoes were a bit big


I'm A107 if you couldn't tell.

After our walk around the neighborhood I was pretty exhausted so at about 8PM I passed out, which is why I woke up at 3AM to write this blog. Day 1 complete.