Warm Sake

Ever wanted to buy warm sake at 7-11? Well, they have cans here in Japan that are self warming. You press a little bump on the bottom, wait a few minuites, and you have a warm can of sake. So cool. 

What I am watching

I love television. I would consider myself a television enthusiast. So what am I watching right now? Well, I have no cable, satalite, or over the air reception. In fact, I have no actual television at all. I simply use my laptop, and my luckily very fast broadband connection to watch IPTV. With TVUplayer, VEOH tv, Stage 6, and Revision 3... I am getting by just fine.

I am watching geek shows, like Systm, Diggnation, MacBreak, TekZilla, Webdrifter, Stargate Atlantis, Bionic Woman, and Top Gear. Also I am watching a lot of World War II documentries on Stage 6, some astronomy stuff with the Complete Cosmos with Carl Sagan, and a cool BBC space documentry hosted by Sam Neil. 

What is catching me off gaurd, is how much I like NBC shows. I havent really watched "normal" network TV in a long time, but I really like Bionic Woman, Journeyman, and most of all "Life". 

I know bionic woman is done by the BSG producer, and has many of the same actors, so its a given that I will probably enjoy it. But the others, I would not have guesses that they would be so much fun.

I am stoked to watch the new Jericho eppisodes though, now that is an amazing peice of art.

Aparently Nokia beat me to it.

Remember my ramblings about how I feel personal portable computing should be done? Big screens, a dedicated phone and separate media device, tactile controls, durrablity, battery life, perminant connectivity?

Well Nokia seems to have most of that covered.

I was saying tha the I-pod touch was pretty cool, but had a few shortcommings. These include a lack of a slide out keyboard, lack of bluetooth, lack of third party programs, all those nifty things that would make it a truely versitle device.

Well meet its better cousin. The Nokia n810. Its got a slide keyboard, a full linux operating system, wifi, bluetooth (with dial up networking connectivity to get onlnie anywhere if your cell phone has a 3g data connection), video and music playback capabilities, and a sweet metal build quality.

Browse the internet, chat, enjoy media, whatever, it does what a full computer can do, except that it is truely portable, has instant on, and is cheap at around 400 bucks direct from Nokia. Oh, it has gps too, so you dont need another gps system in your life. It has a little sister called the n800, that you can get for around 200 bucks, but it is more plasticy, has no gps, and no slide out keyboard. Not a bad tradeoff.

Oh and it does video chat on skype... and with skype in and skype out, you can make cheap phonecalls to any normal landline. Give me one of these with wimax, and I would ditch a cell phone completely.

What shortcommings does it have? Well, it just has a few things that I wish it would do... better. With the advent of multitouch in consumer devices and its implementation in high profile gadgets such as the iphone and ipod touch, I think that Nokia has no excuse but to add it to its next verison, and implement more touch based features like intertial scrolling in its next OS version.

So why am I talking about this? Because I miss my pocket pc. In the US I had wikipedia access at all times, mobile computing power, and a feeling of saftey from being able to get answers to most questions at all times with the power of google. In Japan I have just a basic cell phone, and I feel naked. When the n810 comes down to 200 to the bucks or so of its little sister, then I might just pick one up. Heck I would buy one now, if I had the cash :).

Communists wear Abercrombie and Fitch

Tonight I played ping pong with a girl from the PRC. Thats communist china for you anti-acronym fools. She was wearing an Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt.

I also watched a South Korean girl play ping pong with a Chinese girl, and they spoke to eachother in Japanese.

And I saw a South Korean friend wearing American camoflauge fatigues.

Imperialism and/or globalization at its best or worst?

You decide. :)

We got it man... we so got it.

I browsed though Yodobashi camera today on my way home, because I am curious what the Japanese personal electronics market has to offer. I got to see a few nifty things that we do not have in the United States, but I noticed a few things.

Stuff is expensive here. It is suprisingly common to see a $2,500 laptop for sale. I dont think that Yodobashi is a deal store, however its certainly not a boutique. All of the cameras... were extremely pricy. The absolute cheapest camera, was flippin 150 bucks!

So what caught my eye?

American stuff. I am in Japan, in a HUGE electronics store, and you know who manages to catch my eye?

Stevie J. Thats right, Steve Jobs. I have issues with many of the things that apple does, I dont like the user interface of the OSX operating system, and I do not like the Ipone. The Iphone sucks to type on, I dont like it to dial on, I think its... just not a very good phone. You know what I love though?

The Ipod touch. Gimmie gimmie gimmie... I want one. The Iphone seems to have put media playing way ahead of what I want out of a phone. I want it to be quick, easy to use, easy to dial, comfortable to hold, with long battery life, and durrability. Its none of that. The touch though, is the single easiest to use, best sized, lightest, best screened, awesome media player.

My idea situation? A phone with a keyboard for emailing, phone calls, EVDO, and bluetooth. Then, an Ipod touch like device, with bluetooth, for media playing. When I want a communication device I can use the phone. When I want an entertainment device, I can take the Ipod touch like device along with me to do web browsing, music, movies, etc. With a bluetooth connection, you could theoretically tether the device with the phone, and use it for web browsing, which it is awesome at.

Why do I want it like that? Redundancy. I dont want my music or movie player to kill my phone's batteries. My phone is my lifeline should I get into a car crash, get robbed, or be stranded in an elevator. My phone should be plastic, and durrable. It shoudl allow me to communicate at all times, and never crash, EVER. My current pocket pc crashes, and that is inexcuseable. I find that phones that run complex operating systems like Iphones, PocketPCs, Treos, all crash. I get phone calls that ring, I hit answer, and it doenst answer. Happened on both of my treos, happens on my pocket pc, it makes me furious. Also, the fast processor required for these functions, eats battery life. Also, for a phone, I need instant ease of use. I want buttons. BUTTONS, you here my Steve? Tactile sensation! Its a phone, I have to be able to dial it in my sleep at all times, even if I am freaking out because I just got stabbed in the leg by a hungarian gangster. Phones need small to medium sized screens, and useable tactile keys. I want to be able to text, and e-mail. These are forms of data entry, that requires a keyboard, but not that large of a screen.

On the flipside of phones, if you want media, a phone does not cut it. You want SCREEN space. To browse the internet, to watch movies, to listen to msuic, you can use a total touch interface. It works, the Ipods have proven it, its awesome.

But what about convergence devices?

Eat me.

With a phone the size of a motorola Q, and with a media device the size of the Ipod Touch, there is PLENTY of room in my pockets for my wallet, keys, etc. I am certainly not afraid of things that small being bulky or heavy.

For hardware design, it seems that Apple is completely decimating its Japanese competitors for personal electronic design. The only company who comes close, is sony. However, many of their products seem like apple ripoffs these days.

Who would have thought that American electronics companies would outsmart, out design, and out engineer their Japanese competitors, and smoke them on their own turf? Also, if you told anyone a few years ago that it would have been Apple of all companies, people would have looked at you like you had been paid off by Woz in $2 bills.

Looks like where the Japanese stole American design in the 60s, and added reliability and value. Americans are stealing Japanese reliaiblity and value, and upping the design quotient.

Oh, and one tip. If you have an Iphone or Ipod touch, get yourself some sticky rubber grips for like e-grips. These devices have glass screens, and they are slippery and small. Do yourself a favor, and do everything you can to not drop it.

Sorry the post is not Japan related, but at the moment I am bored of writing about Japan :).

-Colleen

Demon Kogure

This is Demon Kogure. He is a self purported demon bent on world dominantion. Well, actually, acording to him, he has already taken over the world... it happened in 1999. His medium for his message is faily straight forward, Japanese heavy metal music, obvoiusly.

Where did I first get introduced to our malevolent ruler? A Japanese interior decorating show... he was one of the guests. I was in the post office getting my national insurance, and there was a small television on, with a show that was dedicated to interior decorating in houses so large, there is no way they were constructed in Japan. Every so often he would pop in to the show, in a picture in a picture... picture, and he would comment on how lovely the drapes were, or how he perfered the gold framing over the silver framing of a painting of a duck.




When you first get to this country you are amazed at how clean everything is, how nice everyone is, and how reliable the trains, people, cars, and restraunts are.

But Japan is a country of contrasts. It is strikingly old, and suprisingly new, that sort of thing. But more intrestingly, this country seems to be over the top traditional and conservative, but more perverse than anything I have seen or heard of, ANYWHERE in San Francisco. I am not so bold as to say why, or to judge this, but I am definatly confident in the fact that I can observe it.

This country is like a 14 year old boy. On the surface its something that a grandmother could love and respect. On the inside though, its perverse, dirty, gross, insecure, brilliant, and nervous.

I ate whale Sushi durring dinner tonight

It was tasty.

That is all for now.

Taco Blocked

I really want taco bell right now, frell, I want any sort of mexican food. I want salsa, and cheese... lots of cheese.

But there is none!

The Emperor

I have been curious recently as to what role the Japanese emporer plays in the government and daily lives of people in Japan. Is he like the Thai king, who has power, but rarely exercises it other than to correct major problems in the democratic process. Or, is he like the English monarchy, who really has no other power other than to attract tourists? I know he inst like the sultan of Brunei, or king Abdulah, so thats the deal?

Well from what I have gathered from asking many Japanese people recently, he is their mascot.

He doesn't have any power in the government, but every Japanese people will tell you that he is "a symbol" when you ask him what his job is. A symbol of what? A symbol of tradition? A symbol of the past? Nah, he is a symbol of the Japanese people. It is difficult to put a face on a nation, but the Japanese have done it, thats the emperor.

Interesting eh?

Food

I seem to fixate on food here, but it really is one of my favorite things to talk about, and it is something that everyone can realate to.

I had mosburger again for lunch, they messed up my order on one of the three cheeseburgers, but I was considering what they gave me accidentally anyway, so it was no big deal. I think I even got a discount because of it.

I do however, have to stop thinking of fast food burgers here as cheap food. The cheaper food in in Japan, I have found, is NOT CHAIN RESTRAUNTS! Its 250 yen for a small cheeseburger here, that you need 3 to fill up on, thats basically 7 bucks right there. If you want fries and a drink, be prepared to end up over ten dollars. I was looking at a KFC yesterday, and the prices are the same, but everything is so much smaller you need two orders, again comming out to over ten bucks.

If I wanted to get a nice bowl of ramen from an independant shop, thats only 450 yen.... or about 4.25.

However, there are few places as cheap as ramen shops around here. There is lots of good cheap food at yokohama statoin, but thats $2.50 to get there, and again to get back, so unless I can get a meal for two bucks, its really not worth it to go there just for dinner.

On a side note. You know what I miss, my computer moniters. I miss my 24 inch moniter a great deal, but I really miss having two or three moniters at a time. I Find that a laptop, or a small computer screen is fine when I am not connected to the internet, or I have a really slow connection. However, when I have ungodly amounts of bandwidth like I do here, I find that I am doing so many things on my computer that 1400 x 1050 pixels of screen real estate just results in my spending a lot of time alt-tabbing between programs.

Oh and Andrea, I havent seen you online lately, drop me an email about production.

I bought a FFVII potion today

What happens when it is the 10th aniversery of the best video game ever created? A video game that pretty much every video game player agrees, is indeed, the greatest ever created? This is asuming of course you are japanese.



You make a soda with a flavor inspired by the game.

Suck on that.

I bought a yuffie flavored potion. Yuffie rules.

gmail has IMAP access now. Screw world world peace, this is bigger.

So whats the best thing to ever happen to email? G-mail... thats what. There has only been one major flaw however, and that is that you cannot access it properly via an email client. The g-mail service's huge storage capacity is so huge, that you never EVER have to delete messages. Because of that, Pop3 email protocols are next to useless, and only serve to anoy the living crap out of me and anyone who uses tries to use a cilent.

But that is all fixed now. IMAP his here, and g-mail is now perfect.

Rejoice.

If you use g-mail, and I know you, I will set up IMAP for you if you ask nicely.

-Colleen

DInner

I ate dinner just now, and I finally started taking pictures to upload here. Enjoy the updated WTF and Pictures sections

James Joyce

The last post was jibberish wasnt it? All... train of thoughty and such... I guess its the Irish in me.

Lets talk about whats going on in my head

I have been thinking about a lot of interesting things recently, at least I find them interesting, and thats probably why I have been thinking about them. I felt like just writing them out, to share, or whatever, I dont really know why. I think its because I am bored with just repeating my daily experineces on here, but I feel like I have not been updating enough.

First thought. There are a ton of abandoned bicycles and mopeds here on campus. Some are rusted beyond repair, and some are pretty nice. They sit there for months at a time, not moving, just getting older and nastier. My though... maybe I could take one and fix it up, and use it to get around the area near my dorms. It seems silly to take the train everywhere, since my line is all underground, and you really dont get to see much when you are flying through a pitch black tunnel. I would rather travel above ground so I can see more of the city. Unfortunatly, all bicycles here are registered, and if you get pulled over by a police officer, you then get your regristration number ran, and if it is registered to somebody else you get taken to the slammer, and then deported if you are a gai-jin. (foreigner) Not fun, so I am trying to see if there is any way I can find out if a bike is registered, or somehow go through a process to adopt one of these unloved peices of equipment to get around yokohama when I just want to explore.

Second, I have been considering getting a scooter here. I went to a place called The Red Baron, which is a used motorcycle and scooter shop, along with repair facility, here in yokohama. The law here, as in the USA, is that if you have a car license you can drive a moped under 50cc. I found a nifty one for about 1,200 us dollars that has gears rather than a doofy centrifugal automatic, and is something you actually ride rather than sitting on it like you would a bar stool. However, you also need an international license to drive if you are an american here, because unlike many EU countries, the US embassy here has not taken the time to fill out the necissary paperwork to make us elegible for the Japanese police ot honor our licenses. Thanks guys. I therefore need to try to aquire an international license if I want to do that. HOwever, I dont really have the 700 to 1.2k for a scooter anyway right now, so I guess its all silly to think about that at the moment and such.

Third, we should have our next run of products soon with my startup. I would bet good money, and in fact aI am betting good money, that they will be perfect and ready to sell. The last batch was fine, but you could bend them if you tried intently and repeatedly. I want to make an indestructable product, so we are currently going with a material that is stronger than steel, we will see how that goes. I would give 2 to 1 odds they will be perfect, and I will be making some money off of soon.

Fourth, I am thinking about getting my motorcycle license when I get back to the USA. I would like to, some day, have a motorcycle for fun, the high gas millage, and a secondary toy to work on and play with the mechanics of without risking trashing my daily driver. I love cars, and they will always be my first love, but for an apartment dweller it makes more sense to have a bike to mess around with and a car to drive, than somehow find a place to stash two cars. The thing that has been stoping me, is the fear of injury. I dont really mind the whole fact that you may get killed on one, but I do mind the fact that more likely you will get horribly injured, disfigured, or disabled. I am therefore trying to research the dangers, and ways of dealing with them, to decide if a motorcycle is really right for me or not. I have read some materials reguarding reducing your risk, of course you cannot elimnate it, but hey cars are dangerous too. The whole goal, is to manage risk. I have found suggestions that are very good, such as wear a full face helmet, buy a bike that you fit and can control easily, always wearing full protective gear, choosing your times to ride, choosing where to ride, and figuring out the safest way to learn. My first step I think will be a motorcycle saftey course, or often called MSF course, when I get back. They are many hours long, and actually allow you to take a test in a controlled envoirnment with a motorcycle they provide. I have ridden on the back of a few friends bikes in the past, but I was always strangely scared by the experience, but interested at the same time. I am less afraid of the speed, than the "what if. I guess the best way to decide if this would be fun, or a waste of time and effort, is just to educate myself and see what I think. I think the class with help clairify issues, and if I do get a motorcycle endorsement on my license but choose not to buy a motorcycle, then its just a cool extra skill up my sleeve for a rainy day. This is all going to be saved for the whole, after college, after I get a good job, toy to congradualte myself with. We will see... maybe I will strike it rich with my new buisness venture and I can stick to my ultimate dream which is owning a campgana T-rex... part motorcycle, part car... all fricken sweetness.

Are we noticing a two wheel theme? Maybe all of this being a pedestrian is really getting to me.

One thing that I know is getting to me, is being in Japan. Not in a bad way though, it just makes me think about ways of dealing with problems from a different light. For example, attempting to interact with people and cordinate work from the United States and Japan has made me think about how people interact over long distances. I was dreaming the other night about somehow creating a very large virtual shell on a server computer, and having it as a workspace for everyone in a given work group of a buisness. That way, when you are working together, there is no need to try to send eachother work and files and describe what they are, people can simply scroll over to your area of the work space, or you can drag your work over and share it with them, etc. Broadband internet makes this essentially an easy concept to execute. Hmm... maybe I should do a certified mail to myeslf with descriptions of this idea, so I can record that I had this idea when.... and maybe aproach buisnesses about it.

Also... for you car lovers out there, the new nissan skyline GTR has been released, at least pictures and specs that is. Its about 500 horsepower 3.8 liters, has a midship mounting position for the motor, the transmission in the back, near perfect weight distrobution, and is smarter than you... and me... combined. This car is everything I hoped it would be and more. Whats the point in having a dream car if it doesn't inspire dreams. This thing is amazing, google it.

In a few minuites I have my Japanese automobile technology class. I feel a bit sick, and sore, and tired, so I hope it is interesting and keeps me with it. I will probably grab some milk tea out of one of the many MANY vending machines around here to try to keep myself awake.

Oh... and I also have a lead on two different places I may be able to tutor for english to see if I like teaching english, and I can make some money. One pays about 15 bucks an hour, and will hire you for 8 hours on a weekend. Another pays almost 30 bucks an hour, but is only for an hour at a time. SWEEET! I could pretty much cover my weekly food and transportation costs with that kind of income, if I can get it to be regular... like a person who eats a lot of fiber...

... yeah too much info.

-Colleen

I hate learning languages

Everyone in my class has a lot of experience with Japanese...


I have pretty much none. Its suposed bo be Japanese A, but they totally are going really fast.... if not too fast for me. Not to mention that I am particularly bad at two subjects, math, and languages.

I wanted to cry today in class. Okuno sensei kept asking questions of me, trying to keep me along with the class, but I really just had no idea what to tell her in response to her questions, it just sounded like jibberish to me. And the work that she handed out... I could do... but I still have to essentially decrypt hirigana. I cant read it like I would read something with roman letters, I have to slowly translate it, and then read it. Unfortuantly, by that time, we are onto the next excercise.

If stupid people feel like this all the time, I feel really bad for ever using stupid as an insult, because it felt horrible to be so ignorant. Everyone kept looking at me and telling me, "oh its easy, you just have to do AKjf;LAFJ;lasdjf;lskadjf;lsadjc;oasmc;lasmv;oweaquruoe[wiqAJ;LMVF;LM~!" I swear, that is what I heard. Screw that, I have no idea what my professor says. Tonight I am going to study everything I can, so that tomorrow when I go to my professor's office hours, she cant acuse me of not trying, since I really am trying.

But gah, I would trade all of my car knowledge in a second for the ability to learn foreign languages easier.

Not my computer skills though, I think they are worth a bit more than the skill to speak Japanese.

I want a pizza :(.

-Hungry in Japan

You think that biger gangs are hard core?

... well you are wrong.

Tonight I chilled out with a Japanese scooter gang.


Thats right, you cant handle that shizzle.

I was walking through a park with a couple of my new friends, and we came upon a group of teenagers who hanging out in the park. The younger group was playing some sort of soccer keep-away game, with a small kid in the mush pot. The older kids, and I dont actually mean older per se, as they were only in high school, were playing uno on the ground. You got me the first itme, I mean uno the game with the cards. They were working that hard.

My friend's and I hung out with themf or a while, and it was awesome. Then I asked for a ride to the local train station, and one of them gave it to me.

Future scooter yakuza of Japan unite!

Oh, and I registered for classes... but you all know you are more interested in scooter gang bangers.

My day

I am so sorry for not updating more, really I am, I am just so busy as you can imagine. I think I will start making posts more often, but making them shorter.

To sum up today. I woke up a bit late, so I got dressed, did not put my hair up in chopsticks, and I skated to the train. I missed the first train because there was no space on it, seriously, it was packed full of people, so much so that I would have had to be crowdsurfing to get on... or I could ride the top of the train like speed... come to think of it that would have been pretty cool.

I got on the next train, I used my gai-jin power to make sure that I was first in line for the next one, and hopped on as fast as possible. I listened to shiny toy guns on my psp on the way there, and noticed an elderly man reading a pornographic magazine in plane sight of everyone... even children. It was very graphic too... for Japan. That was strange.

Arriving at the kamicho station, the "close" station to Yokohama National University, I ran out of the train to beat everyone to the elevator, took the elevator up to the exit, and skated off down the street to school.

However, Down the street is a misnomer. In fact, the YNU campus is on TOP of a frelling hill. Thats right, a hill. Its all up hill skating on the way there, then up a bunch of stairs and a very steep incline to campus. I cant skate the latter part, but if I am dedicated, I can skate the early part. It is however, exhausting to skate instead of walk. When running late however, one has no option but to use wheeled transportation, and I skated my little heart out to campus. I made it JUST in time to class, right as the Sensei started teaching our fourth session of Japanese A. I was sweating balls, but I had made it on time, and my make up was only sort of messed up.

Despite that somewhat happy ending, I was in Japanese class! GAH! Never before has such a cool subject been so disheartening to me. I love the class, but everyone else in the class knows at least hirigana, one of the japanese alphabets, and has some expierence. They should be in Japanese B, but they are either lazy, time conflicted, or failed the placement test. As such, I look like the doofus in class, and it is moving EXTREMELY fast. I have to learn all of Hirigana by this next tuesday, so I have been studying like I have never studied before.
, and
Oh, and there was a cute new student in class, but I will leave that to your imagination.

Skip forward to lunch. I had three hamburgers, hash browns, a rice ball and I still needed a snack within an hour. NOTHING HERE FILLS ME UP! GAH! Even the hamburgers are very small. I have to keep cup of noodles on hand since they are only a buck each and keep me going in between meals, and they make for a good breakfast.

Forward some more, I got to teach American slang to Japanese, Korean, and French students. I taught them how to say whats up, que pasa, adios, peace out, word up, etc. I also threw in the rock and roll devil horns sign, the surfer shaka sign, the fact that no one in the usa uses the peace sign, and some gang signs. I will have pictures of three really cute korean girls throwing up blood sign on a subway train while smiling their brains out.... awesome.

I also tried NYU brand beer today. It cost the eqivalent of five bucks for one bottle. It seems like it would be very expensive to drink much in this country. I grabed the weis beer, since I perfer lighter beers, but it was really not very good... it tasted sort of... synthetic.

I then went to my Japanese electronic industry class. It is flipping sweet, I could not have asked for a better class.

Then I went home.

I threw a dance party on the subway train to chombi christ music on my psp...

I was the only one dancing.

time for cup of noodles.

Sushi and bandwidth continued.

So after the trash sorting binge, I went and got a bowl of ramen at the nearest noddle shop. The shop was dingy the menu was a few cigarette smoke stained pieces of paper on the wall... no English... no pictures. I sat down, and when the man behind the counter looked at me and said a couple of words I could not understand... I simply pointed at the food that the guy next to me was eating. The shop keeper looked at me like I was inane, and shrugged, and went off to make the food. HE handed me a bowl of ramen that looked fantastic, but it had a pile of seaweed on top of it the size of a middle sized cat.I mixed it all together, and munched it down. All of the prices on the menus on the wall were under 600 yen, so I handed him a 1000 yen bill, the smallest paper money they have here, and got back 550 in change... so it seems I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu... awesome.

I then went home, put my sheets on my bed... mostly... and laid my head down on my pillow. I didnt fall asleep though... not that fast... as the pillow seemed to be filled with some sort of beans or something... and made an annoying crunching noise every time I moved. Figuring I would focus on the noise too much, and never get to sleep, I used my stuffed kitty as a pillow... and fell asleep almost immediately.

the next day comming soon... I am only... hmmm... 3 days behind now :P.

Bandwidth and Sushi.

Alright, I apologize for not posting during the first couple of days that I had here in Japan, but I have been completely overwhelmed with paperwork, classes, orientations, and anything else that can possibly fill up one's time. It seems that in japan, there is a form for everything, and everything must be filled out in a very precise order and time period.

But lets start from the beginning...

Flying out of SFO was not what I would call... easy. Burke and Andrea were awesome enough to take me to the airport, but parking was next to impossible. Andrea ended up getting one of the only open spaces, so she came in with me. We got into the building about... two hours before my flight. The line to simply check in took a good hour, the checking in took 15 minutes, security took 30 minutes, and I got to the terminal just before they closed to doors. It was pretty crazy.

The flight was long, and I only managed to get four hours of sleep, but the food was tasty. Yeah, thats right, I really like airplane food... perhaps because it breaks the monotony, or maybe its the altitude, but its really my favorite part of a flight. I arrived at Narita airport on time, and then made my way to the bus that took me to Yokohama station in downtown Yokohama. I bumped into my Tutor, a wonderful girl named Minami while stumbling around trying to find where to meet here, and then we took a subway back to the dorms.

Instantly upon arriving at the dormitory, I filled out paperwork, was showed the rules, then how to sort my trash for recycling, and where to put it. After that, I placed my suitcases in my room, then attended an orientation on the building. Most of this orientation revolved around, again, sorting trash correctly, and where to place it. They even pointed out a video camera that watched the trashcans, to make sure that you placed everything where it is supposed to be in a very proper way. They are very serious about their trash here.

To be continued... I need a nap... my brain is frazzled.