Japan!!

I've been in Japan for two days, and I'm really liking it! The flight coming here was pretty long. I actually didn't end up sleeping, so I played mostly on my Nintendo DS and listen to music. I actually watched The Other Boleyn Girl on the plane. It was really angsty I must say, but I liked the movie despite it being not very accurate historically (I might be wrong though. I did research on Anne Boleyn for a project years ago).

Yesterday, my cousin took me around to the school, and then went onto the train station. I must say, I have never been in a more complicated station in my life! At each station, there are at least 4 lines. Then each line has at least 2 or 3 trains. I am quite scared to ride the trains now, but I think tomorrow, I will make a great adventure to Chiba and try to go to Sogo for some shopping. It's going to be an interesting experience doing it by myself... However, the station that I am most afraid of is Tokyo station. This was the next station that I went to, and I was completely astonished by the masses of people. Ok, it was only Sunday, but still, there were so many people! I really don't want to know what Tokyo station is like in rush hour. I think I would be deathly afraid to be there when there are so many people packed into one station. I did have a nice lunch in Tokyo station. Soba is absolutely amazing. I wish I had taken a picture. I'll remember to take a picture the next time I have soba. Afterwards, we went to another train. We passed by the famous Akihabara. I must remember to take a picture for my surgeon to see since he was there many years ago. Then we went to Chiba station and got off there because out tickets were the cheapest that were supposed to be only used for travelling to one station.

The next adventure was going to the supermarket. The place I went to was actually a mall, but there was a supermarket inside the mall. I bought most of the supplies needed to cook (no groceries yet). There was a lot to buy. I actually bought a cell phone, which I'm most excited about, but also cringing at the price. I figured it was worth it to buy it because I wanted to make sure that I had a phone handy in case anything happened to me. I am quite afraid of getting lost, and it Japan, it is so easy to get lost if you don't know where you're going. I think it's even worse than Taiwan. In Taiwan, you can't really go far. The trains only run one way, and if you get lost, you know you're still in Taipei City. In Japan, one wrong train, and you could be on the other side of Japan. Not only that, walking on the streets is a zoo because there are so many different alleys that I can't even get straight. Err, I traveled off topic. Anyway, I got all the pots, pans, and spices needed for cooking. I had dinner at the mall. It was quite good. I had set dinner of pork chops. I wish I had taken a picture, but my mind was on so many different things at the time. I came back home, got acquainted with the girls on my floor. It's weird. Coming here, I never expected that I would have to use Chinese, but I'm finding that the majority of people at this school are Chinese. Glad I studied Chinese studiously for 3 years!

So, today I woke up at 5... 5 in the morning! I can't seem to sleep longer. Maybe it's jet lag, but I actually like waking up this early. It's quite nice. I went to the conbini (convenient store) in front of the train station and bought a chocolate sandwich cake for breakfast. Then I went to register and take the test for placement. The test was actually quite easy since it was a beginner's test. The front desk person gave me the harder test and wanted to see if I was willing to take it, but declined because it really was hard. Hopefully, I'll be placed in a class that is kind of easy and kind of hard. Should be interesting... After, I went to the supermarket. The supermarkets here are absolutely huge! I'm not really sure how long I walked around. I actually was trying to decide what to cook. I picked up some chicken, pork, and beef. I picked up some random asian vegetable that looked like cai xin that my mom cooked for soup. I'll try stir frying it and see how it comes out. I also picked up some mikan (tangerines) and peaches! Everything looked so fresh in there. I swear I just wanted to pick up everything and cook a whole mess of things. LOL... I really can't cook. I could be seen by the first meal I actually cooked today. I had cooked some eggplant and pork. It actually tasted pretty good. I was quite surprised. I did wish that the eggplant didn't turn out so green when I cooked it. I'm not really sure what happened there, but it just looked really discolored (I'll post a picture later). Apart from that, I think I'm going to really enjoy cooking for myself. I'm going to be cooking silverfish and egg tonight. I can't wait to see how it turns out tonight.

I hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss everyone. Time for me to go cook dinner!