2 days into it... Feels like a week already

Currently 11pm in Tokyo. I should probably sleep soon but I'm not too sure when else I'll have time to type this up. So far, life in Japan is incredible! And the flight was also great. Great service, fantastic food and entertainment. I managed to watch the movies, "Marley & Me", "Yes Man" and "Ikigami" (A Japanese movie, fantastic but extremely sad. I believe I began crying, tad embarrassing)

We arrived about 4:30pm in Tokyo and overwhelmed as we were, we forgot our Japanese the instant we stepped out of the plane. Useful. So we shuffled through our bags to find our Japanese expressions sheet which had the words "Mayoimashita" (I am lost), and "Tasukete kudasai" (Please help me).

Not only did we take 15 minutes to find our way out of the arrival gate but we also found the toilet soap amazing. We had to ride a train to the area where we had to go to the Quarantine and Health Consultation (Don't ask me why it's called that, it was just a passport check and some stamps). We literally asked everyone where it was that we should be going. Unfortunately we sounded silly while people replied to us in very good English. Soap! WOW!! We all know there's automatic water nozzles in NZ toilets but automatic soap... Now THAT'S cool. However we did look idiotic in the bathroom while we "Oooohed" and "Ahhhed" at the soap technology.

Then it was downstairs to baggage claim and after wasting so much time, baggage claim had already stopped rotating and our bags were sitting in front of the rotating machines (The Japanese removed the bags for us instead of us going around asking where our bags were!) Luckily, we knew how to ask that questions anyways. The baggage trolleys were also incredible. They had locks on the wheels so to push them, you had to push down the handle to unlock the wheels. Soap and trolleys and we were already amazed. Simple aren't we?

We weaved our way through the airport and found the exit and found a large group of people waiting for us (Yuka and Miyuki and their family members). It was great meeting them and Ms Sakurai for the first time! A bit shy but we quickly began fitting it. They're incredibly welcoming and the fathers were extremely excited. My host father has already begun calling me "Jen-Chan" (What a father would call his own daughter. -Chan refers to people who have a close relationship). My host sisters and their friends at school also call me Jen-Chan or Jenni-Chan.

It took 2 hours to drive from the airport into Tokyo City and we went for dinner at a restaurant. It was incredibly delicious! Also very cheap! 100-400 yen [Max] (Note 100 Japanes yen is NZ$2. We had tempura prawns, octopus, Pizza, Okonomiyami (Japanese pancake like pizza), rice, salmon, friend squid. I believe Zoe also went out to dinner with her host family and they ate Sushi. We arrived home about 9-10pm and I gave my host family their gifts then had a nice shower and a soak in the bath.

I was shown around the apartment afterwards. It's quite incredibly how many hidden rooms there are. I expected more cupboards but the doors you'd think would lead to cupboards turned out to be toilets and bedrooms. I have my own room which is very nice. It's not as small as I expected. There are also 3 toilets and wow behold these toilets have buttons on the side and heated seats. I haven't dared touch those buttons though incase something horrible happens and I have to somehow tell my host family I broke their toilet. On the back of the toilet is a sink where you wash your hands after so you don't need to go from one room to the other. Very convenient (and yes, it IS clean water which comes out)

I got to sleep around 10:30pm and woke at 5:50am (by myself!) It was amazingly bright at that time. The sun was already out (Oh and Japan doesn't have daylight saving). I felt rested (due to the time difference I thought I was waking at 8:30am and was panicking that I did not wake in time for school). Turns out, I was up before everyone else (except the mother of course).

School was brilliant, confusing and embarrassing at first since Zoe and I had no inside school shoes so we had to march around the school in the wrong size bright blue slippers for the better half of the morning. Ms Sakurai had also pinned our pictures up on the wall outside the staff room and apparently when the girls walk past they said I look like a panda haha. We talked for a while and met some of Miyuki's and Yuka's friends. They were eager to speak english and become our friends so it was really great! When the bell rang, Zoe and I went with Ms Sakurai who introduced us to the staff and then we went to our respective homerooms where it's similar to our school's Tutor Group system except in one homeroom, there were around 40 girls. Scary, I was prepared to introduced myself in front of 15 at the most.

Everyone is very kind and funny and are eager to converse with Zoe and I in both English and Japanese. The girl who sits in front of me during homeroom and Chemistry is hilarious. I told her I was finding it hard to remember everybody's names so now she repeats her name to me every 5 minutes and everytime she sees me she says "I am Chiha"

On our first day, we went with Ms Sakurai to the bookstore where she gave us both a nice set including a pen and pencil and also gave us St Margaret's school bags, badges, flannels, P.E uniforms and Shodo (Calligraphy) paper. Then we tried on some new shoes (In Japan, when you enter the school, it's required to change from your dirty outside shoes into school shoes, however you can actually go outside with these shoes as long as you are WITHIN the school grounds.) There is no morning tea time but between each class is a 10 minute break where students return to their homeroom to exchange textbooks because their school bags are the size of a handbag (I have to alternate between what I take to school everyday because I don't have enough room for everything). As for out lunch boxes, they're the size of my purse. No jokes, they really are that small but the food here is great, I never feel hungry.

Today we made more friends and exchanged email addresses. It was also raining today which was nice. Unlike NZ, the rain falls straight and isn't blown from side to side. There is minimal wind and even though it was thought to be "cold" today, it felt like NZ Summer. It's very interesting riding the train to school every morning. First we drive to the Asagaya station which takes around 7 minutes then we march in with our train cards and scan them on the gates to pass and climb up several stairs to reach the train. Somehow the timing is always perfect and we're on the train for another 7-9 minutes until we get off at another station and switch trains. The second train is always more cramped as there are hundreds of students and we stay on until Kichijoji Station then it's a 2 minute walk to school. I can sure get sick of NZ buses but trains? Never.

After school, 3:30pm, we all put on our aprons and grab a broom or cloth and either sweep the homeroom floor or wipe down tables. That takes us till about 4pm then the club activities begin. Today (Tuesday 21st April) I watched Music club and some of the students asked me to play the drums for a bit then took me to the auditorium where I played a piano piece of them. It was very fun! It's only been 2 days but I can feel it's easier to remember all my Japanes vocabulary. Club ended at 6pm and then we headed for the station again. Usually we take the bus from the station home as at night, no one comes to pick us up from the station. The city is spectacular at night. Billboards, flashing lights, lights on the building corners, electronic signs etc you name it. I was also surprised to see kids who looked around 7-10 taking the trains all by themselves with no supervision. Japan is incredibly safe. We arrived home around 7-7:30pm and had dinner. Another thing is, breakfast is huge. Compared to me usually having just a simple Up & Go, it seems like a lunch to me!

Well 12:40am, I'm off to bed or I'll be falling asleep tomorrow. It's a long school day tomorrow as opposed to NZ Wednesdays being a short day. I'll write again when I have time and upload all the pictures I've taken!