Ah~ I posted the pictures in the wrong order. Oops! Please scroll down and start from the bottom.

Path in the park. 

Stream and waterfall in the park. 

Sitting Area in The Park. 

Today's Haul.

Vending Machines. 

Super-High-Tech-Advanced-Toilet Go Fight~! 

Kitchen. Fridge, Microwave, Stove, Toaster Oven, Washing Machine. 

Hallway and bathroom door. There are three sub-rooms in the bathroom. A sink room, a toilet room, and a shower/bath room. 

My desks. 

The view from my balcony. 

Here's my bed. It's big but hard as a rock 

Here are some pictures of my apartment. Here's the main room.

A quick rant on 7-11's:
They're all over the place here. Like no store in America, they're on almost every corner. Those corners that don't have a 7-11 have and AM/PM or another type store that looks just like a 7-11. It's crazy, they all look alike. White walls/floors/ceilings, magazine racks, coolers, people in aprons behind the counter. Also, 7-11's here seem to be part of something called 7-11/iHoldings. I have no idea what iHoldings is but it gives the corner convince store a creepy corporate feel. All this being said, they are incredibly convenient.

On a very similar note, for every 7-11 there is, there are 10 vending machines in any given place. Literally, there's one ever 20 feet. I haven't found the one's that sell beer yet, and Pepsi machines are fairly rare, but there are lots of Coke machines. Also all of the beverage dispensers sell water, which is awesome because IT'S SO FRICKING HOT HERE.

End Rant.

Hooray! Absolutely NOTHING like some retail therapy to cure what ails you. I was feeling a bit down (everything is in a different language, my laptop died, I had to take a big test on my first full day here. Basically the Jet-Lag was waaaaaay bad.) But I'm cured now!

This morning I decided to take the same trains I use to get to school and walk around that part of town for a while. I can use the two trains I take to get to school as much as I like because I bought a pass. The downside of this pass is that I can only use it on those two trains. The upside? Well it was cheap, the first train takes me into Shinjuku (a major center in town), and the second train takes me to the part of town where the Imperial palace and several museums are located.

First, I took both trains to the school stop so I could use the ATM at the post office near there. The post national office in Japan is also the national bank, so the ATM's give good exchange rates. After picking up some cash I walked down what I assume is the main drag where I was (one of the few 5 lane non-freeway roads I've seen) for maybe 2 miles, just checking out the sights. Mostly there were the typical 8-10 story buildings with shops on the first floor. After a while I passed a park/shrine/"I don't know what" thing on my left. I read a sign (in English) that said it was in the area where the Emperor's retainers used to live. I'm still not sure on customs about important sites (like temples) so I didn't enter and kept walking. After I passed the park I turned down a side street and headed back towards the station along the other side of the park thing. I came to a bridge which spans the old castle moat that still exits near school, seeing a McD's on the other side and thinking it was about breakfast time, I crossed. McD's Japan pancakes are REALLY sweet. More cake than pan, but they were tasty anyways.

After breakfast I walked back towards the main drag and another park I was on my walk down. I should have figured by the HUGE doors and the moat surrounding a high stone wall, but this park was actually part of the Imperial palaces' grounds. The north end to be exact. It was refreshing to see some green in a city of grey and tan. It was weird, but even away from the busy-ness of the roads, the park was still quite noisy. Not people noisy though... Insects... making sounds which were... weird. I wanted to see what bugs could make this sound... but at the same time I really didn't want to know. I walked around in the park for a while, even taking a few pictures (this is a photo-blog after all.) Afterwards I headed back to the train station.

I took the train back to Shinjuku station. Shinjuku station spread out under a large section on Shinjuku's shopping district and is connected to several shopping malls. Unlike most malls in the U.S. which are flat, these malls are set up vertically in sky-scraper type buildings. I first went in two (Lumine 1&2) which were both 6 stories. Both of these turned out to be mostly fashion malls, but one did have a book store with a Starbucks (at which I has the WORST hot-chocolate ever.) Next I went through the station again to a mall further down the way. This mall was 16 stories tall! And we're not talking tiny floors here... this place was big. Here, I found several of the things I was looking for. 1.)A plug adapter for my laptop. 2.)A couple PSP games which will never, unfortunately make it to the U.S. 3.)The Japanese version of "RENT" (it's only 3 tracks, but it's in Japanese.)

After blowing a couple yen I hopped back on the train and came home. I stopped quick into the 7-11 down stairs to get something to drink and a notebook for school (I realised too late that I didn't pack any.)

Later I need to go out to get dinner and head supermarket to pick up food for this next week. I think tomorrow I might go to Ueno park (a reallt famous park.) We'll see...

Ja Mata Ne.

My laptop battery is dying. It's got a 3-pronged plug and all of the sockets are 2 pronged. Hopefully I can get an adapter quick, but it may be a day or so until I can update again.

Ja Mata Ne.

AH! So much information overload! The phrase “They’re years ahead of us” doesn’t even touch it.

After leaving the airport, we (Myself, a nice girl from Toronto, Canada, and the person who picked us up (Yes, I’m very bad with names)) took a bus into downtown Tokyo (Narita is 60km away (no, I can’t convert that to miles, I’ve had 3 hours of sleep in the last 24.)) Anyways, that took an hour. Once at the station downtown we took a cab another 20 minutes (the rest of the way.) The freeways (actually they’re all toll roads) as confusing, I mean REALLY confusing. To start, they drive on the “wrong” side of the road in “backwards” cars (driver on the left.) There are exits and entrances every 5 feet, not to mention the scenery around… it’s like a game of Sim-City gone horribly wrong, apartments everywhere, no open space… such tall buildings everywhere…

Once we got in the cab, we started to take side streets. Side Streets n: one lane roads on which one parks, drives, walks, rides, sits, etc. That was hair raising to say the least. Thank goodness I’m taking the train to school.

Once at the apartment (well a block away, due to construction* we had to walk) we set our things in out respective apartments and walked to the local grocery store (A. To find where it was B. To buy breakfast.) A quick note on location: my apartment is ABOVE a 7-11 and around the corner from a McD’s… I think I’ll survive.

Back at the apartment the person who picked us up (really… names to follow) showed us how to use things in our apartments like AIR CONDITIONING, yes most wonderful of all inventions, my apartment, unlike many others in Japan, has air conditioning. Also we learned how to use the inter-com system (which has a camera so you can see who’s at the door.) and other things like where the gas and water shut-offs are. On a similar note to A.C. my apartment has a shower, “western” toilet and a washing machine (no dryer, have to air-dry, but they supplied the poles.)

After everyone left I unpacked my things from my bags, kicked on the A.C. and sat down to write this.

I know what you’re thinking… paradise, right? Well a few things do kind of bug me:
-No grounded plugs in the apartment (which I need to charge my laptop)
-It’s hot outside. Even though the sun has set it’s still really muggy out. Gag me.
-There’s a funky smell about town… I think it’s the street restaurants… I’ll get used to it.
-Similar to the last one, the tap water tastes funny… I’ll get used to it.
-That construction* I mentioned, is right outside my window… they’re still at it… I hope they stop.

So much to write about… so much… hopefully pictures to follow very soon. I should get to bed, my day starts at 8:50am tomorrow and I’m so very tired. Well maybe a little Japanese TV first…

Ja Mata Ne.

*Why? Oh why, did the orange traffic cone follow me to Japan!? Cruel fate!

Tip #1) Training/Practicing/Learning is not doing. Doing is MUCH harder

So, it‘s been seventeen and a half hours later and I’m in the Narita airport. Once Again, WOW. But this time, it’s a different wow. I.E. a German soccer team just went by… Just… wow…

The flight was fairly uneventful. We started out late because of a problem with the video they show on take off (fasten your seatbelts and such). This, by and by, lead to the VERY interesting discovery that the 747 I was on used Linux for it’s entertainment system. It froze about 2 hours out, rebooted, and froze on the start-up screen. Take that Microsoft?

Anyways, we took a route up over the U.P., through Canada, over Alaska, and down along the Russian coast.

Now I’m waiting in the “B” terminal for the other student who’s coming in today (will there only be 2 of us??)

After the Metro WiFi fiasco, I think I’m going to hold on posting this until I get to my apartment.

For those who know her, I’ve been in Tokyo for less than an hour and I’ve already met someone who knows Abe Sensei.

Ja Mata Ne.

WOW, Detroit Metro Airport is a lot different than I remember it. Given I’m sitting in the new McNamara Terminal rather then the old terminal, but WOW. Here I sit in a modern airport complete with all the amenities you would expect. There’s a McD’s, a Burger King, a Little Caesars, and of course a Starbucks every 5 feet. Also, to my surprise, there’s a fountain with dancing water and, best of all, there’s a shinny new tram. The tram runs indoors (which is cool and creepy) along the concourse.

I was starting to get a bit nervous about my trip this morning, but the awesome-ness of this airport has totally taken my mind it. Now, if I can get my wireless network to work long enough to copy and paste this into blogspot I’ll be happy. If not I’ll post it when I get to my apartment (and figure out what time it is, which end id up, where the heck I am, etc…)

It’s weird, there’s such a mixing pot of people on the concourse here. “Back in the day” when international flights had their own terminal, you sat at your gate and only saw people from the place you were headed. Here where all Northwest flights arrive/depart in the same building (and the concourse is so nice and open) you see so many people from so many places. It’s quite amazing.

In the good news category, I was able to move my seat to an emergency exit row. As many of you know, I CAN fold my 6’4” frame into some very small seats, but it isn’t pretty.

Parting, I would like to thank all who have wished me well. I promise to come back with stories to tell.

One hour to go…

See you on the flip side…

Ja Mata Ne.

Edit: I don’t suggest spending the $7.00 to get the Metro Airport WiFi unless: You’re sitting under a hub (I had 1 bar were I was) and/or you’re going to be sitting there a while (I was only there for about an hour).

Well, a little more than 24 hours until I get on the plane and make for the far east. I'm all packed up, just have to put my laptop in my backpack and I could leave right now... This will be the last post from home as I am about to go return my cable modem to the nice people at Comcast. The next post will probably be from the floating kingdom...

Ja Mata Ne.