Konnichiwa!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my new blog, covering my experiences in Japan while studying at Sophia University (Jouichi Daigaku).

Right now I am in my dormitory room in the Oizumigakuen neighborhood. I assume that’s the name of the neighborhood, since the train station is named after it and the dormitory has Oizumigakuen as part of its name. I don’t *actually* know. It’s a privately run dormitory that houses international students going to different schools in Tokyo, and only about seven of us attend Sophia; I’ve met four of them so far. They all speak English, three are from the US, and all of them probably speak better Japanese than I do. The guy who runs the dorm only speaks Japanese, so every time a new Sophia girl checked in he’d make sure I talked to them. Even though I was trying to sleep and my room was always dark, he’d knock, “Ee Fujiyoshi-san! Jouichi Daigakusei! She is also going Sophia ne…”

The other girls in the dorm are very shy I guess. I have no idea how to read them. I’ve tried being a friendly gaijin, saying hello or nice to meet you if I see a girl, but they’re not too friendly back. Only one of them actually said more than a polite greeting, and I managed to get her name, Suki. One of the other Sophia girls, Natasha, picked up on the coldness as well. Maybe it’s because I’m a foreigner? It’s been pointed out to me that I do not look Asian at all. The tattoo on my back might not help, either (“Fujiyoshi-san… Yakuza desu ka?”).

My Japanese skills are definitely lacking. The girl who showed me to my dorm from the airport, Tama, speaks English and Japanese, and I didn’t understand any of the Japanese conversations she had with people. I picked out words every once in a while, but I couldn’t keep track of anything. The trains have signs in English and Japanese, and while it is very helpful to me, I have to wonder why they bother at all. Tama said that most Japanese don’t know English and foreigners make up like 5% of the population. In Hawaii, TheBUS doesn’t have signs in Japanese or have Japanese kana on marquees, and there are lots of tourists from Japan.

The flight coming to Japan wasn’t much fun. I slept enough to make a difference in how I felt, but I was still dragging. American airliners can learn a bit about customer service from JAL. They served two full meals, offered juice and water throughout the flight without those irritating carts, and gave us warm hand towels at the beginning and end of the flight. I was sleeping during one of the meals, and I found a little sticky note on the seat in front of me.

“We did not wish to disturb you. Please let us know when you would like to be served.”

The Japanese says something like, “Because you were resting, we did not want to disturb you.” If a flight attendant caught me awake, she’d ask about the note and if I wanted to eat anything.

After landing, immigration took about an hour. I finally caught the train with Tama around 1:45pm. The train journey took about two hours, and the walk from the station to the dorm was another half hour, so I got to the dorm around 4:30pm. I’m tired again thinking about it. It would have been worse traveling with my luggage, but I used a delivery service to get them to the dorm. The only bad thing about that is I don’t have any of my shower stuff right now… It’ll come soon.

Mentally, emotionally I’m okay right now. Sleep has helped my mood; I was a little upset on the plane and had many second thoughts on the way to the dorm. I’m hoping that once school starts and I get into a routine things will be that much better. Today, the other Sophia girls and I will go shopping for dorm stuff and go to orientation at the school. We’ll all get lost on the train together.

There are two other students from Creighton who are supposed to be here with me, and I wonder how they’re doing. I’ve talked with one of them over Facebook a little, but the other I have no idea. I thought maybe she might be in my dorm since it’s all girls, but I haven’t seen her yet. I kind of knew what to expect when I got here and the culture shock isn’t too bad yet, but I don’t know about the other two obviously gaijin mid-westerners. I’m hoping I’ll get to see them today and make sure they’re doing alright. Which sounds kind of stupid because I’m not doing SUPER great, but whatever.

I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm fairly certain that's all that matters.