Welcome to Tokyo.

Singapore's Changi Airport never fails to amaze me every time I pass through it. Makes sense since it's claimed to be the world's best or second best airport or whatnot. To me the airport is kind of important, since it's usually the first and last impressions you'll have of a particular city. Tokyo's Narita airport is nothing much, but like everywhere in Japan, the staff are really polite, which by the way is different to friendly. I was so tired from the overnight plane journey that I slept the entire 3 hour bus journey from the airport to Niiza city, where my homestay family resides. This is my first time ever living in another persons house alone, so although JTB (the homestay program coordinator) claims that culture shock occurs 2 months after arrival, I got mine about 1 day after. The house itself is a half western half Japanese style semi-detached unit. I have to say it's pretty awesome since I have my own TV, fridge, microwave and toaster (all fully functional mini equivalents of their western counterparts) in my room.



I am staying with only the host mother and her 30 year old son. I hear she has another son living somewhere in Tokyo. The mum is really nice, relaxed and there are not too many rules for me to follow. As part of the package I get 2 meals on weekdays and 3 on weekends. Dinner is really amazing, usually consisting of 3 main dishes and around 5 side dishes, per person. Yes, that's a lot of plates to wash but fortunately she won't allow me to lift a finger to help. So basically everything is awesome, except that it takes about 90 minutes to commute to Tokyo! So you can imagine how far that is, considering I'm on a rapid express train operating on the world's most efficient public transport network. Worst is, it costs 1100 yen for a return trip to uni, which is about 18 painful dollars. And I have to mention that the Japanese walk ridiculously fast! They said it would take 10 minutes walk to the station, it took me 15 minutes to power-walk it. Niiza city is like a community on it's own, there are so many shops here, it's like walking down Swanston street, except everyone's a different kind of Asian.

Orientation for uni has already begun, and continues for the next 3 weeks, can you believe that? And attendance is mandatory, with most days being only about 2 hours. Which sucks when it costs $18 each time. The good news is as soon as they decide to give me my student ID, I can purchase a concession pass for my SUICA card (like myki/ez-link) which allows me unlimited travel between 2 stations of my choice, and also all stations in between (which is roughly the whole of Japan, well not really...). Which means all travel is at a fixed cost, and it sounds really great except it costs 19,600 yen a month, or $260. Remember for that price you could get a full-fare monthly zone 1+2 in Melbourne. So that's basically the story so far, I'm now looking to get my Alien Identity Card (which is what they call foreigners), without it I can't do anything. After that I'll get a mobile (KEITAI) and a bank account, so more updates then.