Sorry for the wait! Let's see, first day...

The Next Morning
I had to go to some orientation stuff. Met some CUPS students, which probably stands for Chubu University Peer Support. They're basically supposed to take care of us, get us used to Japan, take us to see stuff, etc. After the overall boring process of signing some papers, getting our student cards, and having our passports photocopied, we got a tour of the campus. This would probably have been enjoyable if it hadn't been about 35゜ out and the wind hadn't been blowing much faster than would have been pleasant. The campus is a nice place. There's a big koi pond, and apparently if you kill one of them, the president will come to your home and murder you in your sleep (so I've heard?). There's basically a nice little area just dedicated to nature in the middle of campus. Well, while we saw everything we might end up needing around campus, we went in lots of circles, so I don't really remember where any of it is. I'll be figuring that out when I need to. We have maps.

At basically, the end of the tour, we went to a cafeteria that was open (it's still spring break here) and I got some curry udon. The only chopsticks available were plastic (which I HATE), so I had to struggle to eat the big, slippery, noodles with even slipperier chopsticks, and got to enjoy feeling rather dumb for most of my meal. But the cool part about the cafeteria (and a lot of places are like this it turns out) is that is has a display menu filled with real food just outside of it. Most meals in general are around 500 yen. However, I only had one ￥10,000 bill from the airport. I had someone take me for change. Couldn't understand a thing, so I just said thanks when I got my money. Now here's the real neat part. You decide what you want, you put your money in to this machine, select what you want, it gives you a ticket for it, which you take to the counter, give to the cook, and then they prepare it for you. That's another thing a lot of places do (esp. trains): use automated ticket machines. So so much restaurants, but a lot of these cafeteria-type places.

The Town
After eating, a few of the CUPS students took us into town to do some shopping and see what's around. Chubu University is on top of a hill, and as you leave the entrance, you see a plain, entirely covered in city, with more hills a few miles off. I'm glad to know mountains will never be out of sight. So we walk down, out the front gate, past all the bicycle parking, past the bus stop, down this road that hugs the hill, and into town. The shopping plaza that was our target was about a 15 minute walk, and had a 100円 store (Daiso) where I bought some replacement notebooks (I lost the one I was using just before I left), a used book store (Book Off), a used electronics store (Hard Off (yes, really)), a drug store (B&D), and a grocery store (Valor). It's interesting to note that all these places had the same atmospheres as their American counterparts, just a little more crowded. Valor felt just like a Kroger's, B&D felt just like a RiteAid, and Daiso felt just like Dollar General.

So I had about 5 free days after that before I had to do anything official. I was to receive my JASSO money on the 22nd and then go on some CUPS "International Exchange Event". Oh goodness, the suspense.

The Castle
Well, I spent those five days doing lots of general stuff. Usually went to somewhere every day. One of the first things I did was be taken to Nagoya castle by Joe. This involved a thrilling adventure taking trains both above and below ground. We took a half hour walk to Jinryo (along the river, kind of scenic), and got on the train. This again involved a ticket machine. You observe the map, find your destination (for which a price is displayed), put your monies in the machine, select the amount you want to be charged, and get your ticket. Then you put in this turnstile-like machine that punches a hole in it. Then, at the destination, you go out through one and it makes sure you haven't gone further than you've paid to go. We had to do this twice, because the JR rail lines, and the subway lines are managed by different companies/groups/whatever. So we make our way to the center of Nagoya, and stare at a map a few minutes to find the castle, discovering there was another subway exit just across the street from it. The castle was cool, but was apparently destroyed during WWII, and subsequently rebuilt. From the landscaping and the outside, though, you'd never know. I'm just gonna link to my flickr, because it was mainly an observational trip, and words aren't for much.

Hmm, that seems like a good stopping point for this post. Since the rest of what I did was mostly restaurants, I think I'll do a food post next.