Mini Reunion!

Yesterday (Monday for me!) was a big day! We met downstairs in the common area of the dorm (this weekend I'll post some photos of the dorm.. or at least try) and we made our way to Meiji Gakuin University. My school for the next year! It's a very small campus, but it's Tokyo so no surprise there. We were introduced to our 'buddies' and they took us on a campus tour. Each ISP (international student program) student is assigned at least two, I was assigned three but only one of my buddies showed up. Her name is Yuko and she is a typical adorable Japanese girl. She's in the middle of taking TOEFL (which I had to look up because I did not know what that is, but it makes sense that it's not too common in America.. Test Of English as a Foreign Language) so hanging out with her is forcing me to speak Japanese, which is good! She's a sophmore this year, and last year she went to school at the Yokohama Campus so she really wasn't the best tour guide, but we tagged along with one of her friends who is another ISP buddy. The campus is really pretty, there is an open courtyard, a cafeteria (with cheap, but good, food and green tea on tap!) and a teeny little quad, but at least there is some grass! I never thought I'd take grass for granted, lord knows I hate mowing the lawn, but come springtime next year I won't get to enjoy that smell of freshly mowed grass! After touring the campus we had to try to apply for Japanese bank accounts and get subway passes. The school provides a transportation subsidy, which they handed out in cash. They gave us 40,000yen which works out to about $517.08 (thank you, google!) The university just hands you that money so at the train station everyone was reading the maps trying to figure out how to get the most out of this. The closest station to our dorm is Midorigaoka Station (5 min walk) but there is a slightly bigger station, Ookayama, only 10 min away. The closest station to campus is Shirokanedai (5 min walk). Alrighty now that you know the stations names I'll explain how I get to school, I think this is really only for my parents who somewhat know the area so everyone else can just skip down a few lines. Walk 5 minutes to Midorigaoka Station, hop on the train to Ookayama Station, get on the Namboku line, which goes to Meguro, which then goes to Shirokanedai. You can get off at Meguro Station, but it's farther from campus (about 20 or 30 minutes). In order to maximize use of our transportation subsidy, some people got a pass from Midorigaoka to Meguro (you get to keep the change, and buying a pass from there is super cheap) but for the rest of us lazy bums we bought our passes from Midorigaoka to Shirokanedai. I mean really, class starts at 9:10 so we leave the dorm by about 8:20 to get their on time, any earlier would just be too much!
And since I only used about half of my money I'll be able to use some of it for traveling on other lines. I still haven't figured out the Tokyo Metro but I'm getting there! I at least know how to get to school. And I guess that's important.

Last night I was able to meet up with my mom's friend Yamamoto Sensei! She was recently visiting us in the States so it was nice for me to be able see her on her turf, and by car she lives about 30 minutes, by train it's a lot of switching lines, etc. We went out to eat at a place close to my dorm, an okonomiyaki place. Okonomiyaki is famous in Hiroshima, and although it is absolutely nothing like a pancake it's somewhat known as 'the japanese pancake'. We sat at the counter and were able to watch the guy make it, it's layers of random things but tastes delicious! You start out with some sort of thin batter, then throw noodles on the grill, some lettuce, soy sauce, pat it down, crack an egg on it, I'm really making it sound delicious aren't I? There were some more ingredients but I wasn't paying that close attention. 

It was a really small restaurant, and I was the only foreigner. They were super nice, kept asking me if I liked what I was eating. It was also just really nice to see a familiar face in a foreign place! Yamamoto Sensei was my age when she first went to America to study abroad. She had an entirely different experience, her first three weeks were more of a nightmare. But she also chose a school in Tifton, Georgia. If you haven't heard of Tifton, I'm not surprised. It was very interesting comparing her abroad experience to mine. In this tiny little restaurant they have a challenge! If you can manage to eat 3 okonomiyaki's in 20 minutes, you don't have to pay. I don't remember how many people have tried, but only about 28 have actually achieved it. They have pictures on the wall and I swear I must have read the challenge wrong because half of the pictures of the champions are stick thin Japanese girls. They must have dumped it in their purses. But the challenge made me think of the TV show Man Vs. Food, where one guy goes around and attempts to conquer all these challenges. I don't know if he only does the US but if I wasn't so lazy - I mean busy! - I'd write him a request to come to Japan and attempt this challenge!