Day 1 - まだ疲れている

Today was my first full day in Japan. The room I'm staying in in the hotel is freaking tiny, but I guess I should expected that. There was hardly room for two people and four suitcases. I started off the today bonding with my roommate Tamarra. It turns out we're both total nerds, brought our DSs, and are fans of Doctor Who. I showed her my wind-up dalek. We've decided together to keep an Achievements list for things we accomplish in our stay. Here's the list so far: We'll think up interesting names later…


Buy breakfast alone on the first day
Successfully sign up for classes --- "Hit the okay button!"
Visit a shrine
Visit 5 shrines √√√√√
Visit a temple 
Visit 5 temples √√√√√
Eat good sushi --- "Something smells fishy"
Buy something from a vending machine
Buy something differend from 5 different vending machine
-Cold
-Hot
-Food
-Toy/Umbrella
Visit
-Tattoo Museum
-Condom Store
-Ryokan
-Karaoke Bar
-Edo Period Park
-Kyoto
-Nara
-Sanrio Puro Land
-Tokyo Sky Tree
-Square Enix Store
Traditional Japanese play
Disney Land and Disney Sea
Buy a Japanese book
Have 1 of each denomination of Japanese currency (up to 10000) --- "Get ALL of the Money"
Eat at a Ramen Shop
Eat/Drink in a Tabehodai/Nomihodai --- "Eat ALL of the things!"
Take part in a Nomikai
Survive three weeks without getting hit by a cyclist


I'll add more as we make more up. For breakfast we wandered down to a nearby convenience store and bought some generic food. I found Chopper candy!

After breakfast, we went to the first day of orientation by bus, and almost got lost from the rest the group. Spent too much time on too much stuff that I won't be able to remember after I go to bed tonight anyway, then we wandered the Waseda campus. Had lunch at a place that served Indian curry, and the biggest naan I've ever seen. 

And it was delicious.

Then we walked back to the hotel. But before we could actually go to the hotel, the group decided to go to the arcade, in the BIG BOX store nearby. Rather than being civilized and taking elevators, we hiked the 7 floors of stairs to the arcade so the 10 of us could take a group photo in a tiny purikura photobooth. Then we returned to the hotel to rest a little bit.


Dinner was ramen, and that was pretty great. 

Tried to go to a pub after, but since Waseda's graduation was today, but the graduates had it reserved. So we went to an alehouse instead. I discovered that peach-flavored sake only tastes like peach, so it's hard to tell how much your drinking. And that pretty much any Japanese food I try is delicious.