Mani Atta!

BOOM

I am writting this from the computer lab in my dorm! Did you guys really think I would keep you in the shadows of my first day in Japan?! Of course I will, but that's not the issue here.

Even though my entire day (literarely, since because of time zone shift it has been permanently daylight for 24 hours straight - jet lag here I come) consisted of mosty travelling, I still managed to catch a lot of Japanese oddities even only at the airport.

I arrived to Tokyo, Narita Airport, at 2 pm and had to wait till 4 pm for my next flight to Osaka. So like any other creature with a bladder, I decided to head off to the bathroom for some sweet relief AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT I FIND?!

Look at that thing! It's more high-tech than my laptop. I tried to figure out what those control meant, but I didn't dare mess around with them for fear of activating the self-destruct mode or something. From what I can understand, the seat can be heated or cooled, and water is sprayed to wash your derriere, followed by wind to dry you up. Japanese sure do know how to live in style, yet...

Look at this!!! WTF, it's the complete other extreme of the toilette bowl industry! It's literarely a hole in the ground and there is nothing to hold on to! I hope you have praticed your squats dears, cuz if your leg muscle doesn't hold up - you'll be in shit - literarely.

The Japanese really do go all the way though, just look at this dryer:

At first I didn't want to put my hands in there, because I figured it could be some Gaijin-defense mechanism and rip my hands off, but I took a deep breath and did it anyway. I must say,our lame hand-blowers in Canada could learn a thing or two from the Jap.

After my little adventure in the bathroom (oh the puns, how the amuse me so), I felt like a snack so I wanted to try a Japanese dish. However, I needed to exchange some Canadian dolla's intoYen (which the rate, btw, dropped AGAIN. DAMNIT, WHY IS CANADIAN ALWAYS AT A DISADVANTAGE?!) and went to the currency exchange bureau. Surprise behod, I had to fill out a form before exchanging money - wtf, why do you need to know my passport and flight number to exchange cage? You want to be able to chase me down to hell in case I gave you fraudalent bills?

From left to right, the coins make up 5 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen and 100 yen. I had a 500 yen coin a few minutes before that picture, but I was too hungry and bought a salmon rice ball with it. Their bills only begin at 1,000 yen (approx. 10 bucks). It's odd having the equivalent of 5 bucks in the form of a coin, because it makes you more prone to spend it quickly as if it was loose change. MARKETING PLOY PERHAPS?

Browsing restaurants in Japan has got to be the most entertaining thing after watching sumo wrestling. Why you ask? Perhaps because they've taken the Mcdonald's food-picture menu approach and took it the extra mile:

Before you ask, yeah the food displayed is made of plastic or something. Haha, it's like playing house barbie all over again. -Ahem- Not that I ever played with barbie dolls. I honestly spent 20 minutes trying to decide what to get cuz it all looked so good, only to figure it would be cheaper to wait till I arrived to the city.

After I took the 1 hour plane to Osaka, I arrived at customs where they tried to take away my maple syrup I bought at Duty Free and I was like NAY. So I kept it by saying it was "jamu" which means jam in Japanese - I know, it's very out there.

Also, all foreigners have to submit a finger print with photo to security clearance (Goodbye drug trafficking plan) and then wait a million years in front of the conveyer belt of the baggage claim, like a boring carousel, only you don't get to ride it. Apparently a lot of students were coming that day, because all the white people I saw in the plane (a.k.a not Japanese) turned out to be going to Kansai Gaidai too. A lady with a sign was waiting for us and put us on the bus after charging us a hefty 2,000 yen - bitch please.

Another hour of travelling, which by this point I wanted to kill something, so distracted myself by mocking the silly people who were driving on the wrong side of the road - who do they think they are? British? Dropped at some random building, followed two cute Japanese girls through a park, and boom, arrived at my dorm.

Doesn't it look cozy? Behind those sliding white doors, are two desks for studying and stuff. There is also a balcony back there, and although you can't see them from this angle, there are two closets. More importantly - AIR CONDITIONER! SCOOOOORE

This is what I will be sleeping on for the next four months and although you may think they won't be comfortable - well, they...are not that comfortable actually haha. But it's good for the back, so whatever. Apparently, after I wake up every morning, the tradition in Japan is to put the futon away and make space in the room for the table - so we can have tea on it, or hire a stripper to dance on it, wtv your cup of tea is (haha, see what I did there?).

My roomate is some dude from Mexico, though he didn't show up tonight. Maybe tomorrow - he better be a cool guy, otherwise I'm cicrumsizing him at night. After settling down, and when I say settle down I mean throw my suitcases in the room and leaving, I joined two Japanese students who wanted to show us where the nearest supermarket was. It's good to know so that I can buy tomorrow's breakfast - if you're wondering I didn't buy the breakfast when I was already there, well don't.

The kitchen facility won't be available until next week, so wtv I buy must be either cup ramen or edible on the spot. Hello restaurants for a week.

On that note, I'm gonna go keep chilling with everyone while they're still awake and the go shower and sleep myself. WANNA WAKE UP EARLY TOMORROW.

Keep a close eye for my next post! Sayonara.