the unending path begins to wind

I slept fairly late and rose so early, but I suppose that that helps with the jet lag a bit. I don't feel particularly extra fatigued due to time-difference, and for that I can thank Michael. It is a good idea to be enlivened by those who are in a similar position just so we can bitch and moan and that's what we did last night until around 11:30 PM or so. I came back to my room and basically crashed. Despite not looking so great, it's still homey, and the room serves its purpose for respite and sleeping.

Sleeping in was hard. That's probably the worst thing I can say, but in a semi-jet lag fashion, I woke up at 4:00 AM feeling like I could just be up. I pushed myself back to sleep but eventually at 6:00 AM, I couldn't do it any more and just woke up. I walked around, peeked around, and struggled to find a proper 100YEN coin to shower with... That's right. Coin-operated showers. They're not so bad... but still. Pretty bad. I explored the dormitory area a bit and then just waited until 9:00 AM.

Ri came to my door and we headed out to deal with paperwork at the dormitory office. Afterward, we walked onto campus (which is only a five minute walk away) and headed for the International Student Center. I ran into Han again, and we just waited around until the Welcoming Ceremony (the details of which are quite boring and will not be recounted here). Afterward, we took a placement test (meh on Grammar but decent on Kanji). Lunch was fun and I had a delicious and admirably cheap Katsu Kare (pork cutlet slathered with Japanese curry) with the other international students.

After lunch, we went back to the ISC for Orientation, where we received more papers and more information though much of it was actually pertinent. When it ended, I met with Ri again and we went on a flurry of form-filling, insurance-paying, and some ATM-hijinks. I bought an electronic dictionary (DENSHI JISHO) to help out with all the freaking Kanji that I don't know. I have to figure out how to use it since its' details are all in Japanese. I may have to get a INKAN, a stamp seal. I'd prefer not to waste more money (and I have spent an absurd amount of moving in costs), but it might be cool to just have afterall.

We returned to the ISC after a bit and just rested around until it closed. A bunch of us went to dinner, where I had Kakifurai (fried oysters), some miso soup, and rice (also for a nice low-cost). We talked a bunch and we wound up at the on-campus convenience store, where I bought nothing and was disappointed that the SHOUNEN JUMP was in fact old and I had already read a scanlation of it.