So I arrived to Japan on Friday, September 11. I had a 4 hour stopover in Hong Kong, which wasn't as bad as I had expected. No crying babies on any of my flights, thank you Lord Jesus! Since I only had a 20 kilo baggage limit, I had to sacrifice a lot of my clothes and belongings. I'm not even joking when I say that I wore 6 layers to the airport, 3 of those layers being thick heavy jumpers. I also carried around my denim jacket, plaid shirt, laptop, and documents. The struggle was real, to say the least. I arrived at Kansai International Airport at around 5pm if I remember correctly, so it was still relatively bright outside. I had already taken off 2 jumpers in Hong Kong and attempted to stuff them into my hand carry bags, but I still felt the heat and humidity as soon as I walked out into the airport at Kansai. I found some people holding a sign with my host university written on it, then they herded me and some other students into a bus, where we stopped at Osaka International Airport, before finally taking a shuttle bus to our inn. I had made friends with 2 Singaporean girls and a Korean girl that night, so we bought dinner at the nearest 7Eleven and took it back to eat together. My first meal in Japan: kimchi jiggae. How authentic.
The next day they gathered all of us outside the inn, and grouped us into those who chose to do homestay or dorm. We all got onto little shuttle buses then moved onto bigger buses, before being driven to the university to meet our host family. It was a mixture of anxiousness and pure anticipation that day. I knew I'd be living with this family for the next 10 months, so my expectations were somewhat high. The anticipation was especially high since I was one of the last students to be called out. They literally had us sit in seats facing towards one way of the room, while another set of seats were placed in front of us facing towards us for the host families to sit in. Talk about awkward, uh.
After stalking my host mother's Facebook page previously, I was already expecting to be staying with another exchange student. I recognised my host mother's face as soon as I saw her, and she must've recognised mine since we both waved to each other as soon as we realised. Just as I thought, another exchange student turned up. A Canadian girl named Timmi. She's cool, I guess (Timmi if you're reading this you're bomb and I like your cookies). Our host parents took us home afterwards to quickly settle in and set up, then they took us shopping in Kobe that same day. They're really nice and humble. Their kids on the other hand are super, uh, active to say the least.
We came across a little shrine while we were walking around Kobe
Bonus photo of my first Hada Labo encounter, also while walking in Kobe that day
All that really happened last week was orientation. Our host mother showed us how to get to the university from our house last weekend, so we were able to navigate ourselves from the house to the university by ourselves during the week. Because they live in such a mountainous area, we're either walking up or down hill to get to and from the house to the train station. After taking the train, we walk another maybe 15 minutes to the university mostly up hill. So much for feeling refreshed at the beginning of a school day, by the time I get to university I'm already sweating and out of breath. The hike to and from university is enough to make me not want to get out of bed every morning, honestly. I think I'm actually developing leg muscles. At least it's made me realise how unfit I am.
I did some other exciting things last week, though for the sake of not making this post any longer than it already is, I might post about it later. I also took a lot of photos of the university campus, and lots of photos of Dotonbori, which my new friends and I visited the other day. Lots more to come!
