Alia Luria

Well, I’d hoped to start posting earlier, but I’ve had a semi-rough time of it since arriving in Japan. As some of you may know, I’ve been having some fairly serious health issues over the last few weeks. I had hoped they would be completely resolved before my arrival in Tokyo, but that’s not how it turned out. The flight, subsequent running around, and the new food seems to have exacerbated my problem. I’m going to try to give myself some time to heal, so you probably won’t be hearing so many exciting things from me at at least for this week. I can give you a run-down of how things have gone so far, however.

January 7 (and 8th)
I flew out early on Monday morning. As I had feared, my first flight was delayed by an hour, and with only an hour layover in Chicago, I missed my second flight. I was very lucky to get a seat on the last flight leaving out of Chicago for Narita (which started boarding 10 minutes after I made it to the gate). The flight was supposed to be sold out, which gave myself and the other flight 881 refugees a lot of concern. We all managed to get onto the flight, however, and the seat next to me was empty. The plane was massive and the flight was extremely long. Because we flew up and over Canada and Alaska, it was daylight the entire flight. However, I didn’t get to see any interesting aerial shots of Alaska, because I didn’t have the window seat I would have had if I hadn’t missed my flight. Also, everyone kept all the window shades closed the whole time so that they could try to sleep. It was a shame. Maybe I can see Alaska on my way back.

When I finally arrived at Narita, I had to proceed through immigration, which was not too bad and then to the baggage claim to pick up my baggage. Everyone else seemed to understand that they should go grab a free cart before they picked their luggage off of the machine, but somehow I failed to grasp this concept. In most places, I guess, the carts cost money. Luckily, my luggage had managed to get on the same flight I did, so I was able to retrieve it, and then search around for a cart. The luggage was way too much to handle on my own. I think it might actually have been responsible for some of the resurgence in my pain. Once it was on the cart, I pushed it through customs and proceeded to the currency exchange counter. This was also relatively painless, although I scratched the edges of my new iphone :( when I stuffed it into my pocket, because I was trying to get info off of it and the put it away quickly. Very sad. It was pristine. :(

After currency exchange, I procured a ticket for the limo bus and headed outside to wait for my bus to arrive. The weather wasn’t too cold, which was surprising (NOTE: It’s now REALLY cold here, so I guess it was just a warm couple of days). When the bus arrived, they loaded our luggage into a holder and I got on the bus. I ended up next to an American exotic dancer with a mohawk and tattoos who had been invited to dance in Japan. She was speaking to a Japanese friend, so I got to learn all about her life for the hour long trip it took to get to Tokyo proper. She was rather bizarre. Either way, I just listened and sat back and looked at the building and stuff. I tried to take a couple of photos out the window, but it was very dark, so they didn’t turn out. The ride took over an hour.

The bus dropped me at the ANA Intercontinental Hotel, and I hailed a cab after a few attempts. The guy seemed daunted by my luggage but somehow fit it all into his cab. In Japan, the cab drivers mostly have GPS which is a relief, because the small maps people give you are extremely bad. He took me to my hotel, and I strugged my bags up the steps and checked in.

If you go to flickr, you can see photos of the glorified closet that was my room. I actually didn’t mind that it was as small as it was. It was efficient, and the public ladies bathroom was not really a problem either. The mattresses are a little hard and the pillows have batting on one side and buckwheat (or something on the other). So, I just flipped it to the padded side and basically collapsed for the night.

I did meet Mimi and Becky, though, since they were on the same hotel floor as me. I said hi briefly and then went to sleep.

January 9 – Orientation at TUJ
So, there is a lot to talk about with orientation and such. I’ll start with the jet lag. It was awful. I was exhausted the whole day. I woke up at 6:30 AM and couldn’t sleep any longer. So, I took a shower, dried my hair, put on makeup, got all ready, and then went downstairs to have breakfast. I’d purchased a ticket for one day of breakfast from the hotel, since I wanted to try out a proper ryokan breakfast. It was really tasty. It came with about 10 items, some of which I can’t name. I had miso soup, some cold grilled fish, some fish cakes, rice, a seaweed salad with mushrooms in it and meat flakes on top (really tasty!), tofu, pickled veggies, some kind of squishy wet bread and other stuff. It was really good. While I was eating, another TUJ student came down. By the time I finished, I had met Aris, Jhon, Carrie, and Evan. I met a bunch more people when we congregated in the lounge area to wait for Misako to take us to orientation.

Orientation went well. The administrators are really nice. Matt Wilson told a bunch of funny stories. We all got everything settled with computer registration, ID photos, lockers, etc. They even fed us Subway sandwiches for lunch.

The welcome dinner was the culmination of the day, though. TUJ sprang to take us to a really, really nice restaurant, where we had a number of courses. I tried to taste a little bit of everything, but even the guys were stuffed by the end. The meal started with some appetizers, of which I don’t know most of the names (except edamame). The restaurant was set up for Shabu Shabu, and there were three pots on our huge table that probably sat 12 or 16. The TUJ students took up a whole floor of the restaurant, with like 6 or so tables. Shabu shabu works by boiling a pot of oil (I think) and adding veggies and raw meat to it. The meat was white meat pork. You let the meat and veggies cook together in the pot, and then everyone picks out clumps of food and places them into individual bowls which are filled with a light soy-based sauce. It was REALLY tasty.

After that, there was a sashimi course, and I had some really good tuna. Then I had some fried oysters, some squid, and some of the best pork I’d ever tried. I drank a lot of water to tried and stay hydrated, but I also had one alcoholic beverage. It was all you could drink of whatever you wanted, so a lot of students were really drunk. I just had something called a hachiuzu which was really good. It was a light, carbonated citrus-flavored beverage. I also tried some Calpis, which is a yogurt-based carbonated (or you can get it uncarbonated) drink that reminded me of coconut milk. Calpis isn’t alcoholic. You can learn more about it at Wikipedia. I ate more that night too, but I can’t even remember anymore. It was a lot of food.

After dinner, a lot of students went out, but I was still jetlagged and wanted to rest up, so I went back to the hotel.

The next twenty-four hours were spent in intense gastric distress, sadly. The food was excellent, but my medication must have caused me to not be able to tolerate either something in the food or the tap water. Don’t worry! I’m okay now with the food, but it was extremely un-fun!

January 10
Despite my extreme amount of dehydration and weakness from being ill, I had to go sign my lease on Thursday, and I had to go to my first day of classes. Even with that, I didn’t get up until I absolutely had to. I’d also planned to register myself as an alien and get my health insurance card and also to get my cell phone. Feeling as ill as I did, I just took a cab to Shinjuku to get my keys and sign my lease. It ended up being around $30, but I was glad I did. I signed my lease and stopped at a pharmacy for some medication. Seeing the Oedo line so close, I decided to risk taking the train back to the hotel. I managed the train just fine, but got lost after I got out of the Azabu Juban station and ended up taking a cab back to the hotel.

From there, I collected my laptop and headed to class. The first night of classes, I thought I was going to pass out. I kept drinking water, and I excused myself from Chinese Business law THREE times to go to the bathroom, which is unheard of in law classes. It was only an hour and 20 minute class. I was feeling a little better by International Contract Drafting, so I managed to stick it out through that class. Then I went back to the hotel and collapsed.

January 11
On Friday, I finally went to go register as an alien and get my national health insurance card. I live in the Shinagawa ward, which is south of Minato (where my school is located). I took a cab down there, because I was still feeling sick. I made my way through the ward office and managed to get everything registered. So, now, if I need emergency care, at least I have my health insurance. I’d wanted to get my phone that night too, but it ended up not working out.

I decided to risk taking the train back up to Mita, since I was right near the station. It would have worked out fine, except that I got incredibly lost once I left the station. I even had a map to the school, but I still managed to get very lost. I finally tried to take a cab when I realized I’d already missed 20 minutes of Intro to Japanese law. As I mentioned above, almost all taxi drivers in Tokyo have GPS systems. It makes taking a cab extremely helpful. Because, you used to have to explain to them where you needed to go and show them a detailed map. Well, the cab I got into that night did NOT have GPS. So, I think it is not just me. The school really is difficult to find. The cab driver got so lost that he actually turned off the meter. By the time I got to Mita Hall, it was 40 minutes into my class. Professor Wilson was understanding though, and I tried to participate in the remainder of the class.

After class, eight of us went out for dinner. We tried to go a yakitori shop, but it couldn’t seat all of us. We found what Evan (who speaks and reads some Japanese – way more than I do) thought was another yakitori shop, but it turned out to be a kind of one-stop chicken place. You could pretty much order any part of the chicken you wanted at this place, including tendons, liver and hearts. I tried the hearts. They were actually quite good (I even ate two). They also served seared chicken, which I didn’t try. After my stomach issues the last few days, I didn’t want to chance eating raw chicken. The rest of the group thought the raw chicken was REALLY tasty though. So, I’ll have to keep that in mind.

The table we sat at was really just a closet. We were all crammed in there so tight that the guys had their legs under the table, while the girls had to sit cross-legged or knees to chest. It was pretty funny. Everyone had a lot of beer (except me) and we had all sorts of chicken and raw cabbage with this spicy sauce on it. The cabbage was good and I actually ate a lot of it. Becky also ordered some tofu. She doesn’t like it when her meat looks too realistic. :)

After that, some of the people went out to karaoke, and a few of us went home. I walked with Evan back to the hotel, so as to not get lost (again).

January 12 – Moving Day
Well, I finally moved out of the hotel and into my place on Saturday. I checked out of the hotel at 11 and sat around and used their free internet for a while, chilling and talking to people. I called my mom on Skype. Skype is amazing for calling people. I can chat with her for 2 cents a minute. It’s great. Carrie came down eventually, and we agreed to go do our thing (her look for a place and me move) and meet back at the hotel later to go to Shibuya and get our cell phones.

So, at around 1, I had the hotel call me a cab, and the small hotel attendant, myself and the small cab driver lugged all my luggage to the cab. The cab driver got me to Togoshi, but he didn’t just drop me randomly where he thought it was. He got out himself and asked to make sure it was the right place, and then he came and took my money and helped me get my luggage up the small flight of stairs to the elevator. He was exceedingly nice and polite. It makes you WANT to tip Japanese service persons. But, they won’t even accept it if you do.

I got all my luggage upstairs to my floor. Neither of my roommates were home, and the apartment was freezing. After some attempts, I got my door open. Because of a really slow upload speed at my apartment, I have not been able to get all of my apartment pictures uploaded yet, but I have a few posted on flickr of my room. My room is really spacious by Japanese standards. The tatami floor is really gorgeous and slightly cushy. The futon is not uncomfortable. The sheets are a little aged and yellow, and I could probably go buy new ones if I wanted to. I might if I feel like it. I’m fine with what’s here though. The shoji screens are really cool also. They cover the windows, but still let light in. They are also a little threadbare, as is the closet and entry doors. But, really, I am paying a reasonable price, and everyone who has seen my room has been like, wow, your room is so cool. The close it is huge. It can fit all my clothes, a small set of drawers, a laundry basket, and my luggage in it. I have a small desk and a small bookcase, and also a floor chair and a low table.

At first, the room was freezing, but I’v since figured out how to run the AC unit that I have. The caveat is that if I open shoji screens to look out, blasts of cold air come in from the windows. The insulation is not so great. And the bathroom and toilet are freezing. That would be the only down side to my place except the slow internet upload speeds.

After unpacking and stowing my luggage, I decided to head back to the hotel to meet Carrie. I took the train with no issue, but as usual, I got lost on my way back to the hotel while walking. Twice. I didn’t need a cab though. I eventually found the school and then proceeded to the hotel. I ended up not making it back there until 4:10, though, and Carrie had left to go look at Togoshi herself, so she didn’t get back to the hotel until 6. We decided to try to make it to Shibuya anyway. Shibuya was definitely like the times square of Tokyo. Huge buildings and lights flashing everywhere. It was really neat, but we were rushing to get to AU store, so we didn’t dawdle looking around.

Getting a phone was really a pain. There are AU stores spread all over Tokyo. There is even one that is two blocks from my apartment house. However, the one that has an English speaking rep is in Shibuya. So, we went all the way there specifically to talk to him. Of course, he was busy with an Indian lady. Finally, they decided to try to get us to talk to a Japanese-only rep with an interpreter over the phone. This KIND of worked. It was cumbersome and confusing, but I eventually picked a plan. By the time we were ready to leave, the english speaking rep was done, and he helped out a little. Carrie decided to wait to come back the next day, since we had already kept them past closing.

I managed to get my phone, though. It has a casio exilim camera built in with 5 MP. It’s pretty crazy. The english interface doesn’t extend to some features though, so I’m sure I’m not even close to fulfilling its potential.

Exhausted, I decided to head straight home from AU. I ended up spending the evening trying to figure out the phone and then went to bed.

January 13
I woke up having a lot of pain yesterday. It was the most back pain I’d had since I’d been here. I skyped my mom, and she said to just try and take it easy and hopefully it would heal. Olivia, who lives upstairs, dropped by and we chatted for a long while. Then we went to get some lunch and to meander around a little. She is really nice and she lives just one floor up. We ended up at a noodle shop and both ordered this really good dish. I can’t remember the name, but it was an omelet with noodle, crab, and onion over rice in a bowl, all covered with a light sauce. It was super tasty. I might go back there this evening and get another bowl.

After lunch, I tried to help Olivia set up her internet, but with no luck. I then received a call from my grandmother and came back to my place to try and relax and talk to David. I ended up being in a LOT of pain. It took a long while for the pain to subside, but I just tried to relax as much as possible. Then Carrie dropped by. She moved into the 3rd floor yesterday, so I have two friends in my building. I showed her how to use her phone. Then I went downstairs and helped her set up her internet. :) Then she went to explore, while I stayed in to rest some more.

I basically stayed in the whole time and tried to rest, and I as I am typing this, I haven’t left my apartment yet. I’m probably going to take a shower, go grab some food and head to class. I’ll have to make an early evening of it again, because I really just want to heal up. I’m anxious to explore Tokyo, but if I keep pushing myself, I’m never going to get better.

I have so much more to say about stuff, but it will have to wait, maybe until this evening. So, I hope this was not too boring.

You can check out some pictures at Flickr. I haven’t uploaded all of them, but there are some of my hotel, the welcome dinner, and the chicken restaurant.

Ja mata!