CSI: Akita

I'm so glad I decided to spend some time in Tokyo. It was a great few days. Almost immediately after my last post on Sunday I went to meet my friend Nao and we went all over the place starting in Ueno's Ameya Yokocho area with lots of stalls for food and clothes. Then we walked to Asakusa via Kappabashi-dori. We saw the Tokyo Sky Tree, which is already taller than Tokyo Tower and is only half finished.

After that we went to Akihabara for a bit of otaku spotting and I managed to build up quite a collection of random flyers from all the lovely maids. Then, after buying myself a cheap wallet, we found an ochazuke restaurant and I had this delicious tuna meal... which reminds me I need to get into the habit of taking food pictures... I'm always too busy thinking about eating that I forget.

After Akiba we went to shinjuku, and went to various places including Hub and Dubliners. One's an English pub and the other is an Irish pub I ame to a few times on my last visit.

Monday morning I had the worst kind of headache. Jet-lag, lack of water and the severe heat probably had something to do with it. I managed to put my Japanese to use by asking for painkillers in a pharmacy, then I sat in a coffeeshop in Roppongi for an hour or so til I was feeling myself again... After that I went to Shibuya and couldn't beleive the giant HMV was closed! At Monday lunchtime? I found a cafe that had free internet so sat in there for a bit before deciding to find some noodles for lunch. Again I forgot to take a picture... whops.

In the evening, I went to Ochanomizu to meet my friend Irina, who I lived with in Sakura House. It was great to see her again and to meet her new little baby son. He's a cool dude. We went to Tokyo Dome and the surrounding amusements and had a nice catch-up and some dinner. It was great to see her again.

Tuesday, I killed some more time in Shibuya and went back to that café with the free computers. Then I headed back to Shinjuku and met up with Ichi, Nao, Etsuko and Genki, all friends who studied in Newcastle last year. We went to karaoke for a few hours and then went to an Izakaya for dinner. It was a good end to my stopover in Tokyo, but now I had to catch the bus to Akita. Nao and Ichi came with me to the bus place which I'm glad they did because I wouldn't have had a clue what I was doing and would probably still be there now without their help.

So I said my goodbyes and got on the bus. The journey lasted about 9 hours, and I managed to get a tiny bit of sleep, but nothing to write home about. When the sun came up on Wednesday morning there were some stunning views out the window (pics coming soon). Finally I arrived at Akita station and met some fellow AIU folks almost as soon as I got off the bus. Together we had to wait for another bus to fetch us and Take us to AIU.

The uni is beautiful. Tiny though, there's something like 700 students. After check-in and a some breif tours and orientation sessions some of us went to check-out the nearby Mall. It takes time and money to leave campus, because it's pretty isolated from the city, but the Mall is a nice place to escape if you can't afford/be bother to go into the city. When we got back I pretty much went straight home to bed. I met my roommate, an American guy called Andrew. We had been led to beleive we'd be paired up with Japanese roomates, and most people have, but for some reason there's just too many internationals, so they've had to pair some of us together. We get on pretty well though, so I'm not fussed.

Thursday consisted of a bus trip to the city all to apply for our gaijin cards and then some more orientation, including a talk from some members of Akita's finest. They talked about drugs and self-defence (getting us beating each-other up in the aisles). The also talked about stalking... apparently it's quite a big problem in Akita. After that we all piled into the cafeteria for a gathering of music and food eating... I would call it a party but there was no beer.

Friday (yesterday) was the day of the Japanese placement test. I did... pretty badly... so it looks like I'm gonna be put into a class going over stuff I should really already know. The revision will be welcome of course, but I'm afraid of not being able to reach the level I need to be at for when I return to Newcastle.

Today is a doss-day... there's some fireworks somewhere this evening, but it take an epic (and probbaly expensive) bus ride to get there, so I think I'm just gonna see what other people are up to and guage the situation.

Tomorrow is the Scavenger Hunt, where we get into teams and run around Akita city taking photos of all the things on a list, such as 'cutest baby', 'good looking old woman', 'strangest Engrish'... It sounds kind of lame but I think I'm gonna join in anyway. It's a great way to get to know the city.

Pics are coming soon.

Bye for now x