First week in Japan

Alright, so I left off last time at heading to the airport. So, Jackie and I went to get breakfast in the hotel (it was complimentary, so we figured, why not). After that we walked to the convenience store next to the hotel and while we were there we ran into Heather (a girl I had met at orientation before) and Ian, two people going to JCMU as well. So, we checked out of our hotel room and headed back to the airport afterwards. Basically we just wandered around at the airport after storing our luggage and headed to the "sky deck."

Okay, so this thing was completely amazing. Basically, Chubu Centrair Airport in Nagoya has a deck on the top level of the airport where people can walk around and watch planes take off. It was really nice, especially since it also gave you an option to see the surrounding landscapes and cityscapes. So after that we headed to the shops to just waste some time, and ran into Tisch and his grandma (who was from Gifu, Japan, I believe). We ended up just walking around until Ian, Tisch, and his grandmother went to eat lunch and Jackie, Heather, and I did our own thing. Now, we were hoping that this would waste a lot more time than it actually did. It was basically the longest day EVER. In retrospect, it was fun, but at the time it just dragged on and on and on. Eventually, more people going to JCMU arrived, but the last flight coming in with them on it was delayed for about an hour and a half. We finally left and took a bus to Hikone, and settled into the college around 11pm. The center is really nice. I haven't gotten around to wandering about it to take pictures, but I'm just gonna post some that Heather uploaded to Facebook for the time being. That's the academic building of the center, where all of our classes are. We also have restaurant attached to it called Coco's that's open for lunch. JCMU students get $3 off any purchases there up to 10 times a month, so that's pretty cool. This is Biwako (Lake Biwa), and the college is located on the shore of the lake. Alright, so basically all week we've been doing orientation and welcome activities. One of them was a bicycle tour of Hikone with some of the guys from Shiga Daigaku (Shiga University, which is down the road from JCMU). That was cool; we kind of just rode around the town for an hour or two and got to see a little bit of it. The guys from Shiga Daigaku were really nice too... and really, really good at English. Thursday morning we took our placement exams for language classes, and I choked on my oral interview, which is probably why I got placed into level two (the classes I took sophomore year and the first half of junior year). It's not a completely terrible thing, though--I could probably afford to re-learn some things. Also, I guess it's nice that I won't be stressing out too much over the intensity of the workload. It's a bit disappointing to not be in level three, but I'm bouncing back. Friday, classes started. So far, so good! The first few days were pretty terrible as far as jetlag goes. It took me two days to get back on a normal sleeping schedule, but I'm still a bit tired right now. Though I'm sure that's partially due to being out last night. I'll update again soon (probably tomorrow) with a lot of photos of the college, and my apartment, and hopefully some of the city.