Chapter 2.1: My New Home

Upon arrival, we were greeted by two vans and a welcome group that made our first day very easy. We stepped out of the gate and were greeted warmly by our respective tutors. My tutor told me his name, or nickname in fact was "Guess". I learned later that it's actually Gas-san because he is notorious for his flatulence. But he pronounces it more like "guess" so I just call him Guess-san. Guess-san is in fact himself a very interesting guy. He traveled abroad last year for 1 year in France and learned French. He is very interested in interacting with international students and he probably speaks the most English of anybody I've met here in Japan since coming. I am lucky to have him as a tutor. He also is the first person who I can honestly say picks rice. I know we say it a lot as a joke in America, but Gas-san's family actually owns rice field and last weekend he went home to help his family harvest rice. I think that's really cool.

[I need to take a picture of Gas-san to post here.]

First Meal
So we were brought directly to Ijiri International Dormitory. They brought us to our rooms and Gas-san and the other tutors went out to buy us lunch. Wonder what my first meal in Japan was? Sushi? Terriyaki? Yakisoba? Nope. McDonalds. Haha, yep, so we ate McDonalds together in the lobby, introduced each other and talked to our new tutors and our lifelines for the next year.

First Day of School
The very next day after moving in was the first day of class. After having Gas-san show us how to get to our campus which is one train stop away, Jose, John, Eddie and I take the train by ourselves for the first time to school to meet for our architecture studio site field trip. No down time, we jump right in. We wait in the rain for about half an hour unsure if we were in the right place. Just as we were losing hope, we see Gas-san running up to us and apologizing. We go to class and sit together, 4 Americans and 4 French students among about 40 other Japanese students. The professor who speaks English explains that the class will be taught in Japanese and that our tutors can help translate for us the class. This is obviously not possible to translate an entire class, but we get the gist of it and we pile on a bus.

















Filled to the Brink

I think emergency exit strategies aren't as imporant to the Japanese because they have special fold out seats so that more students can pile in. After a rainy site visit, we return to campus and dispurse for the weekend. I meet my now close friends from France: Batiste and Laura from Paris, and Axel and Margaux from Bordeaux.

[More pictures of friends and my place to be updated. Please be patient.]