Day 10: Adjusting to a Different way of Life:

Day 10: Adjusting to a Different way of Life:

Today I woke up at 8am so that I would not delay my host mom’s breakfast schedule. She told me to sleep in and come up when I wake up, but I don’t want to be a burden. Had a wonderful yet simple breakfast of tamago, salad and gohan. On the schedule for the morning was to go to the ward office to get my alien registration card and health insurance. I got that done, which was awesome! It was kind of difficult so I was glad my host mom could help me.

For lunch I went to a convini and went exploring around a bit. I quickly ate lunch and did some important class scheduling before having to head out to Waseda.

I cut it a little close by leaving right at 2:10. I should have given myself more time since this was my first subway attempt from my home stay to the school. Of course today I did everything wrong and what my host father said not to do haha. I got on the express which didn’t stop at the stop I wanted so I had to get off at another and figure it out from there. Long story short after much running up stairs and changing trains I made it to the ceremony just in time, dripping in sweat from the unbearable humid weather. On a positive note I didn’t fully panic which was good and I also fully explored the subway railways. I am a lot more knowledgeable on how everything works now. I am comfortable with it now since that happened.

Reaching the auditorium at 3pm, the open ceremony for SILS started! It was great getting to see all of our SILS professors and see our group leader speak. After that, my friend and I made an attempt to go to Ikebukuro, determined to buy a denshizishyo, an amazing device. After a long conversation with the Japanese floor helpers trying to explain the function of the device in Japanese to us American students was quite interesting. Thank goodness we could understand most bits and pieces. Of course there was a little confusion but it was a great conversation and practice in the real world out of class. Again we didn’t end up buying them today. We both learned a lot about the device though! A plus for that dang train ride. After that I rushed back on the denshya to make it in time for dinner. I made it back a little after 7pm, which was the dinner eating time. Dinner tonight was hamburger with salad and rice. SO GOOD! Took a must-needed shower and stayed up late doing some work before bed. Rough day but good learning experience! :)