First Full Day part 1

Yesterday was my first full day in Japan. I got up at 6:30 and finally got a much needed shower. Then I bothered Jess (my friend living in room next to mine) for something to eat. We had purchased some cheese and bread the night before, and I was huuuuungry. After that, I gave an update to fam and friends on fb before getting ready to leave for the entrance ceremony at school.

I bounced down to the first floor from my 4th (and top) floor room on stairs that are outside in the open air, and I flipped my room number tag to show that I was out. The group of noobs all met, and two senior KCP students were kind enough to show us the way to school for the first time. First up was a ten minute walk to the Ikebukuro station- Ikebukuro is the area in which I'm staying. There were plenty of people out walking or bike riding to work or school or wherever they needed to go.

We arrived at the station, and the two senior students showed us which way to go. We took the Fukutoshin line to Shinjuku-sanchome, then got off and took the Marunouchi line to Shinjuku-gyoemmae. This may not mean anything to a lot of people reading this, but try looking it up. It is actually a pretty simple ride to follow, especially since the stops are numbered. To explain we took the Fukutoshin line from stop F-9 to F-13, then transferred to the Marunouchi line and took stop M-9 to M-10. That made getting back easier to understand, although I feel Jess will not remember this very well. Luckily, we'll all be traveling in a group for awhile.

Once arriving at the Shinjuku-gyoemmae station, we walked the rest of the way to the school. Soon I'll post a picture of it to show everyone what the school looks like (which is not much like a school at all). The building is rather narrow but has 8 floors. Guess where the entrance ceremony was held? Yep, the top floor. The elevator was tiny, so only 4-5 people used it at a time. Some students decided to walk the entire way- I had to laugh at Jay, a student in my dorm who looked about to die after eight flights of stairs.

The ceremony was pretty interesting. Each part was translated from Japanese to Korean, Chinese, and then to English. There were four translators in a row, and they seemed to be good friends. Before the ceremony started, the Japanese translator was teasing the Korean one, and she proceeded to smack him on the arm in a playful manner. I had to suppress some giggles at that point. Once it started, it became clear that the ceremony was very structured: an opening statement followed by words from the principal, and then the vice principal, and various other teachers were introduced. My favorite part was the introduction of select clubs with students to show their work. A girl from the musical club played the recorder for us. A boy in the Japanese song club sang a few lines of a song by Arashi, a popular singing group in Japan. And another boy showed some works of the newspaper club and the anime/manga club. Anyone who knows me knows which two I'm joining. ^_~

That's where I'll leave this post, as I need to finish getting ready to leave for orientation. I'll be back to finish later! Note it is actually Saturday the 8th here. I just haven't changed the time on my computer. XP Bye for now!