Japan - Part 2

So my sleeping schedule is horrible. I was hoping it would eventually become somewhat normal, but not so much. We are up at crazy hours & sleeping at even crazier ones, but we're making due. 


Monday Craig got all his paperwork signed and we paid the rent and became official. It was nice to know that the power wasn't suddenly going to go out because we hadn't paid the rent! There are a lot of rules to staying at the international house on campus. Toyonaka, the city we are staying in, has crazy rules about trash. You have to separate it into things that can be burned, things that can be recycled, and then everything else. The city provides specific bags and you have to use them. It's different, that is for sure. Recycling is crazy here. There are recycle cans EVERYWHERE. There is no excuse, that is for sure. There are vending machines around every corner that have anything from sparkling water, to coffee, to beer. It's kinda strange. Mostly Japanese drinks, some Coke, even less Pepsi. No Diet Coke to speak of. We did find some grape Mountain Dew. That was cool.


Monday morning we managed to find a grocery store and stock up on some essentials. Grocery shopping is grocery shopping, regardless of the country you are in.


So Monday afternoon, we met up with Craig's professor and saw the lab where Craig will be working. I don't know much about science labs, but it looks cool. It's pretty small, Craig's "office" consists of a desk, but there are some really cool instruments in there that Craig will get to use. Pretty awesome. His professor took us on a tour of Osaka University. It is a really nice campus. There is a lot to do on Campus and it seems like there are tons of students. The campus we are on is only one of 3 in total. They just grew so much, they had to have additional campuses. After touring the university, we headed to the Market Street. It was really cool. Local vendors selling everything from shoes to sushi. It was really neat. I'm excited to go back and check it out more thoroughly before I leave. We took the train to Umeda, which is one of the big cities near where we are. There is a few tourist things to do there and Craig & I are headed back today. We just went with his professor to check it out. The train stations there are HUGE. I couldn't believe it. I have a feeling we might get lost. 


Tuesday ended up being a lazy day because of all the walking we did Monday that we weren't prepared for. We didn't know we where getting a tour so neither of us were prepared for all the walking. I ended up with blisters on my feet and Craig's legs were pretty sore. I had some work to do and we did go check out the cafeteria on campus, but that was about it. Sadly, we keep falling asleep around 6pm and waking up at 2 or 3am. Then the sun comes up around 4:30, so sleeping in isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. 


This morning we got up and got going earlier. We went to check out the cafe on campus that served breakfast and now we are about to head out to Umeda for some fun!

Japan - Part One

Traveling to Japan is long and hard. 19 hours of flight was crazy. Once we finally landed we had 2 hours of trains to take. Thankfully we figured it out and got on the right train every time. By the time we made it our last stop, it was dark and raining. We had to walk to the university and it was a guess about which direction. We saw a fairly large building and was hoping it was the school dorms. Sadly not so much. It was the hospital. Thankfully someone pointed us in the right direction and we made it to the International House at Osaka University.  Craig found the RA and after something like 30 hours of travel we finally made it to our final destination. I think it was probably the longest day I've had in a really long time. Dragging suitcases in the rain was not much fun, but all in a days work I guess.

That was Friday. Saturday required rest. It was about 10 when we finally left the apartment. We just started walking. We found a Family Mart and figured that was were a lot of the college students shopped. We kept walking and found a McDonald's. Since we didn't find a lot else, we decided to stick with something we knew. It was interesting to order since we didn't speak Japanese and no one there spoke English. Thankfully they had picture menus and we pointed to what we wanted. We left McDonald's and went to the Family Mart to grab some dinner. We did the noodles and chicken thing. They turned out to be pretty good. I also ate my dinner with chopsticks. Not as hard as I thought it was. We bummed around the apartment the rest if the day. We unpacked and took a nap. Craig got the internet up and running, so we caught up with the world. We ended up in bed around 930. I guess we were still tired. The only problem was we woke up way to early. The sun rises really early here and since we went to bed so early, we were up really early Sunday morning.

We decided to go to church on Sunday, so we mapped it out and figured out how to get there. It didn't seem to difficult. We had to take the monorail, then a train. Not too bad. We got on the monorail and got off at the right stop. Then we got on the train, but ended up on an express train the skipped the stop we needed and headed to the next station. The problem with the train was it was more local, so there wasn't an English translation for everything like on the bigger trains. Anyway, once we got to the wrong stop, we had to figure out how to get back to the right stop. After getting on the wrong train and going the wrong way once, we finally figured it out and got to the right place. After walking in the wrong direction, we finally made it to the church.

There were 4 missionaries and three of them spoke English. It was nice to see them. We made it through the Sacrament when someone came and offered to translate. That made the rest of the meeting easier. It was nice to understand what was going on. We left after Sacrament meeting and headed back to the apartment. There was a little cafe in the train station, so we grabbed a sandwich there. We stopped at the Family Mart to grab dinner and settled in at home to rest. I took a nap and ended up sleeping until after 8. We had dinner and I read till about midnight. Somehow I still managed only to sleep until 5:30 this morning. The sun just comes up to early here.

So the day is just getting started. Craig has to go sign paperwork for the apartment this morning, then we are off to to find him a phone and then a grocery store. Should be a fun day.

So far Japan has been amazing. Everyone here has been really nice. One lady even helped us find the right train. It's been an amazing experience so far.