Stolen Slippers and Rice Cookers

So today I was all excited when I woke up at 06:00 for the third day in a row. Today, I was going to buy a bike and a cell phone. Oh yeah, and I would have had this up 2 hours earlier, but someone decided to steal my big foot sized slippers, more on that later.

So at 11:00 I met my friend Suguru and went to where they were selling bikes specifically for students. Lone and behold, they didn't have any that really fit me. Soo...I bought one anyway. It is a nice granny bike, complete with luggage rack in the back, and basket up front, so I look absolutely ridiculous when riding it. As soon as I get a picture I will upload it. For now, you can feast on this, the co-op I was talking about in my previous entry. Neat-o ne?

Anyway, so I look absolutely ridiculous while riding my bike but its ok, because now I can actually get around. So me and my friend rode up to the district ward office because I had to pick up my ALIEN registration card. Well dummy me, Japanese dates are written [year, month, day] soo....I showed up a MONTH early to pick up my card, but it was a fun bike ride nonetheless.

After that we went into Yodobasi (yo-do-ba-shi) Camera which is a hugee electronics store at Sapporo station which is a 2 minute bike ride from my apartment. There are a million other stores there too, which is pretty cool. But inside this galactic collision of transistors are many micro stores, some of which are cell phone stores.

So one of the Japanese cell phone companies is called docomo (=anywhere) and they had this sick phone for a good deal and it looked cool. Well, after further investigation and a bit of translation, I found out that I could only get the sick (which means good By The Way) phone if I paid...55 dollars a month for the plan...sigh.

So I went over to Softbank, another Japanese cell phone company and got a crappy phone, but it was super cheap...free actually with the plan I got. So overall it was still ok. The phone btw is still super sweet. Its pretty thin, about 3/5 inches long, 1.5 inches wide, and about 1/2 inch thick. The phone I wanted was only 1/4 inches thick, but just as big in the other dimensions.

But it has an infrared sensor that Japanese phones use to communicate info, so now going around and adding people's names and numbers, you just hold your phone up to your buddies phone and they transmit each other's contact information automatically. It can also read bar codes and do some other cool stuff. I was in McDonalds again (haha) and my friend downloaded a coupon the their site, waved his cell phone in front of this small screen when he was ordering and the screen scanned the coupon off his phone.

Also Japanese phones strictly use email for text based communication, so if anyone is in japan, my email is too_tall_for_japan@softbank.ne.jp.

After that we walked around Sapporo station a little bit. Suguru said it wasn't crowded at all, but it was almost shoulder to shoulder people. Small stores, restaurants, the hyakin (100 yen store hehe) and so much other stuff that would take more than 1 day to see.

Japanese styles are also pretty cool/funny. I saw a guy today wearing what looked like a dead animal he dragged off the road and then stapled to his legs. Oh yeah, and in the electronics store, we took a quick look at rice steamers, their max price goes up to not 500$, not 700, not 1000, but 1500 dollars for a rice steamer. That is dedication ladies and gentlemen.

So my slippers also got stolen. They way Japanese entries work, you walk in, take your shoes off, step up (always a step no matter what) and put on your slippers. So there are usually pairs of slippers and shoes everywhere. well someone decided to take mine, so I am once again slipperless. Also this is the international dorm, so it must have been another foreigner. How ironic, to have a foreigner steal something from me in JAPAN.

I like this picture, well the picture of the river is supposed to go here...that is at least what I told my blog to do.

And for the video, I am standing on the bridge the river runs under. Notice the sound of the karas crowing in the background. I will also state that so far, they have been the only birds that I have seen or heard. Maybe they eat all the other birds, but I havent seen any other kind of bird yet. The video is large so give it time to load, its worth it :). and when I say big i mean 55 megabytes, so like..give it like...5 minutes ish...

Bibbling Babbling Brook

So today I decided to follow the path that goes along with this famous river that runs through campus. It has a cool name and some special history which I dont remember at all, but it was a lot of fun!

The river itself starts out in the Southwest corner of the university, and runs all the way up to the northeast corner. It has a small path that runs alongside of it, and in general is pretty nice. I would put up a picture here but quite frankly i dont know how. The river itself is very clean and shallow, starting from a spring and running quite quickly through some twists and bends around a park, then passes under a bridge.

The weather was pretty cold, with high winds and overcast, but it was still rather beautiful outside. The karas were loud and obnoxious as usual, but I am getting a little bit more accustomed to them.

Continuing on, it runs past some tennis courts where several people were getting there game on, and through some secluded corners and paths. I would like to note here that I have seen several ominous webs, spanning large distances. They were pretty cool, however I would NOT like to meet their makers.

Then on the left, I came upon a large wooded building that looked very old and had a dry funny smell to it. Upon further examination, it was the Kyudo (archery building) for the University. I crept around one side and found an entrance where I could see inside and was surprised to see a
rack of bows, all about as tall as I am. A dude was also in the middle of shooting an arrow, and he was doing everything very deliberately and slowly. It was pretty cool to watch.

Following the brook a bit further I found that it actually continues into the pond that I talked about in my earlier post. Who knew?


And 2 quick funny stories.

1. my friend and I are walking through JUSCO (see the movie kamikaze girls and you will know why I think that alone is funny) which is basically an American Walmart, and there is an older women standing next to a coffee machine. My friend quickly asks me something, however I didn't fully understand, and seeing as how I just got here I didn't really want to purchase a 115 dollar coffee machine yet. He mumbles something to the women and she promptly makes him a coffee drink. A small light turns on in my head, realizing that he wasn't asking me if I would like to buy it, but if I would like to try it. He too realized that that was what I had thought, and said that out loud, in earshot of 2 other old ladies who started laughing at the big tall moronic foreigner.

2. There is a co-op at the university, and I was trying to find it. I had been given directions from a friend and was pretty sure I had the right place, however after asking 2 of the employees there if I could sign up for it, neither of them had any idea what I was talking about. So I concluded that I must have been in the wrong place, and gave up. (insert picture here if I could) The building I was in was 4 stories tall, and on the outside in GIANT GREEN BOLD LETTERS WAS "CO-OP". Shame on those employees for not knowing they WORKED in the co-op, and shame on me for giving up because I have walked past that building about 10 times now.

'Splorin

So yesterday and today I had a bit of time to myself so I decided to do a little bit of 'splorin...(exploring). Armed with a handful of yen, a small map and a bottle of water, I set out from my dorm.

My first stop was a small cafeteria my friend Suguru had taken me to the day before. I had only eaten cocoa krispies in the morning so I was quite hungry. Upon arrival I found that the building (clark hall)was closed. Fail. So I decided to go to another building I had been to earlier where I had seen another cafeteria. Thank god it was open. I quickly ordered some Chicken tatuta which is basically dark meat fried chicken, soy sauce on top of white rice, needless to say it was pretty good.

After finishing my meal, I decided to try to find the gym. I had its location on the map and headed in its direction. Halfway there I found a small lake in the middle of campus which was quite serene and nice. I think it ties with mirror lake for beauty. Pictures as soon as I can figure out how to get them up on here.

Before I reached the gym, I heard a Japanese voice being projected over a mic system from a distance, and as I grew closer to the gym, I found a game of lacross going on. It was on an enclosed field and it looked like you had to pay to get any closer so I just stood outside the fence for awhile watching. I couldn't tell who was who but it looked like fun.

After walking a bit farther, I saw another field where an American football practice was going on. I walked a bit closer to watch for awhile and found it pretty amuzing. Both the offence and the defense had these little chants they would yell as they broke their huddle, and their teammates on the sidelines were constantly yelling things as well. It was pretty fun to watch, and maybe I will get some play time in hehe...

After that I found the gym, which was the size of the bathrooms at the R-PAC. But it has everything one would need for a decent workout, so I'm sure it will be fine.

That was the end of my adventure yesterday.

Today I pretty much did the same thing, went to Clark-hall to see if it was open, it wasn't again, and niether was the building with the ATM, so I couldn't really do anything. So i went to the other cafeteria, and ordered an extra large Chicken tatuta (yumm!). I got home and after a couple hours changed and wanted to go to the gym, buttttt i got there and it had already closed (at 3 pm)...so I walked home and typed this.

My Pillow is Made Out of Rocks!

So after a 27 hour commute and an hour long train ride, I am finally in Sapporo Japan.

Guess where the first place I went was? Thats right, MCDONALDS!! I am such a fat American. But its true, I hadn't eaten in 7 hours and was going to pass out without some form of sustenance, and McD's was the closest place where I knew I could get a nice quarter pounder, coke, and fries. Win.

Grabbed a taxi to get to my dorm and finally got into my room, or should I say nearly tripped out the window when I opened the door. I can literally take 2 steps and get from one side of my room to the other. But i have my own bathroom and a wa(ta)nabe "kitchen" so I guess I am stuck here for the next 11 months. Oh yeah, and my pillow is made out of rocks. Thats right, tiny plastic cylinders in a bag is what they gave me for a pillow...Needless to say I went out and bought a REAL pillow asap.

So far the weather and everything has been pretty beautiful and normal, except for the sun. It rises...at 4:30 in the morning, and it is currently 5:15 in the evening, and the sun is almost completely down.

Another thing thats wierd are the birds. There are these birds called "karas" thats are basically crow's on steroids. They are enormous, like the size of chickens, but they only hop, so its really funny to see these huge birds hopping along the ground after they land.

They are however trash eaters/carrion birds and they remind of the part in Zelda the Ocarina of time, when you are Adult link in Hyrule city, and everyone is dead except for these zombies that try to kill you. But there are birds crowing in the background of that part and they sound exactly the same as these birds so it creates sort of an ominous atmosphere as you are walking around, even with the sun out etc.