Day 2: first day in Japan

     It was  amazing to fly across my wonderful motherland. For some time we were flying along the boarder with China, but remained in the Russian airspace. The sky was clear and we could see a perfect boarder between the land and the ocean -  amazing view! 

    The plane arrived 20 minutes before scheduled time. 11:34 Tokyo time. The weather outside was great and I couldn't stop smiling reading the signs only few of which were familiar to me. The procedure at the control desk was quite simple. Already there you would feel the Japanese spirit: there were two employees standing in the beginning of the line, showing to which counter you needed to go. At the counter I was met by a Japanese woman wearing a mask (this is a different story, I will write about masks later). I had to leave my fingerprints and photo and a residence card was printed and given to me right away. 1 minute and you are a temporary resident of Japan- that is what it takes! A big sign "welcome to Japan" was just perfect for a picture. Then we proceeded to receive our luggage and we are in TOKYO!!! 

    I has some cash with me in Euro, so I needed to exchange it. To exchange I had to fill in a form (there were two to choose from: red for changing JPY to other currencies and blue for the other way around). Pretty convenient. I filled in the paper, waited in line. The funny thing is that they didn't allow me to exchange more than 500 Euro without putting a Japanese phone number. I didn't have one. So I just put some random number and here it goes: worked! 

    The next challenge was to get to the metro station where our dorms were. Luckily for me I have met a student from Vienna University who has also arrived to make an exchange at the same flight. At least he knew the station we needed to go to which made all the things much more easier. A nice Japanese lady explained to us in Japanese-English how we could get to the place and where we get the tickets. The train and subway system in Tokyo is really complex, with few companies operating. MAP. Our ride was supposed to take 1,5 hours to the final destination. 

SUBWAY

     The subway in Tokyo is nice and clean (everything is clean here). There are special seats for disabled people, but locals didn't seem to obey that rule and occupied those seats to. Close to those special seat there was a sign: talking on mobile phone is not allowed. A little further from those seats there was another sign: please put your phone to silent and avoid phone conversations. I heard from my Japanese friend, the "unwritten rule" was that talking on the phone on subway was not allowed and considered disrespect to others (you don't want that to happen). If a younger Japanese would start talking on the phone, older people could tell him to stop and to behave. However my friend said that not all "unwritten rules" apply to foreigners. 

DORMITORY

    Luckily enough, I knew that the dormitory building (try to pronounce it: Motosumiyoshi) was the tallest in the area and I had to go left out of the metro.  So the place was pretty easily found after a 10 minute walk. A residence hear Kaions San and few residence assistants have met me downstairs with smiles and great hospitality. They offered tea and explained all the rules. I have also received a manual about how to use the residence building. There are quite a lot of rules, especially separated floors for guys and girls. The door downstairs can be opened with high tech key, and the elevator can be used with the key only. Actually the key we received allows us to go to the 1st and our floors only... Strange stuff for me...

    However, the rooms are really nice and fully equipped. I have a microwave, air conditioner, washing machine, bathroom fan and water warming machine.

 View from the other side of the building 

 View from the other side of the building 2

 Coridor

 My room: entrance

 Our floor 4

My room

View from my room's balcony

The balcony faces a small training ground of Japanese police. It is pretty funny to watch them train.

It takes time to figure our how all devices work, but we were provided with a great manual in English. Japanese value water a lot, thus it is important not to use too much water. Warm water is only available after the special heater is turned on. The trash has be separated. This is a long story but should be mentioned here. In Austria we separate paper, plastic, waste, two types of glass and metals. You just have to take it to a special container. In Japan it is much more complicated, have a look:

WIFI 

     When I was coming here, I was assuming Japan is really high-tech country and has wireless everywhere. I was mistaken... Our dorms only have a cable, neither McDonald's nor Starbucks have wifi... It was really strange and I couldn't get connected to the internet for quite some time.

SHOPS

     Those who have ever been on exchange know, that in the first week you usually spend more than in two entire upcoming months. Why does it happen? Firstly, you have lots of necessary big one-time expenses (things for your kitchen, cables and other stuff). Secondly, because that you don't know where exactly you can buy things cheaper, thus you buy those in the first store you find. Thirdly, you don't cook to much in the beginning, you more often eat out and thus spend more money. 

     The first day after arrival it was necessary to go check out Japanese stores. 10 minutes from our dorm inside the Hiyoshi metro station there is a big mall - so I headed there. The first floor of the supermarket is a huge groceries store. The only two things - really expensive and with lots of stuff I have no idea how to cook or eat. Many fishes are available in the assortment, already prepared sushi sets etc. A sack of bananas under 1 kilo was 250 yen, which is around 2,05 Euro. Quite expensive for European standards. Actually, all the meat and fruits are more expansive than in Vienna. After doing some purchases, I headed to the next floor to purchase internet cable. Having successfully done with my "perfect" Japanese, I headed one floor up to explore the mall more. This is where I got lucky! A 100-yen store was there! This amazing 100-yen store (which is exactly 105-yen store) I remember from my first visit to Japan when I was 12. Back then I came to Vakkanai with a trip from school and we lived for 5 days there. 100-yen store back then left an unforgettable experience as there I could find such a variety of items and couldn't believe they were of such a good quality and so cheap. So in this amazing store I was able to purchase all the little things I needed and this was the success of the day.

Street near Hiyushi station

SUMIMASEN (角ません)

     Sumimasen is a magic word you will here a lot everywhere. This is similar to English "excuse me" mut has slightly different touch to it. Japanese people always apologize for everything: in the store while passing by you, in the supermarket, on the streets. I will write about it when I get to know more about it. 

STREET WORKERS

     To me it seems there are lots of unnecessary jobs here. However, starting to understand the culture deeper, I begin to understand their value more. For example, a piece of sidewalk is under construction (2 meters long). Along the constructions the barriers are set up and the sighs "Attention" are hanged. However on every side of these 2 meters there is a person appointing to you that there is construction going on and with a special gesture suggesting you to go by. It is pretty nice feeling to be so much cared about! When I was leaving the building of our dorm today, downstairs there were workers bringing furniture. All of them said "Ohayou godzaimasu" to me and made a small bow. I need to teach Russian workers those things too  :)