Chapter 4: Life Goes On...

Thursday, September 30, 1999

First time I go to Toyonaka campus, which is 30 minutes by bus from the Suita campus. Fortunately, the bus is free between the campus, so I can ride with my bicycle to Suita campus and then take the bus. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to get to Suita by bike.

We met some Japanese students from the Brothers and Sisters program (BSP) who gave us a campus tour. When I got back to the dorm, Fern (the Australian girl) told me we can get all kinds of stuff in the garbage deposit behind the dorm. Many people left during the week we got there, so there were all kinds os stuff that looked pretty new. So there I go, looking in the stinky garbage which consisted mostly of broken TVs VCRs, old clothes, old furniture... The good thing is, I now have a Sharp color tv, a small lamp for my desk, a big fan, and all kinds of cooking tools like frying pans and cauldrons... all for free. Let's say you learn pretty fast to suppress disdain when you do this kind of activities. (Actually, the cooking stuff was still clean, I just washed it with soap and everything was fine.)

Sorry if any Japanese read this, but Japanese tv programs are way weird. Some of them are normal, but the weirdest thing is the ads. They have really really weird ads on tv. I can't describe it. If I ever get my hands on a VCR, maybe I can record some for you guys. It's interesting to see. The ads are 15 seconds long, and they find a way to tell you tons of information and show you tons of pictures in that short time. I feel kinda brainwashed everything I watch ads for more than 2 minutes... really brainwashed... I don't watch tv very often... and I still have not seen any anime or cartoons on tv. I only get three channels, maybe they don't have cartoons on these...

----------- Friday, October 1st, 1999

Opening Ceremony at Icho-kaikan. Everybody is well dressed, and we made a self-presentation before the heads of the university and some other students. Pretty impressive. Plus thing: FREE FOOD, and good food at that! Where there's free food, there's Julie!!! (eh, I even go to the grocery store to get free samples ;)~ eheh) Now this is the day I started feeling sick.... hrm it's not the food though. I think it's the fatigue, the water, the time difference... everything at once is not good! My stomach felt uneasy for the whole weekend following that day, that's it. Now I'm okay (now being October 12).

Chapter 5