Being a minority and getting lost.

Even in Tokyo there aren’t that many foreigners. I haven’t been to the very heart of Tokyo yet, but I’ve been to Shinjuku and around some other places, and I would say that’s its maybe 1 in every 200-300 people are foreigners. In the suburbs, I haven’t seen another foreigner yet. It’s a strange experience to be a very small minority. Even though Asians in America are a small minority, they still have a ratio that’s several times higher than foreigners in Japan. It’s a really strange feeling but not really a bad one. I haven’t been treated badly at all yet.

My stomach has gotten pretty much used to the food here. I can eat a full meal now. However, today I had something at lunch that was really bad tasting. I say “something” because I haven’t the slightest idea what it was. I could barely swallow the stuff. Japanese pears are really good though. They are like big apples that taste like pears. They are really good. Most Japanese food is good.

Today I went to my school to practice riding the trains. It was pretty nerve racking. At every transfer I’d thought I’d taken the wrong train. I made it there alright and actually there was a ciee student at the train station. I talked to her for awhile. She was waiting for a friend from her school. I was going to go out with them but then remembered I had to get back before 6pm to have dinner or call back that I wasn’t going to make it, but since I don’t have a cell phone yet, I couldn’t do that. On my way back I thought I got really lost. I was looking for the seibu-ikebukuro line but I could only find a bunch of other seibu lines. But I was trapped in this one area because I’d already gone through the machines and when I tried to go back out it bleeped at me with a red X. So I asked a train attendant where the seibu-ikebukuro line was and he said it was here, but it didn’t say that anywhere. I told him where I needed to go and he said this train here would take me there… But it doesn’t end there. I get back to hibarigaoka and start to make my way back to my host family’s house… I really need to pay attention more to directions when I’m in a place that’s completely foreign. Everything looked the same so I ended up taking a few wrong turns. It took me an extra 30-45 minutes to walk home.

Tomorrow I’m waking up early and going in for more orientation. We’re going to go to ikebukuro to experience a fake 6.0 earthquake. That should be fun.