Typhoon and Shibyua

Sunday I received an email from the International Office warning all the K-Step students of an approaching typhoon. I huddled in my room Sunday, as well as Monday, pouting over cups of ramen and packages of dried seaweed. I had one with pokemon shaped and dyed pieces. I had another which looked to have Thai influence and was ridiculously spicy. The kind dorm residents helped me find a teapot to boil water, as my ramen cups were not microwaveable, and helped me figure out the gas stove. The winds and rain howled today, and after huddling in my room, I wandered out to see fellow K-Step students in the cafeteria. I hurried out there with my ramen and they offered to share their meal with me. I am so glad that all of the students I have met have been so warm and kind and helpful. These girls shared their food, which was from home, with someone they barely knew. It really touched me. We had a great conversation over sardines, Malaysian sticky rice, Malaysian chicken, raisins, watermelon, and tea(hot tea that I actually liked!). We talked about our respective home countries, families, and our experiences so far in Japan. I learned so much about Malaysia. I can’t wait to chat and learn more. We are going to be watching anime together soon. I am so excited! I didn’t get a picture of the food, which I should have, it was excellent! I do have a picture of the ramen. I saw some ramen shops, with real ramen, I cannot wait to chow down!

Pokemon ramen

my bowl from the hyakuyen store

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, ham, and lettuce. I am delighted to report that the ketchup is acceptable to my palette. When I went to Costa Rica, the ketchup did not taste very good. I think it was because it didn’t have any corn syrup in it. I was worried that the ketchup would taste different. 

Miyazakidai train station

Today I met the rest of the K-step students. The girls met at the station, where Japanese students waited to assist up to the campus. We saw some school age girls waiting for the train. They were wearing sailor style uniforms. We arrived from Miyazakidai to Shibuya. Shibuya is known as the fashion district of Tokyo. It was much more crowded and noisy than Miyazakidai, but still very clean. 

 We then walked about 10 or 15 minutes to the campus.

 

Shibuya

A food shop

Kokugakuin Campus

The view of Shibuya from one of the campus buildings

 The campus is so beautiful! There is a shrine on campus, as the campus has a focus on Shinto studies. There are three main buildings on the campus that are close to each other. Orientation lasted the whole day, with a tour around the campus, an explanation of the computer lab, and various paperwork. The buildings are very tall and modern. The bathrooms were so clean and state of the art! The library even more so. They have so many books! There was a machine that sorted and stored books and it looked very scary and futuristic. For lunch, there was the option of curry and rice, seafood curry and rice, spaghetti and meat sauce, regular spaghetti, alfredo with tuna, and hotdogs. The regular spaghetti had what looked like sliced tomatoes, corn, and I think sausage in it. I got the alfredo, which had tuna, onions, and mushrooms. I observed the Japanese students eating the spaghetti. They used the knife and spoon method. I felt so coarse and unrefined just twisting my fork around! Hahaha. I feel like Kokugakuin was meant for me: their mascot is a rabbit. The school mascot is so cute!

campus shrine

statue on campus

one of the campus buildings, which has the cafeteria

the creepy basement of the library. There were machines in there sorting the books

the cafeteria

lunch

My classmate Sara

Kokugakuin's mascot

After chatting and filling more paperwork, we all walked down to the station to buy train passes. Although we filled out student information to get our train passes, it ended up we had to fill out another form! Luckily, we had Japanese students there to help us as we filled everything out. Then we parted ways and took our respective trains home. The morning train was not bad, but in the evening we packed like sardines in the train. The train was so fast and smooth and clean. It was just so hot! It cools down a bit at night, but the whole day was very hot. We arrived in time for dinner, which was udon, dumplings, and rice. It was a lot of food, I didn’t finish everything for once! Tomorrow is an overnight class trip to hot springs, Hokone castle, a shinto shrine, and a Komoboko factory(fish paste).

Taken with my tablet. Another food shop.

walking back to the train station

Udon and dumpling