Well, I certainly haven't made many posts since I arrived in Japan on March 28th. While I was in Tokyo, I spent most of my days out and about exploring. And, when I got to Kagoshima I found that I was stuck with very limited internet for nearly two weeks. It seems I finally have internet (fingers crossed this lasts), granted I'm wired, but it doesn't matter as long as it's internet hahaha. I guess I should start catching up with my flight and day one in Tokyo. The flight was 13 hours, so obviously a very long time spent in the air. I left Atlanta and made my way to Toronto first. A very nice Canadian couple helped me out in the Atlanta airport quite a bit. I got to the airport at approximately 5:00am (my flight was to leave at 6:30) and when I got there the airport wasn't even up and running yet, so there was quite a bit of waiting before I could make my way through security. Security was the most nerve wracking part about the Atlanta airport, especially since I had a fairly decent amount of liquid medication on me. Luckily, nothing was really said to me about it, only they opened up each bottle to check. After that I had a little bit longer to wait and then off I was to Canada. The flight to Canada was a little bumpy, the plane was quite small. In fact, it was too small for my carry-on to really fit as it was supposed to, but that was fine since there were hardly a dozen people on the plane. I slept almost the entire way to Toronto, there must have been something about the roaring of the plane engine and the slight rocking, because this was a common occurrence throughout my entire trip including the flight to Kagoshima. I got to Toronto and no one even so much as stopped to really look at me while I was looking for where to go next, which I was quite thankful for. And finally after four hours in Toronto, I was off to Tokyo. Again though, I slept a large portion of the way. I was also smart and thought ahead to change my ipod's clock to Japan time during the flight. All the sleeping + the change in time helped me avoid any major jetlag. Instead I got to Japan and was already pretty much accustomed to the time. The Narita airport was a little more confusing just because some people didn't know how to handle the fact that I was coming over as a student. Also, I don't know if they have these in America, but luggage carts! They were so useful! I had brought quite a bit of luggage with me (three roller bags, a bookbag, and a small purse) and they were really hard to handle alone, but those things helped out a lot. Customs went really well, what could have been complicated with my medicine and such, I really think they were mostly worried about getting money from the Japanese coming in from abroad with gifts. After all that was over I changed some of my American cash to yen and bought a ticket for the first bus to the hotel I was staying at. I wish I had thought to take pictures on the bus, but out of pure exhaustion from the entire ordeal I was so zoned out all I could think of was a shower and bed. I arrived in Narita on time at around 3:30, but I didn't get to my hotel until nearly 8:00. I stayed at the Akasaka Excel Hotel Tokyu. It was a pretty nice hotel room. The room wasn't big, but it's Tokyo, so I wasn't expecting much. It had a TV, but I only turned it on a couple of times. And, the bathroom was really nice. The tub was so deep I could have drowned in it and the toilet was one of the fancy Toto ones. Now, I guess I'll do a quick re-cap of my trip to Tokyo. First day I went to Shibuya. It was such a huge place. I honestly thing I could spend the rest of my life exploring just around there and never find everything. 

This is a picture I took of the Hachi Statue. I think I actually took this on the way back to the train station though. It was really hard for me to believe just how many people there were there. It was crazy all the people scrambling like ants across the crosswalk. 

Though, I must admit, I don't think it was nearly as bad as Harajuku. But I went there on Sunday, so it was to be expected. 

Basically though I spent most of my day in Shibuya browsing stores and shopping. I went into a lot of random places just to look around. I also went to 109. I went there, because I wanted to see all the gyaru shops like Liz Lisa and Ank Rouge. I'm afraid I didn't actually take a picture of the building though. 

Oh wait, apparently I did! yay!

I also went to Tutu Anna, which I'm finding in a lot of places, which I'm quite happy about because I want to get some more cute tights before I leave >_<; The socks and tights were so cute though!! I bought too much there... I haven't gotten a chance to wear my tights yet, it's been a tad bit too cold in Kagoshima. But, yeah, even one of the grocery stores near me, Taiyou, sells tutuanna socks.

I spy Krispy Kreme...

I also went to the Disney Store which was a really awesome building. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the inside of it.

I also went into Loft and bought a few letter sets and book covers!

Well, that was March 29th. Now on to the 30th!

March 30th was Gundam day hahaha. I went to Odaiba to see Gundam Front Tokyo for my big brother. It was kinda weird seeing a 1/1scale gundam. Part of me thought "wooow that's big" and then another part of me expected it to be bigger. It was still really neat though. I bought a good bit in the Gundam store too. I got a lot of Haro merchandise for me, since I really like haro, and then I got my brother a bunch of stuff. I gotta figure out how to safely mail it to him though. I can't seem to find decent packing supplies around here. Part of me is thinking about mailing a couple of the things, but the mugs (one of which goes to my dad) actually keeping them with me and taking them home to America first. I'm worried about them breaking on the way there since I can't find bubble wrap -_-;

Oh and I also actually tried Krispy Kreme!

The sakura one was actually pretty good. The original glazed was sweeter than in America.

After I left Odaiba, I swung by the hotel and dropped off the stuff I had bought and went to Akihabara, which was lackluster. I don't know what I expected from it though. It just seemed like a really dingy place.

I went into a couple of stores and arcades. Of course one of those stores was Gamers though, just because I felt like I needed to go since I loved Di Gi Charat hahaha. There were so many people though -__-; Everything in the area was crowded and dirty looking. So I didn't stay too long.

AKB48 lol

Bye bye Akiba~

Finally, on the 31st I went to the area around Harajuku station. This was, personally, my favorite area. Walk down one street and you get into Omotesando and  high end fashion and make up like Chanel, Dior, Dolce&Gabbana. Walk down the others and you find tons of small boutiques and unique thrift shops. And the area was actually quite cute. I hope I get a chance to go back before I leave (probably shouldn't though that might be dangerous for my wallet). Before I really started exploring Harajuku though, I went to the Meiji Shrine. 

It was a really weird mix of peaceful and not peaceful, mostly because there were a lot of tourists. I don't really have much to say about the shrine though. I thought it was funny that they had a gift shop. Capitalizing on religion hahaha. I did actually pick up a quite few things in the gift shop though, just because it had a lot of good souvenir type gifts. That and I love cats, so I tend to gravitate toward manekineko :3

After that the real adventure began while I wondered around. I went into Kiddy Land, which my penpal Sayaka recommended. I bought a couple of things in the Rilakkuma store. I bought me the keychain counterpart of the capricorn rilakkuma that Sayaka sent me and I bought my bff one of her sign. I also bought a small cup which ended up being a great purchase because I needed some for my room. 

I also bought a new backpack in this really cute bag shop. The had so many unique bags!

Some of the stores I found wandering down side streets. There were dog clothing stores everywhere!

Wandered down through this area, but it wasn't really my taste.

There certainly were a lot of interesting things to see down that road though.

Also went to Takeshitadori. I liked this area, I just wish there hadn't been so many people! (I think that's going to be a general opinion of a lot of my trip in general)...

I bought some cute clothes in this store :3

One of the things that I kept thinking while I was walking around takeshitadori was, "omg if this were America these things would be gone." All the crowds and they just had clothes outside. Even shops that were in the upper levels had things down on the street. 

I don't remember if this was before or after I went to Takeshitadori, but I passed a group protesting nuclear power.

As well as a group doing something that had something to do with music?

And leaving Takeshitadori I forgot about the pink people

And that was pretty much that for Harajuku. There's probably tons more I could say about it, but really I just wandered around. I liked it though. I'd like to go back one day :)

And then, that night it was time to pack to head on down here to Kagoshima. I woke up really early and caught the first bus out of the hotel to the airport (this time I was flying through Haneda). I ended up having to wait for a really long time in the airport because I got there so early, but that was ok. I'd rather have to sit around for a while then be late. And there wasn't much I could've done around the hotel anyways. I can say that their internet was really slow though. The only thing that bothered me were all the kids hanging around playing the new Animal Crossing game ><; Also, Haneda was the one place thus far that gave me trouble with my medication. I'm actually glad I got the yakkan shoumei, since I don't think they would've let me through without it. It doesn't help that none of them could really understand what it was when I explained it. Oh yeah, I also shipped two of my bags via a shipping service, which was actually really handy. I paid about $30 to ship two bags to Kagoshima, the only problem was they arrived three days later, but that's what I get for not paying attention to the fact that I needed to ship them at least 24 hours prior to the departure date. Good thing was though, was that it was going to cost at least $50 per bag for overage charges and that didn't even take into account the price if they were a little overweight.

Well, that's kinda all there is to say about Tokyo. I got on the plane and after about 2 hours I arrived in Kagoshima where I met my tutor, Ayaka. She picked me up from the airport and brought me to the kaikan (international residence hall). She's helping me out a lot. She's been taking me around helping me get everything that need's to be done, done. It's nice here, I need to start taking some more pictures. It's rather cold here right now though. Not so much the actual temperature, but the wind. My room's really nice. I'm glad I got in the building with personal bathrooms. 

I've got a little kitchenette and entry way for my shoes.

The bathroom is super tiny, but it beats not having one. 

Yeah, that's supposed to be a shower. I don't understand the sink being in there. I don't use it. I wash my face and brush my teeth at the one in the kitchen. It's just more convenient. Plus if the floor in the shower is still wet or damp, then I don't want to be stepping on it.

This is the view from my little balcony area.

Then my desk and closet area. The bed is on the other side. 

It's not bad here, it's just not home. I hate saying it, because I feel like it makes me seem unappreciative of the opportunity I have to come here, but if I could leave tomorrow, I would. Everyone is really nice. I really like my adviser. He's been helping me out a lot. Monday (April 8th), we had a placement test and that didn't go well. I was really nervous and that didn't help things any, but it was a really weird test. I don't see how it places people well at all. The listening sections was rather ridiculous. They were really fast and we had to pick out a single syllable that was missing. Then the written part was things that I haven't done since 1001, like fill in the blank particles and complete the sentence questions (that give you no context). Neither of which I'm very good at. Heck, the complete the sentence questions I'm not even good at in English. I need context, I can't just come up with my own middle part of a sentence with not much to work with. I really wanted to place pre-intermediate. I figured there was no way for me to get into intermediate, but since I did so badly I got into elementary 3. Today was the first day of class and it was so stupid. We went over verb forms. I've been studying Japanese how many years now and they want me to re-learn verb forms? Now, I'll admit I don't have the greatest memory sometimes and mix up things. But, really? I'm going to keep going and find out if things keep getting worse. I think I have until next Wednesday to officially say what I'm registering for and if it stays this stupid I may complain. I don't know who to though. I already asked if it would be ok to go  into pre-intermediate anyways since I wanted to and was willing to put in the effort if it was that hard, but they basically laughed in my face for asking. I even specifically asked to go into intro to reading and was told "絶対無理！！！” (absolutely impossible). I don't know why though... Tobira is basically nothing but intro to reading. I know I read slowly, but still. Someone told me I should just go to the classes and take the easy A, which I'll probably do. Mostly, because I don't figure they'll do anything about it anyways. They've probably already labeled me as some stupid gaijin and that's that. That and it's easier than making waves. I'm only going to be here until August anyways, might as well make it easy so I don't have to worry about much while I'm here. My adviser is also letting me take and sit in on some of the classes for the general populace. Today I sat in on one that was about the transition of Japanese from past to present. I didn't really understand much of it, but I tried my best. My adviser says it's an easy A, since there's usually a lot of people (right not a little over a 100) and there's a new teacher every week or so. I'm not officially registered for it yet though. I'm a little bit afraid that it's not going to be so easy after all, but the lecturer today was really nice . He kinda zoned in on the fact that I was the only non-Japanese in the room. It was quite awkward. I enjoyed it though, what I understood of it was really interesting. I recorded it on my ipod so I can listen to it more and hopefully gain a better understanding. I'm really lonely and I really want to go home, but I just keep telling myself it'll be ok and I just have to make it til August. I don't know for sure yet, but I'm hoping I can move my return flight up a week. It looks like all the Japanese classes are over as of July 30. And if that's the case then there shouldn't be too much more for me to worry about as far as finals are concerned. I hope this really is the case, because it would be awesome if I could be home for mom's birthday. We'll see I guess.

Oh and I also entered the lottery for Macross 30 Crossover Live concert! I hope I get a ticket. Then I'll get to go see Koda Kumi on June 1st in Hokkaido and Macross on July 13th in Chiba. They'll be good things to look forward to.