Finally had the time to write my first blog entry in Japan... I will try to write from the start...
3 Apr
Touched down at Narita Airport at 6:30pm. Cleared custom and found my luggage. It looks like it's still in one piece..
Met the JASSO (Japan Student Service Organisation) staff and was led to a room for registration. They gave us \25,000 as arrival allowance, which come in handy for purchasing telephone card. I bought 1 NTT caller card and called home to inform Dad that I've arrived safely in Japan.
Met a couple of Msian scholars too. Two of them were actually from the same interview session as me. Most of them are going University of Tokyo (Todai), only a handful are going to other Universities. Found 3 other fellas going to Waseda University and one of them, Chua, will be going to the same dormitory as me, at the Komaba International Student House.
We waited at the airport for the transport for more than 3 hours. It seemed that all Monbusho scholars are arriving today... Including those from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. Very few Chinese faces, not counting Msians. There are only a few Malays among us.
Finally boarded the bus after passing our luggages to a transport company. The whole bus was full of Vietnamese. Took us more than 90 mins to get to our hostel. And there, even more Vietnamese.
After paying \1,000 for the utility, I finally moved into my room in Residence Hall 2, Room 2-528. The room is really really small, but it's bigger than the room in Eusoff Hall. It has an attached bathroom/toilet. At least I dont have to bring my barang-barang every time I wanna bath.. The room was relatively clean, so I did minimal cleaning. Unpacking was fast but not the setting up of my bed. Took me almost 20 mins to figure out what is supposed to be where, as there were just too many layers. All these while, I didnt eat anything. It was almost 2pm and the last meal I had was the breakfast on the plane. I checked out the kitchen and realised that even kettle was not provided!! I had to buy almost every cooking utensils!! From pots and pans to utensils (spoons & chopsticks) to washing detergent. And I was so confident the day before, telling Mum that I do not need to bring those things as they will be provided. How wrong was I!!
Compared to Eusoff Hall, almost everything here cost money. It's \150 for washing a laundry load of 4kg and \100 for using the dryer. We cant have electric stove or iron in the room. The utilities is charged for electric and water usage. As there is an attached bathroom and a fridge in the room, and the air-con also acts as the heater, so the total utility bill for the first month will definitely be a shocker...
Anyway, after packing I went around to check out the place. Met Chua, the Malaysian guy. Seemed like he went around the neighborhood for a walk. We decided to do another round of 'site-tour' and at the same time find something to eat. When we reached the train station, we decided to go to Shibuya to find food, as there are no cheap restaurant around the dorm. Paid \120 for the ticket.
When we got to Shibuya, we just kept walking. Everything seems so fresh to us. We went around looking at the prices of almost everything, trying to figure out how much are those, in terms of Msian Ringgit/Spore dollar. Finally we came to Yoshinoya and had my first warm meal in Japan.... I had my usual beef bowl, which cost \360.
After eating, we continue walking around to check out prices for Starbucks (slightly more expensive than Spore), Subway (cheaper than Spore), McDonalds (about the same), KFC (about the same) and all the other familiar brand names.
On our way back to the dorm, we stopped at the nearby convenient store and bought some food. I bought a bottle of orange juice and a loaf of raisin bread. Both cost me about \502, which is slightly more expensive than in Spore.
Slept early as I was very tired, and also because I didnt sleep well on the flight...
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Will continue with day 2 in the next entry.. and some pictures too...
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