Cherry Blossoms & Shower Buttons

日本からのご挨拶。
Greetings from Japan.

This is my first official post in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo (東京都新宿区)! I'm sitting in my 7.29 square meter room with the AC/heater controller and my friend's DS translator close at hand. Both smirk at me: the former waiting for me to adjust the air temperature yet again and the latter daring me to push another shower button without translating it first...

Rewind, back up. Let's start at the beginning. As my plane descended through the thick layer of soupy clouds, I could only see gray until the plane kissed the ground. Then, as if from a storybook, cherry blossom trees appeared light and fluffy like cotton candy. Many more greeted me as I journeyed to Narita 成田, a city in Chiba 千葉 just outside of Tokyo, to spend the night at a Motel 6 equivalent in Japan.

The next day I took a shuttle back to the airport where a kind taxi driver agreed to take me into Tokyo and my first two stops: Sakura House's office headquarters and then my apartment. Driving in the taxi was quite an adventure as I made small talk with the driver, took photos of all the buildings and cherry blossoms through my window, and adjusted my eyes to being driven on the opposite side of the road.

After finding our way through the narrow streets of Yotsuya 3 Chome 四谷三丁目, the taxi driver and I parted. I lugged my black monster of a suitcase up four flights of stairs (no elevator) and entered the tiny, two bedroom apartment complete with a full kitchen that could fit in the average American's closet. I met one of my roommates, Lily (from Paris, France), and later that night her boyfriend, Jack, (from Boston) and his friend, John (from New Hampshire). Lily and I instantly clicked after learning that we share similar life styles and a love for the Big Bang Theory.

Yesterday (today for those back home) our orientation commenced at 10am with advisors and professors speaking English fluently and welcoming us to Sophia. Professor Kiyoshi Noguchi was especially entertaining with his jokes. He warned to only mark answers you know on the placement test because a student who had never taken Japanese before guessed randomly and placed in advanced.

Introductions over, I met up with a few Japanese student monitors who showed other international students and me around the campus. We ate lunch together, discussing where we were from, why we chose Japanese, etc. I spoke with Gen, studying Chinese, Yutaro, studying Biology, and Misa, studying Portuguese (all from Japan). In addition, I met several international students from all over the world: from Australia to France to Germany to Mexico and Morocco.

Once acquainted, all of us international students headed to the examination room where we spent 3 and a half hours on the most difficult Japanese test I've ever taken; it covered Kanji, conjugations, reading comprehension, and composition. Tomorrow the results come in and then I choose my classes from there.

Other than the expected language barrier bumps, I've been able to communicate fairly well and read street signs (mainly Katakana) and grocery labels (cheated with Skippy peanut butter, though, which was in English). The biggest scare happened this morning.

When I showered the first night, the settings had been left on and I had no problems. Today, however, I tried to make out the complex Kanji character buttons to no avail. Instead of double checking each one in the translator, I decided to hit all of the buttons and determine through trial and error how to make the water hot. After pushing in the first button, a tiny alarm sounded for a few seconds and then stopped. My heart skipped a beat as I waited, looked around, and then ran to my room to retrieve the translator. To my horror, the button translated as "send the police" 警察を送る. I hesitated before knocking on my roomates' door. I woke up at 5am still adjusting to Japan time, which my roommates no longer experienced having been here a month. I knocked once. Waited. Twice.

Jack answered and I explained what happened. He said not to worry about it: the alarm only sounds in the apartment. The police weren't coming! I sighed in relief and continued to translate the rest of the shower buttons and had Jack explain how the shower worked. Good news: I'm now a shower wiz. Bad news: I came close to contacting the police and I haven't been in the country for more than 72 hours.

Cherry blossoms outside of Sophia University

Taxi driver on the right side

Room with a view

Home sweet home