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9-18-02
Something must have distrubed my sleep last night because I woke up with my front torso bent forward, not the most comfortable position to fall asleep in. I opened my door and saw a note saying Erica called me at 10:30am. So I went down stairs and ate breakfast then called her. We agreed to meet at 11:30am at ichigaya campus after the placement test. So we all walked to ichigaya which is a short walk. Once at ichigaya they crammed all 100 and something of us into three rooms. The paper they printed the test on was unusually long, and did not really fit on the small tables. Page one, fill out info, name, etc... For beginners, that's me :) write composition one, do kanji part one, and grammer part one. Okay, I left the compostion part for last thinking that it would be the hardest, ah ah ah... So kanji, ummmm i realize that I barely knew any of the Kanji they had on the test and for some of them since it was matching you could figure it out, but what would be the sense of doing that on a placement test? So grammer, page one, okay this is not so bad I understand this.... page two, umm I am sure about one or two, but it's still good, it's still good... page three, umm what? page four, what the hell is I-N at the end of the verb, page five, my eyes burned when I looked at it... So the placement test was fun, and accomplished making me feel like a product of the American education system... So I went downstairs because I finished with 30minutes to spare. I talked with some of the girls in the dorm. They said that their essay was how do you like living in an international environment, much more complicated than my, what do you do on weekends? Everyone in a circle was introducing themselves and exchanging phone numbers, but I did not have one, and this girl told me to buy docomo. Ann came down from the test and Sara was their and I told them that I would be back because I was going to buy a drink. I came back, and only Ann was their and I went outside. Ann asked me if I wanted to go open a bank account with her and her French friends. I told her that I was meeting my Japanese friend. Erica came up and I wanted to give her a hug but she bumped into me instead. So we were deciding where to go, and I said that I wanted to go to Shinjuku, and in my mind, "Let's walk to Shinjuku" Japanese mentally "take the train to Shinjuku" So it cost 150yen to go to Shinjuku, and I finally figures out the display for buying tickets. First you push this red button on the right, then you select the amount, then deposit the money and get the ticket. When you get to the gate, you place the ticket in the slot, the doors open, and you get your ticket back with a hole punched in it. It makes things sooo much faster. So we waited for the JR line. At every single train station they have different music playing at the tracks. Once in Shinjuku I was kinda hungry, but we went to a print shop and got our pictures taken. It was soo much fun. Then we gawked at the cell phones for a bit and I picked up reading material. The way the cell phones work here is their is Ta-ku, which ppl tell me is not good at all, then their is AU which is cheap especially for students, yet no variety, J-phone is medium, & Docomo is the most expensive. In Japan their is no conspect of free nights and weekends, and one does not usually get a lot of minutes for an expensive plan. But the good thing about Japanese cell phones is that it does not matter who calls me or where they are located, but if they call me it is free. Then we went to a department store, and it was so interesting. Most of the girls clothing stores played rap music from America. Their were a lot of items that were made with fur. Most of the clothes were expensive. The style in Japan seems to be stello heels, also very small earrings. But in Japanese department stores, unlike America some of the stores just blend together. Also, their is a TON of whinny the pooh stuff. I swear I can not go anywhere and NOT see whinny the pooh. I got to go to an music store as well and most of the music was American, blah. Boa is apparently a very popular Korean singer. Hatachi is the name of the boy duet that I keep singer on TV. I went to the J-phone store and played around with the phones. The phone that I wanted was of course expensive. Erica then took me to Yotsuya campus again and she asked me to draw a picture in her book, so I did. Some people from Ichigaya gave me a card to go to their Christain church, and they thought that I was European. Then Erica and I looked at the BB where their were a few people who posted jobs for Native English Speakers, so I think that I might not have a problem getting a job here. Erica went home and I walked all of the way back home taking a slightly different route. It was more scenic. Once I got back to the dorm everyone decided to get up and go to the Book store near the 99yen store, so I went too dispute my tiredness. The book store was titled "Book Off" and it contained used items, mostly manga. Most the used manga was 100yen, sooooo cheap. Then they would sell the manga in sets which were also cheap. They also sold, cd's,anime, and games. I was saw a wonderswam and was soooo tempted. They also had Para Para Paradise for playstation, also tempting.... But I ended up getting the next peach girl, and another book. When I returned home, I was soo tired that I took a bath, wrote in my journal, then feel asleep.
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