Profiscor on the Your-Japan Blog Network

Today I woke up with a massive headache but I thought nothing of it till we went to the student centre where today’s incredibly important orientation was. Half way through the first bit I realised that my headache was no joke and started to panic.

I decided to tell my tutor that I wasn’t feeling well. But because I am a cry-baby and whenever I feel nervous or sick the cry-baby in me is turned up to 95% I started to cry and blubber my way through some Japanese symptoms. She immediately got up, without listening to a word I’d said and told one of the professors sitting and the side who ordered me to get up and then took me to the medical centre. I felt so stupid as they were doing this, especially since all the other international students could see me red-eyed and having to leave.

Then I realised that the professor was actually happy to leave the orientation and had no interest in if I was okay or not.

I didn’t know what do say or do and I felt as if I was making a huge fuss over nothing. They took me to the health centre where I had to fill out a form telling them a little about my medical history. The professor translated for me;

Proffessor:“allergies?”

Me: “hayfever”

Proff: “any chronic or recurring illnesses?”

Me: no

Proff: “any history of terminal illnesses?

Me: no

Proff: are you pregnant?

Excuse me?…Oh wait this is a question they always ask at the doctors.

Me: no
Proff: Any possibility that you’re pregnant?

Excuse me? They sure don’t ask that one back home.

Me: No, I’m not pregnant. (Making it extra clear… Or so I thought)

Proff: but is there any possibility?

Me: um…no?

Proff: are you sure?
Me: Yes
Proff: so there’s a possibility?
Me: No! I’m sure that I’m not pregnant!

*akward silence*

Proff: Okay

Ho-ly… I could have NEVER predicted that one

I tried to tell them that in England a friend of mine has tonsillitis so it’s possible that I have the same but I still couldn’t stop myself for feeling bad that the professor was going through all this trouble for me, even if he did want to get the hell out of the orientation. I did manage to tell him though that my mother is a pharmacist and she gave me some medicine if it should happen that I get tonsillitis.

A woman took a look at my throat and temperature and asked if I was taking any medicine already. I said I was and showed her the tyrozetes from boots that I had bought last year. As she looked at them puzzled, England seemed so far away. The nurse came out with me and talked to the professor asking about the medicine and telling him some other things that I didn’t understand. I understood him telling her that my mother was a pharmacist so the medicine probably worked.

They then walked me outside to the bus stop where the professor told me to come to the international student centre on Monday where they will explain everything to me. My tutor then took me back to my halls and gave me her contact details. She said something in Japanese but this time I flat out told her that I didn’t understand her so she tried to make an effort to speak to me in English and told me that she would see me on Monday if I felt better. I hope I do. Though that would mean I missed orientation for nothing and now have probably missed some vital information. So I sit here typing this and kicking myself for doing all of this since I know that on Monday she wont speak English to me and doing all the things that I have to will take longer than it should.

After she left me at 12pm I went to sleep, crying on and off because I feel like such a goddam fool right now. My alarm that I’d set for 1 (mainly to see if my alarm clock that I bought yesterday worked) woke me up and then I set it again and went back to sleep till quarter to three where the Ukrainian girl who lives next to me started playing music at earbleed volume. And left about half an hour later leaving her music on which has now been playing for almost 3 hours. I heard someone else knock on her door about the music a while a go.

I decided that I’d see if the German was in her room 20 minutes after orientation was meant to finish and met the Egyptian girls coming in so I opened the door for them. YES HUMAN CONTACT! Even if she did just say arigatou.

The german wasn’t in her room so I decided that I’d leave her a note asking if she could explain what went on today. But that was almost 2 hours ago so she’s probably out with her tutor since her tutor has a car. I have no idea what to do since I’ve been in here for 6 hours without a purpose, crying as look at pictures of people that I love and thing that seem in another world. I know it won’t be like this all the time so I’m trying to be optimistic. Trouble is, it’s hard to be optimistic when you’re alone and almost 6000 miles away from all the things that you know.

Ok so let me introduce myself I am a university student studying Biology and Japanese in England and I’m going to Japan to spend a year at Tsukuba University doing a biology project.

I’ve spent 2 years learning Japanese as well as my Biology subject, Neuroscience. Let me tell you I have slaved away at my desk for 2 years working as hard as my little self can, and to finally pass and acheive this is probably the best thing that I’ve done.

The year ahead will be hard but I’ve wanted this for as long as I can remember so I’m glad because I admire people who can come this much out of their comfort zone and make a life for themselves and I hope that some day someone thinks the same about me.

So here goes!

Surrounded by my things in a Japanese room that bears resemblance to a prison cell I finally have some time to think and look in the mirror. Great! I look like crap! To match the day that I’ve had. Still, I’m happy to be here

Ok so everyone knows that I’ve been waiting for this a long time right? Fantacising and dreaming about what life 5000 miles away would be like. I knew that it would never be like i expected but I am having the feeling of “what the hell am I doing”

I knew that would happen as well so I’m not finished yet. I know the embarrassments and all that with people I barely understand but I’m gonna stick with this!

But here’s my journey.

I woke up, 5000 miles away from here and spoke to my boyfriend. The whole “I’ll miss you” thing and trying not to cry on the phone. Then I got ready, ate some food with I couldn’t finish due to the excitement and nervousness. Then we set off for Heathrow airport.

Ok so I get a few encouraging phonecalls and texts telling me what an Amazing time I’m going to have.

Checking my bag in I’m on edge because my parents are worried and there’s Japanese people surrounding me and my coursemate in the queue. Since we’re still in London , needless to say, I’m a bit on edge. The nice check in counter lady lets me off with 5 kilos extra weight! Phew! What a relief! … Especially since my scale at home said it was 20 kilos on the dot! What’s up with that?

My parents meet my coursemate’s parents and decide to have coffee with them.

We decide to call it time to go to duty free so we get our bags checked and we do so. At this point I’m still wondering what Japan is like. So we board our flight and set off for the land of the rising sun. The flight was as about as comfortable as 11 hours in economy class can get and I hint to my coursemate the idea of grading up to first class on the way back… just because! And because of the 20 kilos extra we get to carry on board.

The guy next to me has already decided before take off that I am a gaijin and cannot be looked at so he avoids looking at me and turns the other way for most of the flight… Nice…

12 hours and 15 minutes later of what was supposed to be an 11 hours 14 minutes flight we land at Narita airport and the weather looks about as dandy as it was when we left Heathrow. Little did we know the humidity that was waiting for us outside…

At immigration I get handed a copy of instructions telling me to go to the local government place to tell them that I am here, and this little piece of paper is aptly titled “To alien, entering Japan” No joke. I thought, before I misplace or lose this I better get a snapshot of it as I wait for my course mate to come back from the toilet. A security guard approaches me and tells me that I’m not allowed to take pictures of the airport…

So we’re looking for our coursemate from germany for about half an hour when we decide that we need to get on the 16 15 bus to Tsukuba university.

We do and end up leaving her behind. I felt so terrible at the time.

So 2 hours later of what was supposed to be a 1 hour 40 minute journey, we arrive in Tsukuba. By this time the humidity is taking its toll on my wavy hair, which I really better go wash, making it look like a lion’s mane

We meet a bunch of students there and three of them immediately take my coursemate who I’d been travelling with away. Yikes, now I really am on my own.

They all ask us what our names are and then they tell me that my tutor isn’t coming… WHAT? Am I going to be stranded here? Do i make my way there with my overweight suitcase? I started to panic but tried not to show it.

Two people saw the look on my face and say that they’re going to take me to the university halls of residence where she is waiting, and one kindly offers to bring her car which was really sweet of her. One of them has lived in America before and talks to me in English but I try to do my best to speak in Japanese anyway since my teachers back home have lectured me enough about getting the full experience here, and they’re right so I go all out and try my best.

We go to the hall and meet my tutor who cant speak a word of English. Okay… so I try my best but she doesn’t try back and it doesn’t help when I don’t understand something that she just says it again pronouncing the words slower. I suddenly find out that I have a deposit to pay and I don’t understand the paper work so she tries to take me to the office but since it’;s closed there’s not much we can do.

She offers to knock on my door at 9am tomorrow since I don’t have a alarm clock and the paperwork has to be done by tomorrow. Stupid me! I should have brought my phone! Why didn’t I listen to mum?! Ok but she’s never gonna know that she’s right… ever… Or my mother will rub it in my face forever.

So then she takes me to the bath house, so I think, individual showers, Individual boxed showers with … I dunno maybe some PRIVACY? But instead the bath house girl’s foyer is filled with girls who are either half naked or stark naked. I try to hide the fact that “OMG i just saw a girl naked” and she’s staring at ME like I’m the one naked. Yes yes I know it’s because I’m foreign okay? So my heart sinks when people tell me that’s the only place I can shower!

On the way back to my room I see my german coursemate! Yayy! Im so relieved since she’s in the same hall with me and it’s just nice to see a familiar face so I go to hug her and apologise for leaving her but she said that the airline lost her bag anyway! Ouch

But she found it so it’s all good.

We then go to her room and decide to go shopping. I try to involve my tutor in this but she doesn’t say a word to me and I told her that she doesn’t have to wake me up since my coursemate can just give me a call J but I think she takes this the wrong way and just walks away when the one of the other tutor says that she has to go. On the plus side we DID find a boxed shower on each floor of our dormitory. YAYY! So no one has to stare at me! The german didn’t like this either when I told her about the bathouse so I’m just happy now that I can keep my modesty… well… modest.

My german coursemate’s tutor who’s the guy who lived in America takes us shopping and I buy some water and some cereal. And then we go out to eat some sukiyaki which he doesn’t let us pay for. There’s a lot of akward silences maily because me and the german are jet lagged and the guy has no idea what to say to us and I’m starting to doubt that he wants us to be around, but we eat and share laughs anyway as I try to break the silences with “what’s that?” and “where are you from?” “what’s the weather like?” “what did you do today”. It wasn’t so bad in the end. He walks us back to our building and says goodnight.

Ok now that I’ve had a shower I feel much better. I now know that I don’t need to spend 20 minutes in the shower… especially since the privilege of having a shower comes with a price.

The price of 100 yen every 5 minutes which means that I can have a good 10 minute shower for a quid. But I usually take longer to wash my hair so I just spent ages in there washing over and over again trying to get my moneys worth of 400 yen since I rushed to wash my hair and finished within 10 minutes. Yes I’m new to this! You don’t have to tell me!

Finding out when to use the shower is hard as well because it’s difficult to go up to the shower door and finding out someone’s in there without looking like an idiot. Alternatively it’s difficult to find out no one’s in there and then race back to get your soap and towel making it seem casual and again, withougt looking like an idiot.

I tried asking someone but I didn’t know this would mean finding out something that I just didn’t want to know. When a girl opened her door I asked her if there was anyone in the shower. Though half way through I realised that I was on English mode and she just replied saying she didn’t know. *stupid stupid stupid!*

It turned out that there was someone in the shower so I just went back to my room but when I was closing my door I saw that she was hiding a boy in there and he wanted to run out when no one was around but, as he was holding the door ajar I saw him and he looked so guilty that he just shut the door again. I shut mine to give him a chance to escape and I heard him run down the coridoor after I’d shut my door.

I had heard that the Japanese were anal about this since each building is single sex but I really had no idea it was like this.

Ok well I better get to bed. I’m heavily jet lagged since my body clock says 4.30pm and local time says 12.30am. So cool… If I was to phone home right now (which I cant because the free internet isn’t working for some reason …maybe because I’ll find out that it’s not free..) I would be calling the past… O_O