I haven’t left actual blog posts on here for quite awhile…so I guess it’s overdue for one!

I’m back in Tokyo, but this time, for my orientation to FINALLY start my semester abroad! Nervous? Check. Excited beyond reason? Double check! I’m staying in a hotel right now with my awesome fellow half-Japanese roommie, but us dorm students will be moving in tomorrow!

Yes, there has been a lot of orientation materials we’ve covered, long bus rides from the Narita airport to the hotel near our university, a tour of the campus, all-you-can-eat buffet lunches and dinners and great flight stories! But this afternoon was exceptionally fun :)

Some of the dorm girls decided we’d go explore Tokyo a bit moreーso we trotted on down to Shinjuku and ended up spending about seven hours there wandering the busy streets, snapping photos, eating dinner at conveyor-belt sushi locations, and watching OURAN HOST CLUB in theaters on a spur-of-the-moment decision! A very eventful and fun start to our time as 留学生 in Tokyo!

First purikura of the season with some of the terrific dorm girls I am honored to spend the semester with! :) Our terrific Hiragana-ized form of writing “CIEE”….しあいいい！xD

Our tickets in hand as we crouch next to the Ouran Host Club movie poster!

An up-close of the signed movie poster outside the showing room. And yes, the film is every bit as crazy as the characters on the cover look! And it is insanely entertaining, even with none of us being quite fluent in Japanese yet!! ^o^

Yummy 回転寿司 (conveyor-belt sushi) dinner!! :) On my plate are two yummy pieces of salmonーmy absolute favorite sushi <3

1. On a cold, cold day, all the body heat makes the train quite warm.
2. Because of how jammed pack the train is, standing really takes no effort.
3. “Hmm…this tall person squished in front of me has a really soft jacket…” *Zzzz*
4. THANKFULLY, in Japan, you know that probably everyone on the train with you has bathed within the last 12 hours.
5. Nobody talks on the train during rush hour! Hooray! If people did, I can’t imagine how loud it would be…
6. Rush hour makes it much easier to join and read the book or magazine the person next to you is reading.

(Note: Yes, this is a little sarcastic. But all in all, rush hour really isn’t too terribly bad!)