Our welcoming into Kansai
Seminar House (left photo)
Dorm building
Neightbord Residence (right photo)
Friday Night 01/19/2007
We arrived to Kansai about 4:30p.m, checked out of customs and got our luggage about 5:30pm.
At the airport there were a couple of Japanese people from Kansai Gadai welcoming us to Japan, and registering us to catch the arranged bus that picked us up. That was Nice, Sandy and I sat in the front seat to see all the scenery at night on our way to school in Hirakata and took a few photos, but it was dark so they did not come out too well. While driving through Osaka we saw pretty cool huge stores, and everyone driving bicycles everywhere. The roads were nice and O’Saka was beautiful. The city is so much different than any cities in the USA, but along the freeways there were many electronic billboards, and a few high rise buildings. All the cars are narrow and small SUV’s. People drive on the opposite side on the freeways and they also drive on the right side of the car (passenger side). It's cool and strange at the same time. Looking at the Japanese signs was a pretty cool. We couldn’t believe we were in Japan!!
When we arrived, we noticed our College is in a smaller town in Hirakata, but it is not the main Hirakata City. The school has 4 seminar houses where students were distributed and checked in.
We had to take our shoes off for the first time in Japan to enter the building. The is a room with square boxes with our room number where we put our shoes. The floors and everything else look super clean and neat. The seminars managers were Japanese and talking Japanese to everyone. Many of the students here already have a few years of Japanese, so Sandy and I were lost on what they were saying, but we just smile and said ok.ok, and bowing down our heads. I introduced myself to everyone and so far I have met people from Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Egypt, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Mexico. When we had to carry our luggage to our rooms we were laughing because It was so funny, because many other people had brought less luggage. Sandy and I had to carry our luggage so we had to make like 3 trips to move our suitcases from the lobby to our room. Thankfully they had elevators so we didn’t have to struggle that much. We were wondering if we had exaggerated in our luggage.
About the Seminar Houses:
I have chosen Seminar 3, which is and apartment style dorm. In my seminar house each group of students have their own apartment. The rest (Seminar 1,2 and 4 ) are regular dorm style. They have a more college type environment where people meet and hang out at the lobby, which has a TV and tables for people to eat. It has a basement with the laundry rooms and 5 floor with 3 apartments each. Sandy and I are in different room numbers, she is actually in 4th floor and I’m on the 3rf floor.
In our building we do not have a family room in the lobby because each apartment has their own living room with TV, kitchen, 4 nice individual showers with separate dressing rooms and 2 toilets. It actually looks like a regular apartment building inside and is very nice and comfortable. Our bedrooms are really nice, we have tatami mats, futon laying on the floor, two little closets and two desk. Each room is shared by 2 people. As for this week people will share their room also with the student who have chosen host family stay. Therefore, making some rooms crowded, lucky me. I only have my 1 roommate so far. She is from Sweden and she is really nice and beautiful.
The night had not ended yet. We had such a long day the day we arrived, as soon as we placed our luggage in the rooms we had to go for a late night tour. All the students doing the tour have been in 15+ hours of flight, everyone had red eyes and were exhausted. But, let me tell you that this little town seemed familiar in the sense that it has little streets just like some parts of Venezuela. The streets are narrow and the infrastructure is modern, you only see a few buildings with the Asian style roofs.
As soon as we got the luggage to our rooms, they asked us to go for a tour, at night, walking to show us around. WOW!! That was exhausting we walked miles, checked out a grocery stores. While at the store we were astonished because everything was so perfectly packed. The produced was super fresh and many products were unfamiliar to us. It was hard to figure out what to buy and finally Sandy & I bought sandwich meat, bread and cheese and later fixed ourselves some sandwiches. Then they showed us the Post Office, the entrance of the University is a good 20 minute walk from the dorm, and then we finally went to a restaurant where some students stayed to have dinner at 10:00pm. Sandy and I went back to the dorms with our Japanese guide who was really nice and humble. People here seem to feel very secure, we saw many women walking alone at night, and the streets are not very lighten, so I guess is pretty safe, except the crazy drivers around us because I have not seem side walks in this town so we walked along the narrow roads. It took us for ever to get to the dorms but once there, we made our sandwiches, took a hot nice shower and went to bed.
We arrived to Kansai about 4:30p.m, checked out of customs and got our luggage about 5:30pm.
At the airport there were a couple of Japanese people from Kansai Gadai welcoming us to Japan, and registering us to catch the arranged bus that picked us up. That was Nice, Sandy and I sat in the front seat to see all the scenery at night on our way to school in Hirakata and took a few photos, but it was dark so they did not come out too well. While driving through Osaka we saw pretty cool huge stores, and everyone driving bicycles everywhere. The roads were nice and O’Saka was beautiful. The city is so much different than any cities in the USA, but along the freeways there were many electronic billboards, and a few high rise buildings. All the cars are narrow and small SUV’s. People drive on the opposite side on the freeways and they also drive on the right side of the car (passenger side). It's cool and strange at the same time. Looking at the Japanese signs was a pretty cool. We couldn’t believe we were in Japan!!
When we arrived, we noticed our College is in a smaller town in Hirakata, but it is not the main Hirakata City. The school has 4 seminar houses where students were distributed and checked in.
We had to take our shoes off for the first time in Japan to enter the building. The is a room with square boxes with our room number where we put our shoes. The floors and everything else look super clean and neat. The seminars managers were Japanese and talking Japanese to everyone. Many of the students here already have a few years of Japanese, so Sandy and I were lost on what they were saying, but we just smile and said ok.ok, and bowing down our heads. I introduced myself to everyone and so far I have met people from Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Egypt, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Mexico. When we had to carry our luggage to our rooms we were laughing because It was so funny, because many other people had brought less luggage. Sandy and I had to carry our luggage so we had to make like 3 trips to move our suitcases from the lobby to our room. Thankfully they had elevators so we didn’t have to struggle that much. We were wondering if we had exaggerated in our luggage.
About the Seminar Houses:
I have chosen Seminar 3, which is and apartment style dorm. In my seminar house each group of students have their own apartment. The rest (Seminar 1,2 and 4 ) are regular dorm style. They have a more college type environment where people meet and hang out at the lobby, which has a TV and tables for people to eat. It has a basement with the laundry rooms and 5 floor with 3 apartments each. Sandy and I are in different room numbers, she is actually in 4th floor and I’m on the 3rf floor.
In our building we do not have a family room in the lobby because each apartment has their own living room with TV, kitchen, 4 nice individual showers with separate dressing rooms and 2 toilets. It actually looks like a regular apartment building inside and is very nice and comfortable. Our bedrooms are really nice, we have tatami mats, futon laying on the floor, two little closets and two desk. Each room is shared by 2 people. As for this week people will share their room also with the student who have chosen host family stay. Therefore, making some rooms crowded, lucky me. I only have my 1 roommate so far. She is from Sweden and she is really nice and beautiful.
The night had not ended yet. We had such a long day the day we arrived, as soon as we placed our luggage in the rooms we had to go for a late night tour. All the students doing the tour have been in 15+ hours of flight, everyone had red eyes and were exhausted. But, let me tell you that this little town seemed familiar in the sense that it has little streets just like some parts of Venezuela. The streets are narrow and the infrastructure is modern, you only see a few buildings with the Asian style roofs.
As soon as we got the luggage to our rooms, they asked us to go for a tour, at night, walking to show us around. WOW!! That was exhausting we walked miles, checked out a grocery stores. While at the store we were astonished because everything was so perfectly packed. The produced was super fresh and many products were unfamiliar to us. It was hard to figure out what to buy and finally Sandy & I bought sandwich meat, bread and cheese and later fixed ourselves some sandwiches. Then they showed us the Post Office, the entrance of the University is a good 20 minute walk from the dorm, and then we finally went to a restaurant where some students stayed to have dinner at 10:00pm. Sandy and I went back to the dorms with our Japanese guide who was really nice and humble. People here seem to feel very secure, we saw many women walking alone at night, and the streets are not very lighten, so I guess is pretty safe, except the crazy drivers around us because I have not seem side walks in this town so we walked along the narrow roads. It took us for ever to get to the dorms but once there, we made our sandwiches, took a hot nice shower and went to bed.
1 comment:
Hi Giovanna!
About the chosen luggage, I am sure that you guys exagerated, we are latinas, what else to expect? he he he... I am glad that everything is going smooth.
LUV
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