Landed

So, I'm landed in Hikone, Shiga, Japan. I'm sitting in my bedroom, looking out at the beautiful mountainscape and the slightly suspect Hotel Ride. I would also like to add that Hikone, like the rest of this area of Japan, is inundated with Coco's. I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing yet.

So, after about 24 hours of travel, I'm only slightly jet-lagged. It's 6:30 AM here, a little early for me to be up, but not awful. (I originally woke up at 4 am, and forced myself back to bed. Keep in mind, this is the first place in the world the sun rises-- the sunlight is playing with my time perceptions a little bit.) The plane ride itself-- only 12 hours from Detroit-- was really not bad. Swine flu fever is alive and well-- the rest of the world seems to have adopted face masks and hand sanitizer. I had the hand sanitizer, but I felt a little guilty every time I coughed to clear my throat.

I can't say I've seen much of Japan yet-- last night, it was dark by the time we got to Nagoya. From what I can tell, the cities are what you'd expect of a standard city-- except neater and with stranger billboards. To get to Hikone, we rode on a special charter bus for visiting students. It was hilarious. The upholstery was this weird pinkish cross between 1960's shag carpets and Victorian wallpaper. Moreover, plastic chandeliers served as seat lights, while alternating blue, white, and green dance floor-esque squares lit the rest of the bus. It reminded me of the night bus in Harry Potter.

Speaking of billboards, on the way to JCMU, I saw a lot of them billboards. They range from conservatively commercial to outright bizarre. A lot of them feature comedians doing ridiculous things in the name of advertising ramen or soap. For those who love kitsch? Pachinko parlors and love hotels (or "amusement" hotels). Also, all the hotels are named Hotel Resort or Fine Hotel Place (unless they have a girl's name or a slightly dirty name: felicia and Hotel Ride). This seems redundant, but I guess Residence Inn is similar. This guy is very popular-- we saw at least five stores along the way.

The JCMU campus itself is beautiful. It's very homey, but highly efficient and organized. It looks like the dorms you see in the expensive private schools of Japanese movies. The rooms are huge as well-- much bigger than doubles at Bowdoin. (It's actually only a little smaller than my apartment at home.) Anyways, here are some pictures to sate everyone. I'll post more after orientation.

These are in reverse order, which is perhaps for the best?

One need not look far to see the Japanese's creative way with the English language. This one isn't too bad, but it gets better.


Little tiny oven. Appliances are not as intuitive as they look here, so I might stave off on any baking for awhile.


Cute, right? It reminds me of Genki I and White Day...


All our cooking utensils. Yes, everything in Japan is cuter than it is in America.


The Supreme Can. If you can't read it, it says "This expresses our life vision LET'S Supreme Can." It's pretty much my favorite thing I've seen so far.


And again, for posterity's sake.


Oh yay! More weird English! "Happy fruits is very delicious. I will eat this and will become fortunate together." This one actually makes me a little homesick, because it reminds me of "Which one seems to be delicious?"


Adorable little rice molds.


Adorable little rice cooker. Yes, adorableness is a pattern with Japanese sundries.


The kitchen. I'm pretty in love with it.


My bedroom with the window view.


Coco's-- as seen from my window.


Unsettling topiaries, from the bedroom window.


The beautiful mountainscape, marred only by Hotel Ride-- dubious.