3rd Oct 2006

...so anyway plane flights stealing cutlerly yeah....so i've filled in my boarding card and am all ready to leap off the plane with all the junk i've lugged on to it (i'd like to point out that along with my heavily laden wheely bag i also had a 'handbag' and a coat and a jumper in my hands) to try and whiz through customs to get the 1550 bus to Le Meridian Grand Pacific hotel in Odaiba...i get to an empty row of immigration officers...hand over my passport...which he stares at for longer than he should...then asks the guy next to him something in Japanese...never a good sign. i'm then shuffled off with a different officer....the situation isn't getting any better...he tells me to 'take a seat' in a rather unpleasent waiting room...he comes back in after a couple of minutes and asks if i have any documents proving i'm actually a student...which i show him...he takes away and leaves me alone again...after a while he comes back and informs me that the visa i got is wrong. Apparently they don't do college visas for longer than 2 years so even though mine says 3 years i've only really got 2....so there's another sticker in my passport...and he lets me through a special gate for rejects...i awkwardly manhandle my luggage off the conveyor belt and sneak through customs...( i assume that duty-free means nothing to declare...)
Rather conveniently the Limosine bus counter is right infront of the exit and so i buy a ticket. Unfortunately i've missed the 1550 by a mere 3 mins (i blame immigration...) and have to wait an hour for the next one...i use up the time calling Lan to tell her i'm taking the later bus and then call home to let them know i'm still alive. Look for maps...try and buy some sushi type stuff...rice triangles...very nice...and with the added surprise of not knowing what you're buying! then loiter outside until i get my bus.
i keep falling asleep on the bus...despite the paranoia of missing my stop and feeling like i should really be taking as much of the sights as i can in my first few moments out of the airport. mind you all there are to see are motoways...i do however notice some soil reinforement measures...this last thought disturbs me somewhat so i try and look for things other than engineering especially with mud. We seem to reach more central regions of Tokyo. there are more lights for a start...and we pass some weird buildings...upturned pyramids ones with gaping holes in them and even one with a large...i say large, i mean GIANORMOUS... saw, the kind which should cut through wood and allows you to do baboon-punching-impressions, outside one building....weird. anyway it all looks hideously futuristic, everything is very artistically lit up.
I've now reached the Hotel where i meet my tutor, Lan. i see her waiting on a bench...i drag my little bag off the bus and exchange my ticket for the big bag. Lan is *amazing* and helps me pull the 20kg mini monster whilst i negotiate the beast, we walk to the halls of residence. my arms hate me. i can tell by the way that they hurt...i think i've stretched them.
We get to the halls and have fun dragging luggage to various entrances to try and find where we are meant to be to sign in. I sign my life away then, leaving the baggage to fend for itself (i'd like to see someone try and run with that kind of weight) we get the grand tour of the facilities...there's your own personal mailbox with a combination turny dial like on american lockers, if you get packages they have some electronic locker system with a touch-screen interface where you have to key in your secret code to pick up a package associated with your room number...VERY coool. There's also an incinerator which requires a key to burn things...recycling of PET plastics, and seperate non-combustibles...how effecient!
In my room (on the 3rd floor) there's a fridge/freezer, combination/oven/grill/microwave/teleporter (okay so there's no teleporter, but it would be useful), bed with feather duvet+pillow linens and matress cover - none of which i thought i'd have! not only this but the linens are cleaned free of charge every 10days all you have to do is leave them in a special laudry bag outside the room on specified pick up days. Now, the bathroom....well...there's a shower, sink and a toilet, but not any kind of toilet this is kind of one you see in sci-fi. NOT only does it have slow closing lids so that you'll never drop the lid loudly shut ever again, BUT it has buttons. BUTTONS???!?! yes. buttons. warm seat, warm water, bidet, fountain 'to spray bum' (i don't know how this differs from a bidet but there's a different button for it) there's also a turny knob to adjust the pressure...this in particularly worries me, mainly because it suggests that there can be an uncomfortable pressure on the bum washing. i am reluctant to experiement.

and Oh my GOD! i have a balcony?!?!?

electricity and phone for the room is prepay which you topup at some machine in the admin foyer. Somewhere in the complex there's also a swimming pool and a gym...
with all my baggage trollyed up to my room and with Lan gone i start to unpack my computer to connect to the rest of the world via the free internet. then remember that i need to eat dinner so stop my unpacking to search for the 24hr convenience store rumoured to be on site. i realise after walking around one building that i can actually see the damn thing out of my bedroom window. I spend ages trying to figure out whether or not the bottle of miscellaneous fluid is washing up liquid or not, then buy it anyway...i buy some things on pure curiosity...anyway i need breakfast for tomorrow...

i get back to my room, eat my bowl of instant noodles (i'm not up to trying to figure out how the cooker works, pouring boiling water on some stuff is about all my brain can cope with right now). and continue arranging my junk into the vaccum of space and check all the stuff off on the check list...it still looks very empty...anyway its rather late so i bed down for the night.