day 2 - arrivallll!!!!

05/06/07 2.48/9.48
WE LANDED! YAY! NIHON BAKA KAWAII HENTAI WOOHOO! i looked out for the japan foundation institute where i was 2 years ago but i didn`t see it during the landing. plane is coming to a halt now, gotta pack stuff (i even slept like an hour, yay)

13.29
yeehaw, i`m really here! after i landed i got smoothly through customs and everything and i was picked up by y`smen`s west regional secretary (or whatever) kitamura-san. she came with another ysmen`s guy, ueno-san, who as i learned makes a living as a house owner and as bass player. yeah...
we drove through osaka to the regional office and had lunch at a restaurant in the area (yummy, tempura). afterwards we returned here where i am now waiting for mochizuki-san to pick me up. i`ll be staying at his house for the next few days. first strange japan experiences: the toilet here seems to be for both men and women. there are no seats but rather holes in the ground (think french camping ground). and to get to their toilet, women apparently have to walk by the urinals... (the travel guide said that this could happen in more provincial japan, but hell, i`m in the middle of osaka), anyway, back to the urinals. i kno the japanese are supposed to be short, but they can`t be that short. these things are too low for 5-year-olds. and number three, when we got back here from lunch she asked me what i wanted to drink. i thought the alternatives were coffee or something cold, but apparently what she asked me was whether i wanted hot or cold coffee. and cold one is what i got. with ice in it. tasted better then you`d think, tough. (note: a few days later i found out that they even sell this so-called ice coffee here)
oh i forgot: i saw the insitute while we were driving here! and hte beach! and the ofix tower! NOSTALGIA~~~~~~~
as it is customary with the japanese, i got name/business cars from both of them.

21.05
my first day in japan has come to an end. it`s great to be back here, even if it might still be very difficult to survive on my japanese skills for a month. i`ve talked a lot today and i htink that they even understood most of what i was trying to say. only embarassing time was when i tried to talk about greece but they didnt seem to know the country and i didnt know its japanese name. anyway, to summarize things, mochizuki-san and a colleague picked me up at the office and we drove to his home. first, the car: a big hybrid toyota something in a nice silver shade and with high tech equipment (he can watch tv in there!). then the house. he seems to be the owner of some corporation and he has his house above the company office. they do have standard japanese rooms, but also tables and chairs and a real bed (i still took the futon for the whole experience). after i slept here for like half an hour (i suddenly grew very tired) we went to a ymca house in the neighbourhood for my first welcome party of many to come. the people were really nice and everybody tried their best to talk to me in japanese about all kinds of topics (for example how japanese cars would react better after an accident than a benz), but there were lots of thing which i didnt understand and where i`d just nod. we had pizza and sushi and we took lots of pictures. after that we went back here, i took a shower (the japanese bath will take some time to get used to) and we drank a beer before i retired to my bedroom where i transformed my adapter for us power plugs into a japanese one (let`s hope that i wont blow up anything. stange moment of the day; what`s the deal with white cars? 90% of japanese cars are white, that`s crazy. only rebels drive gray! business cars* 8.