Ramen, shops and lots of paper

All of this is based on what I experience and doesn't necessarily describe the true nature of Japan/japanese people.

First things first:
I slept great. Despite the hard futon, but it was quiet, warm (and maybe I was just dead tired?).
Second thing:
It was freezing cold in my apartement.
Third thing:
I have absolurly no jetlag (I'm not even tired during the day), probably because I slept at the perfect time in the airplane and have matched up with the japanese time quite easily because of that.

The morning started with a litte walk around the blog. I just walked down a random street and returned some time later, prepared myself and met my three tutors at 9am.
We went to the university to get myself enrolled there, I got to wear public slippers for the first time and we visited the International Affairs Office for some documents.
We went to the town hall to put my adress on my alian registration card, get my insurance and get my pension forumlar (yep, need to pay for a never happening japanese pension).
Short: it started with a lot of paper.

So we all were hungry and thought about food first thing once we were in the car.
My tutors recommended Ramen, so we went. I got a huge bowl with noodles, soup, meat, kamaboko (pressed fish meat that looks funny [mine looked like a sakura flower]) and seaweed. Also some Gyouza (some kind of dumpling with vegetables and meat inside) and a bowl of rice. It was very tasty, even though I probably still need to get used to slurping the noodles in without making a mess from the splashing soup.
Fun fact: In Japan there are many american restaurants. I saw Mc Donalds and KFC, I heard that Subway and Burger King are also there. My tutors also declared a restaurant called "Big Brother" as american, but that seems to be from Malaysia...

We went shopping afterwards, getting things for cleaning, stuff like toilet paper and tissues, some cooking utensils and a new electricity converter (because I can obviously write to you today). And I have to say, there is really a lot of interesting stuff in this shops.
The electricity shop was simply gigantic (and this isn't even a big town like Tôkyô) and had all kinds of funny stuff. The drug store was like a super market, only missing animal food (and it had a vending machine for little plastic guns in the entrance ôo). And the Hyaku Yen Shop (100 ¥ Shop) had such beautiful soup bowls that I wondered why I had bought such a small one for 259¥ instead of a big and nice one for 100¥.
Fun Fact: If it isn't food, make-up or electronics, then you should always look in a Hyaku Yen Shop first, because they have almost everything there, but simply for 100¥ instead of 200¥ or more.

We then tried  to figure out my classes, how my air conditioner works (and now it is just the right temperature) and what we will do tomorrow.
Oh and I seem to look extremly old in comparison to my tutors...
We are pretty much the same age, but MY landlord saw us four and asked me, if I wanted to look after my students. She obviously thought I was the teacher of my tutors. Well, she was extremly emberassed and we had a good laugh about it. Well, the smallest of my tutors didn't find it that funny, too (she barely reaches my chest in height), but nobody was angry at anybody.

Maybe I will try to find that Hyaku Yen Shop by foot now, I still need stuff like wrapping paper and a stool and bowl for my shower. 

Pans in Niigata, 24-hour shops and the mystery of air conditioners

All of this is based on what I experience and doesn't necessarily describe the true nature of Japan/japanese people.

And, well...
I arrived at Niigata, three super nice students got me and brought me to my apartement. Which is pretty beautiful, still bigger then I had feared and...without any cooking utensils.
So we went to a supermarket and bought a pan, a rice bowl, a soup bowl, some eating sticks, a knife (no forks needed here), my breakfast for tomorrow (toast and marmelade, soooo japanese xD) and dinner for today. They invited themselves in (something that is supposed to be rare in Japan, but I'm european, so why should I care?) and we ate together.
Shrimpsalad, baked chicken, vegetables with joghurt, cheese sticks and bread where the ham and the chocolate is INSIDE the bread. We sat on the ground around my little table and ate and talked. And I have to say: it was a lot of fun. I had feared that japanese people might be a bit shy or quiet, but no. They asked me questions, we talked to each other, they tried to speak german (Drrrrrrrrei) and I explained what horrible japanese I had heard in Germany (like "Za-Zus-Ke" instead of "Saske" for the japanese name Sasuke).
We will meet tomorrow at 9 and finish my registration (and maybe get me a bike).
Oh and I noticed that my power adapter is wrong xD" I have the problem that my PC might suffer from electricity loss soon...

But oh well, I later tried out one of those famous convenience stores that are open for 24h. Well, it was open at 10pm and also pretty full. I got some crisps since I had just left out of boredom and when I returned I realized that the room is fricking cold. Well, I can read Hiragana, but my air conditioner is full of Kanji, making it impossible for me to actually know what that I would press there...
So I will go to bed straight (yep, no japanese bath, but mainly because there isn't anything in, I don't have a washing seat, no bowl, nothing :'D). The futon feels pretty hard, so I will see how my back will feel tomorrow, I guess ;)

Airplane movies, the Thrill of Delay and Pokemon Land

All of this is based on what I experience and doesn't necessarily describe the true nature of Japan/japanese people.

Well, to get to Japan, most people need to enter a airplane.

My journey started in Düsseldorf, went to Frankfurt, then to Osaka and I finally arrived in Niigata.
Well, except from some (selfproduced) chaos at the first airport (and a seemingly endless search for a parking spot) everything went fine. The start was great, the landing soft, the flight relaxing.
Except for the fact, that the plane had a 30 minute delay...

So instead of just walking out, getting back to the airport and waiting for my next flight, I was called out of the plane by name, entered a special bus (with four other people) and we just ignored all the things like pass control, VISA control, handpackage control and whatever and went to the new airplane.

At a side note, when I saw the first plane, I was really surprised, because we entered via stairs and I wondered, if all planes are so small that I could actually jump to reach the door. But when I arrived at the plane to Osaka, I just saw a gigantic airbus and felt awfully small all of a sudden...

The flight COULD have been fine, if...I hadn't had gotten the seat right next to the wings.
Well, hey, in case of an emergency I would be one of the first ones to get out, but...
It was loud. We flew for around 10 or 11 hours and I had a constant "BWMMMMMMM" in my ears. I tried to listen to the music that the plane provided, but I heard almost nothing. Tried watching a movie, same result. Tried to read, but my head started to hurt. And when the lights went off to enable people to sleep for the main time, I begged for ear plugs to at least make it slightly softer (but it didn't help a lot).

The landing was great, because it was really rumbly and shaky. But hey, once we were on the ground and the stewardess gave us the last instructions in german, english and japanese, the (german) captain just said "Well, it could have been worse, like - for example - I could have gotten killed by the Langoliers." Well, only the german and some of the american/english people got the joke and laughed, but it was still pretty fun.

Well, if I would need to describe Japan in one word by what I saw first, it would be: Pokemon.
No joke, the first thing I saw was the legendary Pokemon Airplane. When I was out of the plane, a pokemon sign said something for childrens regarding some kind of passport. Once I was in the central hall, there was a gigantic pikachu sign showing you where the line to the check-in starts. When I walked to the airport mall, every shop had Pokemon merchandise. I went with a bus that connects the Kansai (International) Airport with the Itami (National) Airport which had Pokemon on the outside (but that seemed to be advertising, since I also saw busses with smiling vegetables and one with a gigantic diamond ring). Of course, at the Itami airport, there were also Pokemon snacks.
And I would soon realize that in Niigata, every second supermarket has at least one kind of Pokemon merchandise, too...

Well, I ate a Tamago Onigiri (Egg Riceball), drank a vegetable-fruit juice and ate a Daifuku (a sweet riceball with Anko-filling) and I really have to say, it tastes different then what I had eaten in Germany (or better: in the Japantown of Germany, Düsseldorf).

The next plane was one with airscrews instead of turbine, so the sound was SLIGHTLY different (but I was still next to the wings, so more noise for me, yay!).
Funny was that until the actual start and after the landing there was Beethovens NO.5 played, making me amazed about this idea and still slightly uncomfortable about the choice of music (DAM DAM DAM DAAAAM xD). Well, the flight was fine, even though the presumed one hour flight became almost two hours, I fell asleep halfway and the landing was so rough that most passangers hit their head against the row in front of them. But since no one even made a sound or change of expression, that seemed to be a normal thing...

So I just hurried to get out, got my luggage, was TOTALLY CONFUSED about a weird box where some people threw paper in (some threw the signs from their luggage in, others their tickets, others just random paper) and met with the three wonderful students that took me to my apartement.
And - even though this doesn't actually have a lot to do with Japan itself yet - it was a lot of fun and especially the end was something that would soon prove to be more then fitting for what the japanese society seems to be about.

Btw, I saw this plane (but since my camera was in my handpackage and out of my reach since I had a window seat, I couldn't photograph it myself):