To Kyoto!!!

So I haven't posted in 2 or 3 days because I've been busy/stressed/tired/out having fun. Haha. But I want to catch up a little. I arrived in Kyoto yesterday! It feels like a much longer time than that already... The morning I left for Kyoto did NOT go as smoothly as planned. I needed to be at Ritsumeikan at 9:30 to meet with the International Center staff and sign my apartment contract.  I wanted to leave at 8, which I thought would be enough time to get to Kyoto if I took the shinkansen (bullet train).  I had to stuff all my luandry back into the suitcase and finish cleaning the room... Then one by one I brought my luggage down to the first floor. The house has super narrow and steep steps and my luggage was heavy so that was not fun. But I made it. I only left a little late (1o minutes) but I skipped breakfast... Even just getting to the nearby train station was exhausting. My luggage seemed even heavier than it was before and it was so hot and humid. By the time I made it onto the local train, I was feeling lightheaded and woozy. There weren't any seats so I had to stand. I also didn't realize that it would take 20 minutes just to get to the bigger station in Osaka, and then I had to transfer for one step to get to Shin-Osaka where I could take the Shinkansen. I thought I could go from the local train station to Shin-Osaka to Kyoto so there was another step in between... And it just took longer to find the right platform/train/buy the tickets than I expected. At the Osaka station, I couldn't find an elevator and I saw the train at the platform, so I dragged my 50 lb suitcase up the stairs one by one. Luckily, when I got on the train Shin-Osaka, there was an American couple standing next to me. We struck up a conversation and they were super helpful. The husband helped me get my luggage and buy the shinkansen ticket. By then it was already 9:15 though so I knew I was screwed. I got on the Shinkansen (after almost getting on the wrong one...) and I was in the reserved car even though I didn't have a reserved seat ticket. It was only one stop and the unreserved seats where 6-7 LONG cars away... but I was caught haha. So I pathetically dragged my luggage down car after car, bumping into Japanese old ladies' arms. I got to the station around 9:40 and thus already late... I was so stressed. I found a taxi as soon as possible. The driver was a tiny middle aged Japanese lady. I was sort of waiting for her to put the luggage in, but that wasn't happening. Normally I would be sympathetic but I was so tired and stressed out by then. Haha. So threw the luggage in the trunk and off we went. I didn't feel well still and I sort of rested my head and slept for a few minutes.

I probably arrived around 10:15 at the back(?) of the school. Late late late! I had NO idea where the international center was. I asked a random Japanese girl, and she asked her friends, and this SUPER nice guy looked it up on his phone and walked me there. I saw the cars waiting there and I was like oh crap, they're waiting for me... but at least they are still here... Went in to the building (still with all my luggage!) and one of the international center directors found me and I went into a little meeting room. Luckily the international center directors were nice (and really young?) so I was able to relax a little. I signed some paper work, then we got in the cars to go to the rental agency. I was still freaking out though, because I didn't have all the money yet. I told them I needed to go to the ATM, so after signing everything, I went to 7-11 with one of the directors. Tried to take the whole 70,000 yen out. No luck. Tried 50,000 yen. Rejected. Crappp. The limit I guess applied for 24 hours or something so I had to wait another day. I paid what I had, keeping only about $70 for myself. We drove to the apartment and I moved in!!

I was soo happy when I saw my room. It's a one-room apartment but I got the corner room so I have a hallway instead of just one solid space. I have two windows, and a (tiny) balcony with glass doors. So there is a lot of natural light which is really good for you. The appliances were turned on already, so I had gas and water. Basically, when you go in the door, the (tiny) bathroom is on the left, in front is the kitchenette, and to the right is the hallway with the closet, fridge, and microwave. Then in the bigger area I have a table with two chairs and a (big) bed. The colors are light green and pink for some reason. Lol. I've decided to try and stick with that color scheme. I was pretty exhausted and starving by then. It was about 2pm and I hadn't eaten yet. As I came back up to my room, I met one of my neighbors! He's from Norway and he has already been here for a year so he knew what was going on. Hurray!!! He was SOO helpful. He showed me his room, lent me his old Japanese text books, and gave me an extra LAN cable to connect to the internet. We talked for quite a bit but my stomach was growling so I had to escape to get some food. But first I wanted to Skype my mom and Ron and let them know that things were going well. Mom suggested that I take Norway guy (Sindre) to lunch to say thanks. We were both super hungry but all of sudden there was a thunderstorm!!! It was still raining, so we decided to order a pizza! Haha. There are Domino's in Japan although of course the pizza is kind of different lol. We ordered online (well he ordered) and it came to the door! Very convenient, except it's pretty expensive. It was about 2600 yen for the two of us, which is about $30. Their "mediums" are pretty much personal size pizzas lol. I had half then and half later for dinner. Yep haha. That was all I ate yesterday...

I napped a little and then I was invited to go to karaoke with some of the neighbors and other SKP students. We met the other SKP students at one of the other houses. Nobody really knew where we were going though lol. We didn't find an izakaya (bar) so we did karaoke. It ended up being really complicated though. You pay for a certain number of hours of karaoke - 1 or 3 hours, and then a "drink" plan. The soft drink only plan was the cheapest, but most people wanted to drink alcohol so we did the midrange plan. It's "all-you-can-drink" within that period but it took us so long to figure out how to read the menu, order stuff, wait for the orders, then repeat so nobody had more than 4 drinks (which is probably for the best anyway). I had two Kahlua milks and some kind of fizzy lemon thing. Lol. Karaoke was fun!!! I'm SOOO bad but it was fun to sing anyway, and even more fun to be the audience!! Some people were actually really good at singing/performing. I sang a few songs too so I'm proud of myself! We did a duet of Mika Nakashima's Glamorous Sky (Japanese), then I did I for You by Luna Sea by Luna Sea(but I couldn't remember how it went at all!) Then I helped sing Anarchy in the U.K. which did not work for my voice lol (not that anything does). And finally What's Up by 4-Non-Blondes. That was too hard for me to sing also, but fun! It was stressful figuring out how to do everything in Japanese but it all worked out pretty well. Finally around midnight we left. Some people had gotten food, but it was too complicated to separate the bill so we just split it equally. I put in 3,000 yen which was more than the exact split and there went the rest of my money.

Today I had to go and pay the rest of the apartment fee, so I went to the post office and withdrew 75,000 yen which was what I calculated to be the maximum I could withdraw. 73,800 yen of that went to paying the rest of the apartment fees. So I had maybe 1500 yen left. Enough for the day, but definitely not enough to get stuff for my apartment which I really need to do. It was about a mile walk to the rental agency, and a mile back. Then, I went on a 100 yen store adventure with two neighbors. However, the place ended up being REALLY far. At least a mile and a half each way. Although I didn't have much money, I did get some bathroom soap, hangers, a mug, bowl, cookies, and forks (735 yen!). Then we walked the LONGGG way back. Oh and I hadn't had time to get food yet so I was starving lol. When we got home, I cooled down, then went to the 100 yen Lawson store. This one is just a convenience store with mostly food. I got a pasta thing for lunch, a pack of frozen chicken nuggets, pack of frozen flavored rice, half a loaf of bread (on sale because it's near the expiration date), and jam. That was... 585 yen. I had bought two drinks as well while I was out because I was so hot so I was literally broke again (I have 133 yen...). But, my pasta lunch was good and filling! Then my cute Indonesian neighbor Christine surprised me by coming over with some dinner! My hero! So I survived the day well despite not having much money lol. Tomorrow I can take out more and do some real shopping for my apartment. I don't even have a pillow, sheets, or towels right now so it's pretty urgent haha. Christine is coming with me to a home store nearby tomorrow, then an SKP group is going downtown to shop. I don't know if I'll really shop there but it will be fun anyway. I feel much more careful about my money now... lol. But now I know how to survive cheaply lol. And it's even cheaper if I can do some basic cooking so I'm going to try haha. Sorry for the long/boring entry and thanks to anyone who read it!