Sokendai (i.e. orientation)

I had written most of what is below before I started this blog (I was going to keep track of my travels on my livejournal page, but decided against it for several reasons. In any case here's some information concerning my first week in Japan.

So after a very long flight (about 13 hours, I know that there are longer flights but this was by far the longest I have been on) I arrived in Japan. It was about 5 by the time we got to the hotel and checked in, so I just got a shower and then went to dinner. I completely died at 8 pm because I was so tired and then woke up at 4 am. Today we moved out to Sokendai for the week-long orientation, and I have to say, this is the nicest non-hotel that I have ever stayed at. They don't call it a hotel, it seems to be part of a research insitution, but seriously, it has elevator music in the halls, there are bathrobes on the beds, and a fridge and tv in each room, and someone makes the bed everyday! It's totally a hotel even if they don't want to admit it. My roommate here is Lee, someone I met and liked in DC and have talked to a bit. Oddly enough, we both flew from Chicago and hung out together at the airport before we flew here. I really like her alot, so I'm happy that all of that has worked out. This place is really secluded (which I get the strong impression was on purpose to keep us out of trouble) but is quite lovely (something that I'm sure will not get across from the pictures I've included below).




There is a residential area around Sokendai as well, and I realized that Japanese roads are small – one lane either way with no real room for parking on the street. Actually, everything here seems smaller so that more can fit into the little available space that there is.




And it is the rainy season which means that we get lots of fog here at Sokendai (see below) and tons of rain. I did not really understand what rainy season meant until experiencing it myself. The sheer volume of rain is really impressive.



The orientation went well and I meet a couple of really nice people that I hope to do some traveling with. It would be particularly nice if I could find someone to travel with at the end, but we’ll see how it goes.