イニシエーションスタード！

This week is the new dorm student's initiation week, which means that all week each dorm has to dress up as a certain theme. Somehow, I ended up being the leader for our dorm. (By somehow, I mean the only new girl without a full grasp of English lost janken-pon and I felt bad...) so I've been bugging people since we got here to get everything ready. :')
Our dorm is dressing as the Avengers (albeit in a fairly lazy manner)!

As well as this, we also have to do a dance on 'バカ山/bakayama' , one of the two big hills in front of the Honkan, which is the main class building. We haven't fully finished it yet, but hopefully it'll be good we we're first up!

I've also been up to a fair bit the last week or so, but not had time to write about it! So far, I've been to...
Tsukiji,the world-famous fish market, at 5am with Canada House (the men's dorm) and 3rd Women's Dorm. Us Keyaki folks weren't technically invited, but a friend of mine got invited and took me along. It was really tasty!

Jindaiji temple, which is right down the road from our university. I got a 'omikuji' (fortune thing) for the first time, and got the most lucky one! Yeess! I also got to try Japanese pear ice cream (delicious) and odango, which was tasty.I do love me some Japanese food.

Harajuku and Shibuya, to meet up with Eri and Ayaka - two lovely 2012 Ango-Japanese society members. They helped me get a phone even though it took forever, and we went for ramen!

I feel like I might maybe be getting into the swing of things here, even though classes are INTENSE.

I got into Intensive Japanese C, which is the highest Intensive class. That means I'm taking J5 and J6, which would normally be done in a semester each, both in this semester. But then I'll be in the Advanced class which would be amazing! However, it has meant that my brain is 100% fried by the time I finish classes most days. I hope that it'll be worth it and I don't get kicked out for being too sucky, haha. 

I'm here and making mistakes already!

I've arrived at ICU! Woooooo!
I actually arrived in Japan on the 29th of August, and spent 2 nights in a hotel in Asakusa to settle in a bit before we moved into dorms,and hopefully get over the jetlag. Still feeling it,but certainly glad that I had those extra days!

This was right by where we were staying!

Yesteday, I moved into my dorm (Zelkova House/欅寮) and it's really modern, the girls on my floor made dinner for us all which was nice, but I didn't meet my roommate until I came in to go to sleep and it's been a bit awkward so far! I hope we slowly become friends, or at least just.. don't have the room in complete silence. I've met the otherセプテン(September students) too, and everyone's lovely! We also got our Residency Cards and National Health Insurance today, so I'm finally a real resident of Japan!

So, on to the mistakes.. I've learnt a few things about eating manners (which I only just learned), and how to behave in shops. I'm glad I knew some stuff before, like that you should always change your shoes at the genkan and things. I've also been really struggling with my Japanese, mostly due to a lack of confidence I think, as well as a slight lack of practice during the summer holidays. I hope that I improve quick and can become better friends with the girls in my dorm! There are a few that can speak passable English, but not too many.. or at least they haven't tried to speak it, but that's all good for me. A girl called Minori helped me get to Musashi-sakai for shopping today, which was really sweet of her, and a girl nicknamed Ouji (Prince) seems pretty friendly. It's a bit weird coming into a place where everyone is already friends, but I think I can deal with it. Our initiation begins next week (which I'll talk more about later) and that should get us all closer together through the magical medium of making absolute fools out of ourselves. The guys floor seem pretty friendly too, and actually waaaaay more fun.. they've been playing video games, badminton (yes, inside), drinking and generally other stuff that I'd love to join in with but I can't :( The middle-of-the-common-area Sumo wrestling I could do without, though.

Tomorrow the real orientation begins, with our Matriculation Ceremony and lots of talks! The Japanese Language Placement Test is on Wednesday too, so I can find out what level class I'll be in. It all feels pretty overwhelming at the moment but I'm hoping that I'll get into the swing of things soon!

Also, bathroom sinks are at midget-height, I'm average/on the tall side over here, and random things are technologically amazing (toilets are heated and have sounds playing, and the cafeteria has a machine that knows what you are just by putting your empty tray down?!)

That's all for now!  I'll leave you with a photo of my new university: