Typhoons herald the best weather yet!

Ever since arriving to Japan, my days have been  wet and dismal (without daylight savings here, it gets dark fast).  It's been mostly rainy here, so receiving notice of an impending typhoon (not hurricane) from the state department did not brace me for expectations of sunshine and 23º C.

Well... I woke this morning to malicious gusts that made me afraid to leave my bed.  But somehow it was sunny, and when I opened my patio door it was gorgeous out.  So I proceeded to head for my first day of classes (without an umbrella of course).

I arrived at the train station, as walking would not have gotten me to class on time.

Well... I arrived to find that the trains actually weren't running (for some reason).  I suppose 105 mph winds will hamper even Japan's fastidious train network.  Regardless, I stood at the station for the good part of an hour with other JPAC students, hoping to catch a ride as rain began to douse the area.  I waited on the train and finally got the T.V. on my phone to work! やった！Only to find merely buffering news stations covering the intensity of the storm.

That said, I started my semester off right the right way by arriving an hour late to my oral Japanese class.  Luckily, a lot of classes were canceled today so my sensei gave me benefit of the doubt.  And then I went to my course in English about environmental issues (think globally act locally).  It looks like I will be visiting a beach in the area (score) and then a rice paddy later on (double score).  I'm not exactly sure what the premise of this class is exactly, beyond differentiating pollution and environmental problems in Japan, but I made a friend, ちえ, who I will maybe go to Tokyo with to go ちゅうぶる (secondhand) shopping. 

Lately I've been hanging out with some interesting folks around the world who speak English.  Namely from Australia, Canada, Phillipines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, etc.  It's a bit of cultural overload, which is nice.  For some reason, they've clustered all the people from their respective countries in the dorm though.

Much like the weather in Japan, things just don't make sense anymore, which is alright.  I've stopped trying to make sense of things, and let them happen to me, much like the psychological phenomenon in which animals are conditioned to expect certain consequences, no matter what they do.  I'm inclined to accept whatever happens to me just as a helpless dog subjected to abuse from their owners.  Except that my situation is hardly pitiful; my brain is just dial-up in a network of high-speed wireless.  No sense being unhappy about nothing, right?

But I need to stop making flippant purchases like this $5 pen (even though it has so many colors!!/I think these exist in the states, too)

  I have terrible buyers' remorse.  It would be cool to be more ascetic in Japan.

Nonsense aside, here are some long-anticipated (maybe?) pictures of my surroundings.

Welcome to typhoons in Japan.  This is the first blue sky I've seen yet!  It's done wonders for my mood.

Another cool thing about Japan is the numerous stray cats in the area.  Good thing I still like cats :3

On that note, there's a circle (informal club) on campus that takes care of local dogs and cats in the area (I think).  Potential-up!

My Aussie friend Mellissa on her bike.  Really friendly and cool.  I think Aussie's are in general.  Bikes are also a really convenient mode of transportation to campus.

The view from my patio.  Another dorm!  Some families live in these dorms too, because graduate students are here for research on other campuses (Horticultural, Medical, etc.)

Meet Japanese sweets.  Contrary to popular belief, Japanese sweets really are sweet.  Really.  This picture is only a suggestion of the intense world of Japanese food.  I felt I could understand most of it before I came, but being here just opened my perspective up to so much more!  It's quite overwhelming.  And most things are delicious and cheap.  This bread is about $1.30.  Wait, is that considered cheap in the states?  Someone please help me figure this out!

Anyways, this bread is called "sweet potato bread" but it is actually a trick!  There are no sweet potatoes involved!  It is designed to look like a Japanese sweet potato (pink on the outside, with yellowish cream filling on the inside).  I'm only buying this unhealthy food so I can collect the blue stickers and get a free mug/bowl.  Kudos to Lauren for the tip!

Here's the giant Asian pear I received from one of the elderly women who help out exchange students.  I apologize for taking pictures of half-eaten food, as they aren't very attractive  (or Japanese-y).

But produce is quite expensive (again, my conception of cheap is not exactly accurate either), so I will happily eat whatever fruit comes my way.  The padding on the outside is to keep it from getting bruised.  These are pretty common in U.S. oriental supermarkets as well.