Shorui!!

Being in Japan these last few days just doesn't seem real. Each morning so far ive woken up wondering why I haven't woken up in California. I guess this journey has been so long in the making that I didn't know if it would ever finally happen. But it has.

Though its seemed like a dream so far, Its been amazing! Though there is one thing haven't seen more of in the last three days than ever before I came here and that thing is 書類 (shorui) aka paper work or legal documents. The main things you must do once you arrive in Oita are:

登録の申請 - Alien Registration. You have to get a special ID card which you apparently must carry at all times.

国保- National Health Insurance

携帯- A cell phone.

Actually, there is definitely more things that you must do, but those are secondary. The last three days have been a bit crazy just getting things together and making my apartment cozy and making sure that Im filling out all the right paperwork so I don't run into any legal misfortune.

Tomorrow Ill be off the Oita Daigaku to take the Japanese Placement Test. Oh how I wish I had studied over the summer. ..When you get here, you've gotta hit Japanese Language with EVERYTHING you've got.

Oh bother...(winnie the pooh voice)

I believe this trip snuck up on me. Even though I had months to prepare, being the procrastinator I am, I waited. Moments after driving back all through the night to get back to Antelope from SD I was already in a rushed panic. The straight shot drive till 7am plus the horrible sleeping habits of that weekend left me a bit under the weather. Unsure of what exactly to bring, ive spend the last several days trying to fit what I need into two small pieces of luggage. Its tricky trying to actually sort through what you really need. So i ended up filling about 6 boxes to be put in the shed.

The top three space hogging items in my luggage are:

1 memory foam mattress topper

1 memory foam pillow

6 bottles of contact solution

whahoo!

My flight leaves later this after noon.

The schedule is:

Fly -SF international to Narita, Tokyo

Shuttle -from Narita to Haneda

Fly -Haneda to Oita Airport

Shuttle -to Oita Station

taxi or walk -Oita Station to my apartment.

I wont get to my destination until the next day at about 10:30pm

Sweet.