Since I have Internet access on my own laptop, I can finally start upload pictures and narrate through my first few days here in Japan. We flew from Chicago to San Francisco, and then flew from SFO to Osaka.
Flying over California.
We had a short layover in SFO – we went to Burger King to get our last truly American meal before leaving the country. On our outgoing flight, President Obama was also flying out of SFO so were delayed for a few minutes before taking off.
Waiting at SFO.
After a very, very long flight (where I watched Sherlock Holmes, Leap Year and Wall-E), we made it to Japan. It took us a while to get through customs and immigration (long line at immigration, had to wait for our bags before getting through customs, though both were very easy). After finally getting through the airport, we had to withdraw some yen and buy tickets for the 新幹線 (Shinkansen).
The view from the rail to the Shinkansen from the airport.
When we got to Hiroshima, were greeted by the HIT students and got a bus to the residence halls.
On the bus, got dark rather quickly.
The “Residence Hall for International Students” is actually pretty nice. The rooms are apartment-style with a kitchen, private bathroom, single bedroom (with the second bed in the main room) and a wireless router in each room (which we couldn’t get on with our own laptops until today). We were also provided with laptops by HIT (HPs running XP, and all in Japanese).
All of my stuff, my desk is a major mess now.
Looking out from the balcony in front of the room.
We all had to get up early on Friday morning for our first class. After visiting the International Exchange Center, we had lunch.
Eating lunch at Leaf Garden.
We then took a short tour of the campus. We didn’t see much, but we did visit a few important places like the library and every last store and restaurant.
The traditional Japanese tea house on campus.
After that, we had our first class, where we learned how to introduce ourselves in Japanese. This was all preparation for the welcoming ceremony, where, in front of dozens of HIT students and faculty, we introduced ourselves.
Some of the staff at the welcoming ceremony.
All of us moments before having to introduce ourselves. 頑張って！
The HIT students presented a few Japanese martial arts activities, and we got to join in…
Andrew, moments before flipping the guy on the right.
Kendo!
After the ceremony, we walked to Raku-Raku En station (楽々園) and headed home (高須).
Tomorrow I’ll talk about Yachiyo, where we did a lot of interesting things.
Nice, I have a question about the lunch photos, is it green tea? If so it looks pretty strong from the shade of green.