First Day of School!

First day of school dress & Sophia University bag 

So now comes the answer to that million dollar question you've all been waiting to hear about: How was the first day of class?

The day started super early, around 6:30am, to allow time for breakfast and the train ride. I arrived on campus at 8:20, easily found my classes, and was seated perfectly on time for the start of my Japanese Popular Culture class. This class is going to be awesome! We are discussing anime, manga, fashion, food, "cute", and advertisements. It's basically what I always do in Japan, except I get a grade at the end. Our main project is a presentation accompanying a final paper about a popular culture topic of our choice. I'm not sure yet, but so far I'm leaning towards Maid Cafes. Now my trips to Harajuku, Shibuya, and Akihabara can be considered legitimate studying! 

My second class of the day is Contemporary Japanese Economics. Those of you who know my feelings on econ classes already know that this will not be one of my favorite classes I've ever attended. However, I can apply the credit towards my International Business Certificate, and 3 weeks of econ beats an entire semester of econ any time!

Origami hats on the bus

After classes ended, all of the exchange students piled onto tour busses for a tour of Tokyo. We saw the State Guest House, Akasaka Palace, the Supreme Court, the National Diet, the Imperial Palace, and Akihabara before getting off the bus at Asakusa. There, I was able to have golden kiwi flavored ice cream, finally track down some post cards, and pick u a reasonably priced UV-blocking parasol/umbrella. After that, we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to see the view from the 45th floor lookout point. It was so beautiful!!!

Even the bus ride was fun. Our tour guide Eriko from the beginning excursion was leading our bus. She made origami Samurai hats and even showed us a traditional festival dance!

The tour concluded at 6:30pm when we were dropped off back at the university. Most of us went back to the hotel via train. Rush hour is always interesting, it was SO CROWDED!

Once back, I headed out to find some dinner with Lauren and Andrew. We walked around for awhile and went to a different area than we had searched through on previous nights. At first we tried an Italian place in a basement, but it was super crowded and had a very long wait. Ultimately we wound up at Coco's. All of us had some type of pizza and a dessert. It was fun to have a little break from traditional food, but I'll be back to typical Japanese meals tomorrow.

I had margarita pizza and a chocolate mint ice cream pie. Both were very yummy and well earned after such a long day.




Sorry todays post is a little shorter than usual, but I'm feeling a little bit sick. I think it might be from hang drying my clothes in my room after I did laundry last night. Hopefully it improves quickly, it'll be another early morning tomorrow!

Peace, love, and hairspray!
~Jenn