方向音痴 (or, how most of my days have been spent wandering the street)

I'm approaching the week mark since arriving in Japan, and this experience has differently been different.  The bubbly new excitement of a foreign country has worn off, so its a lot of daily routine so far, just removed from other people.

Really a majority of my human interaction since getting here has been economic transactions and asking directions.  I'm real good at asking directions, but even better at getting lost.

My grumbley list:

PHONE!  I have a phone on a prepaid plan I purchased last year.  It should have been easy to buy another prepaid card to re-up the service.  But since I hadn't done so in a year, the contract expired.  I need an alien registration card (外国人登録証明書） to start a new contract, but the card will take an additional 2 weeks of processing before I can use it.  So I spent the afternoon going back to the municipal ward to get a document certifying the card would come through (登録原票記載事項証明書、a document specifically intended for signing phone contracts while waiting for the actual card).  The phone company again refused me.  I've already paid for the phone and the service, they just won't let me use it.  Grrrr.

I also grumble that the document names in question are as long and unwieldy as they are, which makes it really obnoxious to talk about them all the time.

School is so far... orientation meetings and placement tests.  I was ready to dive in, but there's not yet much to dive into.  Thursday, I actually don't have any class at all.  Considering my problem right now is about not feeling engaged, this is a bummer.

We've had two days of tests and things, but the distance of our housing and even the setup of the IUC Center itself doesn't do much to facilitate social interactions.

But hey look we have a class photo!

I have a hip injury which I was addressing with physical therapy over the summer... it seems it has come back.

I have a bike intended for riders "150 centimeters and up".  Within the price range I could afford, this was the largest bike I could find.  But there is indeed a limit to the "and up" part of "150 cm and up", because 187 cm Elliot does not fit very well.  I think this might be further aggravating my hip.

I live nowhere near any other students.

On day three I became sick of white rice.  This does not bode well for the rest of the year.

Small consolation to a frustrating couple of days: these donuts are adorable.