The best way to describe Monday is to say that it was frustrating. I woke up nice and early for my 9am Japanese class and then promptly got myself lost on my way to school, which should only take 15 minutes. I arrived, winded and sweaty, at school about 5 minutes after 9 only to discover that class was actually starting at 10:30. So, I figured that I’d finally check my email and update this blog using the Doshisha wireless. I tried, and my computer found the connection, claimed to be connected, and did not actually allow me to use the internet at all. So, after class I tried again, and then looked for an internet café thinking that the problem was some sort of feud between my computer and the Doshisha internet. I paid for a lovely café, had a cup of tea (included in the entry fee) and was still unable to connect. So, after searching all over Doshisha campus for a computer lab to no avail, I got lost again on my way home. My host mother was kind enough to give me a cup of cold tea and a snack after coming to find me, and the rest of the evening was very nice. I later on we watched a jidai geki, which was a TV drama about the Shinsengumi, and which had beautiful costumes but was virtually incomprehensible to me.
-Get a map. Carry it with you always.
-Buy an adaptor for your computer power cord, as most all of the plugs here in Japan are two-pronged.
-You cannot send text messages here between phones of different makes or companies, so make sure that you have people’s email addresses so that you can email using your phone instead.