Fun Times in Osaka

Ok lots to update you on but I've been rushing around so this morning I had some free time to blog.
January 27th:Wednesday
The schedule wasn't conducive to good sleep today so I skipped the 9:30am general meeting which I found out later nothing important was discussed and it was basically a repeat of Tuesday's meeting. So I didn't feel bad sleeping in. Got to campus around lunch time and had some pork and rice dish. Mmmm didn't take a pic but I'm sure food pics will just make you all hungry anyway. I met the Faculty at the next meeting and they gave course descriptions. I decided to go change my classes. Problem is, is that the classes aren't first come first serve like in the US, it is a rolling admittance. Which is how I didn't end up getting the Sumi-e class T__T I've put myself on the waitlist for my top five classes so I will wait and see but I doubt I'll get into the art class.

Wednesday night after we all were back at the seminar houses we decided to go to the city and have dinner. Hirakata city is about a 20 min walk from campus. And Campus is about 30 mins from the seminar houses.... it was a long walk to say the least. Walking into Hirakata city is such a blend of things, I will talk about this in another post.

We saw the famous MOS Burger, KFC, and kiddy land. Although I was not allowed to take pictures in Kiddy land I took other pics. Kiddy land is a store representing the stereotypical Japan, bright lights happy songs and hello kitty everywhere. It caters to the middle school crowd and weird people like us. I went with my "group." We have formed this amazing group of people, ironically most of them were on my plane coming over Lol. (Andra in the front and Emily hiding in the back are becoming cool friends)

We ate at this noodle shop.. because that is one thing that all of us are in LOVE with. I of course got Udon again, with a cool looking bottle of coke. The walk back was more down hill and then flat again so going back was ok. January 28th: Thursday
Had a full day of orientation things. Went to the Academic and Immigration orientation. Learned about how to register as a foreigner in whichever ward we will be living in. I went to my homestay meeting which I will go into detail later. Emily and I went to the really funny Health panel, which turned out to be a panel on STD's and safe sex talks, and then we went to the orientation for women, of which I pretty much knew everything already.

Basically a long day of meetings then I went home and watched TV in the seminar house. Japanese games shows are hilarious!

MISC:
I don't remember which day this was Lol, monday maybe? I don't remember if I wrote about it but I met one of my speaking partners, Kaori. Shuuei is still taking his final exams so we will meet later.

I found out about my homestay family yesterday at the meeting. They would be a perfect couple.. if they had a kid I could hang out with xD. But I got my second best choice. I asked that if I didn't get a young kid that my couple be older. So I got this really nice old couple who live on the outskirts of Hirakata City. They have one dog. They don't smoke (thank goodness!) and the drink. They don't speak any English.. and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet- I'll let you know when I meet them on Sunday. They have hosted students before so I'm gonna guess they already know what to teach us and that they won't be shy about telling me what I'm doing wrong... at least I hope. They are non-strict Buddhists. The mom is a housewife, I get a 6 tatami mat room all to myself. A rather large room, similar to the one I'm in now. And I will have to commute to campus, all in all a 40 min commute. By foot and by train. They live a 2 minute walk from Hoshigaoka station. I take the train from that one to the Hirakata station and then walk to campus. Lol that walk is not safe.. but again I'll talk about that in another post. Today I have my trip to Kyoto so more good pictures to come!