So, today, aside from studying for the placement test tomorrow, I got out of the dorm a bit and got a feel of Kasai, my suburb. The initial reason for that was simply because I needed food, what with there being no food served in the dorm on Sundays, but it also seems that tomorrow is a holiday, so there's no food then either.
Therefore, I had my first experience with a 7/11, one of the bigger convenience store chains. I'd had them recommended before, so I knew I'd have to go at some point, and today seemed as good an excuse as any. Everything is moderately priced, I paid a little over 400円 for a large bottle of Pocari Sweat and a large pizza bread thing, which was heated up by the clerk. I didn't really know what to expect from Japanese bread, I believe there's a different yeast content, or maybe a complete lack of, I'm not exactly sure, but it's ever so soft. Pretty tasty stuff really, I'll try to take a photo next time before I devour it!
After that, I made a brief trip to a local mall with Daniel, for some proper lunch. I found out today that I actually like ramen. I'd only really tried it at Wagamama previously, and it's usually quite bland and tasteless, but the stuff today was so good. I can see why people like it so much. I also tried out some capsule toy machines! I'm now the proud owner of a Phoenix Wright phone charm, which will soon be adorning my phone, whenever I get it. Daniel was quite jealous of the fact I got Phoenix, but in my endeavour to get one of Edgeworth instead, I ended up with Apollo as well. Thankfuilly I ran out of 100円 coins, so I couldn't get carried away. Capsule toy machines may become an achilles heel to my funds.
Made my first visit to a McDonalds here for dinner as well, which isn't really anything radical, I know, but it's the small things that make up the whole experience, and it was the small things that stood out for me here. Firstly, they're pretty quiet, it's not a place full of screaming children and noisy teens. Most of the clientele were students or office workers. Also rather amused by having a "smile" listed on the menu for 0円. Before we leave, myself and Daniel intend to visit at one point and ask for a smile, and then simply walk out.
In any case, it's back to studying grammar for now! Next update will most likely cover registration and the placement tests!
How do Japanese people react to you when they hear you speak in Japanese? Or the people in the area are used to having foreign students?
ReplyDeleteIt's really strange actually, I felt like more of a foreigner in America. Whenever someone heard me speak, they'd make a deal out of me being from England.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, you get ignored, it's only really kids who stare at you for a bit. I guess it's just to do with being in a big city, there are a lot of foreigners here, so they must be used to it.