Grocery shopping

Late Saturday morning, at 11 am, I went out into Tokyo for my first time. Osamu, one of the English professors, and his wife Tomoko, who spent time in England getting her PhD and has a British accent, were kind enough to take me out essentials shopping and for lunch.
I was very lucky and grateful to have their help. My first grocery shopping experience I bought paper towels, frozen pizza, a large bottle of water, Raman noodles, crackers, milk, apple juice, butter, bread (which I may not buy again, expensive for only a few slices), and a bunch of miniature bananas.

Being out and about in Tokyo was an interesting experience because everything was equally the same and different from what I am used to. Driving in a car was the same, except they drive on the opposite side of the road, so right turns are very strange. Almost all of the products being sold are the same, but I can't read everything. I can't read almost anything. I am also a type of person who is constantly reading. While I eat my cereal, I read the box, while driving (or riding) down a road, I read all the signs, while walking through the store, I read all of the labels. Not being able to read everything is a notable, though not unnerving, change for me.
Also, metropolitan life moves very much the same in Tokyo as it does in American cities. On Saturday the mall/grocery store were full of families.
The food court, where we ate lunch, had Japanese places, including one we ate at which sold Japanese noodles and another which sold squid balls, a Chinese noodle place, an Italian place, a Baskin Robbins, and a McDonald's. The McDonald's fries smelled exactly the same.
The other sense of things being different is an underlying sense that I am different. I can't speak or read the language. I don't look the same, or dress quite the same. It's not a feeling of not belonging there, just not exactly jiving with the rest.

Traveling to and Arriving in Japan

The whole time I was flying here, I felt as though I were headed toward a void, a world of the absolutely unknown. I have no idea what the next 10 months will be like, what they will require of me, what I will gain from them, or whether or not I'll be happy, or find happiness here. Even now that I'm here, it seems unreal. (That could be made worse due to the dreamlike quality everything gets when you haven't slept.)

I am here in Tokyo and safe and in one piece, as is my luggage. The city I am in in Tokyo is Chofu. I have been up for just about 24 hours, because i only took two very minimal naps during my flights.

I think that it still hasn't hit me how different life is going to be, nor have I rationally realized how the same it is going to be.

I'm not even really sure how to use my toilet here (the apartment has one of the fancy ones that also has a bidae, and flushes two different ways, and may play music. . . ) I guess that's what the experience is about, though.



This is my toilet in Japan. You can see the controls for the special functions at the bottom and the sink on top that works when you flush!

I already know the kinds of things I will need help with for a long time here, paying bills and banking, and the kinds of things I should be able to pick up pretty quickly, simple grocery shopping, etc. The trains are going to intimidate me though. I think I will just have to mentally tackle them before I start going on my own--figure out where they are going, which one is which, and how to buy a ticket, before I even get to the station. And, not be afraid of making mistakes. Even mistakes that get me lost.