彦根 (Hikone)

So yeah, I am here at JCMU. I don't think I'll have any pictures today, since I didn't take enough to merit uploading them to the computer. But yesterday, the sun woke me up at an unreasonable time again, so I got up much earlier than someone my age ought to. I eventually went down for breakfast since the ethernet cable wasn't even working. Their special breakfast was bananas, OJ, and doughnuts. We then proceeded to have an orientation, in which the JCMU people exaggerated (yet again) every little thing about everything. They made it sound like us students would be get by cars on a daily bases, which is why we, and only we, are required to wear bike helmets. No one in Japan wears bike helmets. It's too hot to wear bike helmets. But if we don't wear our bike helmets, the citizens of Hikone call the school and tell them we weren't (we stand out, believe it or not). If that's the case, we get our bike privileges taken away for a week. And that reeeeally sucks since we are so far from everything else. They also talked about how bikes are stolen left and right, despite bikes being locked. I was thinking "how the heck can someone steal bikes THAT often? they'd have to be suspicious carried around pliers all the time...". But when I saw our janky old dilapidated bikes, I understand how they can be stolen. Locking up your bike does not entail wrapping a chain around your bike to a large fence or a tree. Instead, they just have a lock that closes around your back wheel so it can't spin. Which means that someone doesn't even need pliers, they just need a car with a truck bed, and they can just pick up the bike and plop it in the back. Not that there are many trucks here. Every single car, yes EVERY single car I have seen, is squarish. They are so ugly. I don't get it. It's not like a sedan would be any bigger. But they just all drive boxy cars. Anyway, I talked to Alex's roommate, Caitlin, who has already been here for two semesters, and she said that she doesn't know one person who was hit by a car, or one bike or one helmet that was stolen. So I tend to trust her rather than the people who have exaggerated every single thing they have told us so far.
At noon, we were all told to meet in the court yard to go on our bike tour of Hikone. Although it seemed like the guides were here, it took them 45 minutes to get started, during which time I was assaulted by a giant spider. It landed on my friend Alisa, and she brushed it onto me without noticing, and I suddenly felt something on my face. I thought it was a loose, tickley hair, but Alisa and another girl jumped back. She told me there was a giant-ass spider on my face, so I was jumping up and down yelling "Get it off get it off get if off get if off". No one helped me, but I somehow, through my flailing, made it fall off. It was a big spider. Skinny like a daddy long legs, but big. And yellow. ickity ick.
So every bike group had at least one more advanced Japanese speaker in it, because the tour guides (students from the nearby universities) were supposed to speak Japanese to us. I was the only person in our group who knew any Japanese, but that wasn't the problem. Japanese schools, including college, start in April. My tour guide was a freshman, meaning she'd only lived here for a month and she said she didn't really know her way around either. So we weren't going to get much explanation on the tour, I could tell. We were the second the last group to leave, so as we were riding along and one of my group member could tell something was wrong with her bike, my guide was freaking out because she didn't know who she could follow anymore. The group behind us stopped to help us as we tried to fix her bike- the tire was out of place on the metal wheel. Suddenly there was a very loud bang, like a gunshot, and the tired just popped. Luckily we had stopped and she wasn't riding, because that would have been really bad. The other tour guide called her brother who was another tour guide, and his group came back for us. We got the broken-bike-girl, Brooke, to be picked up by car, and the huge group of us went on the tour.
This guy seemed to actually know where he was going and what he was talking about. He wanted to speak in English so everyone could understand, and it was hilarious XD. We found the supaasentaa, or the super market, a lot like a meijers, and when we toured it everyone stared at us and parted like the red sea, despite the large crowd (since it was a weekend). One of the tour guides was laughing about this fact, and I asked her why they were this weird about us, since they are used to the JCMU students always being here. She said it's because they usually see only one or two at a time, never a group of almost thirty Americans taking a tour through a grocery store. 
We eventually stopped for lunch at a Udon place, and I got the same Udon I got last time I went with Mizuho, Alex, and Miho. After lunch, we rode to the train station where we parked in a paid parking lot for bikes that is watched over- that was a huge hassle- and then we took one stop on the train to the shopping mall, Viva City. Yes, it is called Viva City. Almost every store has an English name, or at least the name is only in the roman alphabet, which is called romaji, for example, the super market is called Beisia (stylized as Beisiə (note that ə is pronounced as "uh", so the name Amanda in IPA would be [əmandə]).
Although every other group had time to shop and whatnot, our mega group of 5 groups (we had accumulated more people at the station) didn't, so I paid to have my bike parked and to buy two train tickets for no purpose -___-. We literally just rode to the top of the mall with the escalator and back down. We made it back to the school in time, and some people went to go shopping before the grocery stores closed, but my butt was so sore from biking for 4 hours, I was not about to ride another 20 minutes to the store, shop, and then ride 20 minutes back with a heavy backpack full of food. So I just ate some of my microwavable yakisoba in the company of two school friends Emily and Alisa. Afterwards we just chilled in the lobby until we were kicked out.
Then this morning (gasp, I'm about to catch up with my blog!), despite my mostly closed curtain, I woke up at 6:15. Evil sun. But I refused to get up until my alarm went off at 8:30. Today was planned to ride to the 100円 (hyakku en) shop, aka the dollar store, where everything is literally just 100 yen. We knew of one over by the train station, but after discovering our map showed one right night to the super market, we thought that would be better than the 45 minute ride to the station. A dozen of us set out at 10 am, the sun already getting hot. I wore a dress, but I was smart enough to wear shorts underneath. No flat tires this time, and we just split up at Beisia first and planned to meet at the entrance in an hour. I found myself mostly getting drinks, since I get thirsty a lot and would rather pay 50 yen at the store than 120 yen at the vending machine for a drink. I still have microwavables for lunch, but I did need some stuff for dinner for the week. I bought a pre-made salad, some gyoza, somen noodles (they are like rice noodles I think) and the sauce for it, curry noodles, soba, peach cups, and a beer because I AM legal here. They don't card anyway though. A lot of things are based on the trust system. Such as the bike locks, the carding for alcohol, and if you lose your ticket on the train- you put your card in the machine as you go through and it punches it once, and when you leave your station, your put it through again to go out- they will trust you bought one, since you had to in order to get on the train, and they trust it's the right amount of money. I also bought some bread- the bread is cheap, but only had 5 slices. 5 HUGE slices. I can easily cut each in half. and still have a good sized piece of bread. I bought some bacon so I can make bacon sandwiches- basically my only protein besides the peanut butter I brought. Meat in Japan is rather cheap, but the reason for that is 1, because very small portion sizes, and 2, it usually expires in one to two days. Literally. That is why the bacon was so amazing, since it would be good for a month. 
Of course the whole time, people were still avoiding us like we had the plague. I know how to ask if there is a 100円 shop near by, but with everyone basically running away from us, I didn't know who to ask. We walked to where the store should be, but it was empty and abandoned. Yet another lie from JCMU. So I still haven't been able to get my slippers and things yet, because I don't want to pay more for them than I have to. Since we didn't want to ride back to drop off our groceries, then ride another 45 minutes to the station, we decided we'd do that as a group tomorrow. The rest of the day has been devoted to studying/blogging. I really don't feel like studying though. I know I'll be placed in the 300 level, it's not like I need to get 100%, I just need to know, well, what I already know. So. Yup. That's is for now.


Mary


Location: the tv room so I can get wifi
Mood: bored. （￣□￣；）
Listening to: Prelude to Paradise - Immediate Music (mah fav sooong ^_^)
Japanese for the day:　なんじゃこりゃ？ (nan ja korya?) - what the heck is this? (Japan made an anime Lilio and Stich but without Lilo and it's on tv right now)