Out shopping/Curry saves the day again

So, everyone that I have talked to about being a vegetarian while here says that it will be really difficult. I knew they were wrong since I had been in Japan twice before and never went hungry, and I'm still not going hungry. However, being a vegetarian does limit what I can eat. Often there are only a few things on the menu that am able to eat, and there is a lot less dairy than the US. It isn't China bad, where there is no dairy in the entire country, but there is significantly less in Japan. Eating out is something of a challenge for me. Thus, I have been quite relieved to find out that there is a plethora of excellent vegetarian curry dishes in Japan. I've had curry dishes three days this past week, and have always been filled by them.

Today I went out to downtown Fukuoka, to a district called Tenjin. There's a fair amount down there, plenty of デパート。Also went to Canal City, another shopping area where the resident Pokemon Center is located. I would have gotten a plush Cyndaquil, but it looked rather silly without the flames sticking out its back so I didn't. Went down with a group of people, and took my first photos of Fukuoka.

One of the things I have noticed is my speed for reading and comprehending カタカナ, the phonetic Japanese, has increased dramatically from when I first got here.

Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Finally Getting Settled In

Hello there. Been a while but I've finally got internet access in Japan. My school is rather strict about how to get on their network.

In any case, everything so far has been going well enough. Moving into my dorm went off without a hitch, and the space is large by Japanese standards, though there are some odd smells coming from my closet.

Fukuoka as a city is great. It isn't massively crowded, though the downtown Tenjin district can get quite busy, which is only a fifteen-minute subway ride away.

Anything else you my readers want feel free to comment. It's getting late here and I just wanted to make a post after I got into Japan. I have my first day of classes tomorrow so I'd better get some sleep. Japanese Art History in the morning, followed by Japanese language, Japanses politics, and Anime and Manga.

Pics and more updates to come.

Getting packed.

So here I am, sitting in Seattle cramming the last piece of clothing that I can fit into five completely overstuffed bags. I'm tired but I think that I'm all ready to go at this point. Only thing left to do is finish up cleaning my room and packing up my last few things and then I will be off.

Going still doesn't seem real to me, but I'm sure it will once I take off in about 12 hours.