Arrival in Japan, Sharehouse, and First Day of School

Arrival

After the long flight, I was pretty tired. When I finally reached the immigration counter, the officer seemed a bit confused because he apparently did not know that he was also supposed to issue my Zairyu Card. Once that was cleared up, everything went fairly quickly. After that, I only had to pick up my suitcase and go through customs.

At customs, I talked briefly with one of the officers because he was curious about what I would be doing here for a whole year. He knew I was staying for one year because of my Zairyu Card.

After that, I still had to pick up my SIM card so I would have internet and a Japanese phone number. The phone number is important because many Japanese services, for example banks or the city office, want you to have a Japanese number.

First Night

Since I arrived on Sunday, I could not move into my sharehouse right away. So I stayed in a hotel near my sharehouse for the first night.

To get from the airport to the hotel, I had to take the train.

Because I had two suitcases, plus hand luggage and a backpack, it was not exactly easy. I did the first part of the trip on the Narita Express. It was my first time using it. It was surprisingly comfortable.

After that, though, I had to take the Yamanote Line. That one is always crowded, and you definitely get some annoyed looks when you are a foreigner blocking the way with huge suitcases… But as the Japanese like to say: しょうがない. Nothing you can really do about it.

When I finally arrived at the hotel, completely sweaty, I took a shower first. After that, I went outside and explored my new neighborhood a bit. Unfortunately, I still have not found a really good cafe…

The Sharehouse

The next day, I was finally able to move into my room in the sharehouse. As soon as I arrived, I met someone who lives there. That person showed me how to unlock the door with the PIN, what I should pay attention to, and where I could find my mailbox.

Once I got into my room, I first made the bed and unpacked my suitcases.

After that, I noticed that I had no internet… In my room, internet is only available through Ethernet, so there is no Wi-Fi. That meant I had to go out again and buy a cable.

I was really glad that I had packed my docking station for my MacBook. That let me get online through the Ethernet cable. But right after that, I noticed the next problem: I had only solved the internet problem for my MacBook, not for my phone.

So I checked how much a Wi-Fi router would cost. I did not want to go out again, and I also did not want to waste my mobile data right away. So I figured my MacBook could probably create a hotspot. And yes, it actually works. So now my MacBook is also my router.

Anyway, that was my first day in the sharehouse. But on the same day, I also had to go to school to take part in the orientation event.

School Orientation Day

There is honestly not that much to say about it. I was actually pretty disappointed by the orientation. Not only were the teachers unable to keep the room quiet, but in the end they also just read out the PDF they had already sent us by email two days earlier…

Maybe they just have to do this event for legal reasons, I do not know. In any case, it mostly contained things that should have been obvious anyway: Behave properly. Come to school, otherwise your visa can become a problem. And then things like how to get cheaper train fares or that you have to register your address. Which, at that point, I had not done yet.

First Class

The next day it was finally time, which means today, to be exact. I went to the station at around 7:30 in the morning. That was way too early, or so I thought, because I only had to be at school at 9:30 and the trip takes about 40 minutes.

So before that, I went to a cafe and just chilled a bit.

But when I wanted to leave, it was rush hour. That meant I was packed in like a sardine. Maybe I should just chill at a cafe near the school in the morning instead of near my station…

When I arrived at school and went into the classroom, I met a few classmates before the lesson started. One guy stood out in particular. He basically stormed into the room, said nothing, and sat down somewhere in a corner.

During the break, he talked to me because he noticed that I am from Germany and asked me whether I like Rammstein… No idea what was going through his head there.

Later he said that you do not learn anything here anyway and that the teachers do not give a damn about the students. He spent the whole lesson playing on his phone, and whenever he got called on, he just said they should skip him. I guess he is one of those people who are only doing this for the visa…

But anyway, on to the actual lesson. I understood surprisingly much. In fact, I understood so much that it might even be a little too easy for me. I will watch how it goes for about a week.

Basically, today’s class was just frontal teaching without any proper grammar or vocabulary explanations. For me, that was not a big problem because nothing really new came up. But my classmates were not too happy about it and told me that this teacher also was not very good at explaining things in the previous levels.

I am curious how the other teachers will be. We have a different teacher every day.

After school, I went home with a slightly weird feeling and did not really talk to my classmates any further because I absolutely still had to register my address.

Address Registration

This was the thing I was most worried about. I only speak broken Japanese. I cannot write kanji at all. And then on top of that, there is official government Japanese…

The only thing that calmed me down a bit was that weird guy from class who barely said anything. He somehow managed it too :D

And yes, in the end it was actually really easy. I went there, probably looked completely helpless, and then someone came over, asked me in Japanese what I needed, and explained what I had to do.

I only had to fill out one piece of paper with my address, my name, and my date of birth. I even had to write my name in three different places on the same form… Then I just had to take a number and wait.

When it was my turn, I only had to hand over the papers and answer a few questions, for example whether I still needed to join the health insurance. And that was already it.

After that, I received a lot of information to read, for example how garbage separation works, what to do in case of a disaster, and how to protect yourself against crime. I should probably read all of that at some point… But not today.

So yeah, that is everything I have experienced so far.