My first days in Nagaoka...

I have been here in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan for about 5 weeks now. I came here to get a Masters degree in Nagaoka University of Technology. I am thankful to the university, AOTS, and Monbusho for this opportunity.

My husband and I arrived last September 1 (Thursday), in Narita, Tokyo at about 130pm. We already reserved a hotel in Nagaoka, so we just sent two luggages to the hotel for a fee of about 3,400 yen. At the airport, we bought train tickets for Nagaoka. It cost us about 22,000 yen. We took the Narita Express to Tokyo (about 1 hour) then the Shinkansen to Nagaoka (almost 2 hours). We just bought some food at Tokyo station and ate them on the way to Nagaoka. We finally arrived at the hotel around 6pm. It was only a short distance from the station. We rested for a while, and went out at 8pm to have some dinner. It was surprisingly quiet at that time outside. Not many people were on the streets. That's when I realized that what some people said about Nagaoka was true. It really is a quiet place. We walked around, trying to find some restaurant, but we ended up buying some food from a convenience store and went back to the hotel. It's a good thing that the hotel has a computer with internet access, so were able to communicate with our friends that night.

The following day, we had to go to the university at 2pm. The first thing we did was eat breakfast at their restaurant, then went around the place near the station. We went back to the hotel to wait for our luggage. Then looked for the Internation Affairs Center and asked for directions on how to go to the university. We found out that the bus goes to the university only twice every hour. Worried that we won't make it in time, we just bought lunch and rode the bus for about 30 minutes. We met with Joel in Gidai (shortcut for gijutsu daigaku or university of technology) and hurriedly ate lunch at the Internation Students Exchange Room. After that, we met with the staff of the International Student Affairs Division for some paperworks and payments. Joel helped us in choosing my apartment. I met my adviser, Pavol Zavarsky, in the flesh for the first time (I already met him during the video-conference interview in January). I was also introduced to my tutor, Wada Shota, who accompanied us to file for the Alien Registration Card and insurance card. He was very kind to accompany us to buy some type of bedding and pillow. We left it in my apartment and he called the light and electric company for activation. We went back to the university and he showed us our laboratory (we have the same lab). We then agreed to meet the following Monday to apply for bank account. We rode the bus with Joel (last trip: 740pm) who got off near a drugstore, while we got off on the last stop, Nagaoka Station. We decided to go to the apartment that night. So after eating at McDonalds (on the other side of the station), we checked out of the hotel and took a taxi to the apartment (about 1600 yen). My husband and I slept slept there that night with only the pillow and bedding.

The first two days were very stressful for me since I am new to this place. I only speak basic Japanese. I cannot read Kanji. And, I think I was still trying to get used to the idea that I will be on my own from then on. Now, I'm not fully used to living here (maybe I never will be), but I have made some improvements. I have made some foreign friends (Nga-Vietnamese, Febri-Indonesian, ZawZaw-Myanmar and others) and Filipino friends (Joel - 2nd year masters course in electrical engineering, Leah - Joel's pretty wife, Nazi - research in electrical enginnering, Wella & Leonard - Nazi's lovely wife and son) here. I am really thankful to them for all the things they've helped me with.