I’m still alive!

Well, it’s been almost two full weeks since I arrived at Japan.
It has been really hectic, getting everything going, and then starting classes.

The trip, although long and exhausting, went by without any problems. We got our residence cards in less than 5 minutes, no questions asked. It took about 22 hours to get from the airport in Mexico to my appartment un Kyoto. I do not want to travel by airplane in a long time. 😛

I have been enjoying myself a lot, specially the time where the most basic things pose a challenge because everything is so different. For example, my bed.

I am now sleeping in a traditional bed, a futon. And for a couple of days I just did as my intellect told me I should do. But at the end I had to ask the landlady if I was making my bed the correct way. It turns out I was 90% right, but still making a mistake. Along with the correction came a list of recommendations to avoid mold and mites.

Going to the supermarket has also become a total adventure. As I can read about 5-10% of everything written anywhere, I was just buying things I am familiar with (bread, butter, bananas, milk), but then it wasn’t enough to keep me well fed, so I started to take the risk of buying new things and trying them out.

So far I have found a soup that I really like. I have also bought meat and it was delicious. Although I have no clue what I am preparing them with since I bought a couple of sauces that I have no clue what they are. Ignorance is bliss, they say!

Back home I was not the most sporty person… in fact, I was totally static. I had a philosophy of minimum energy spending.
Here, I have had to walk like sooo much. And it hasn’t been so bad considering I live almost at the top of a hill. I suppose being almost at sea level helps me not feel so so so tired as I would feel back in Mexico City. The first three days were great, but then I started getting muscle pain, still, I didn’t stop.

So this second week I got myself a bicycle. It’s really useful in places like Kyoto where everything is far to walk, but close to cycle. Besides, going to the supermarket and walking with 3 or 4 bags was not fun.

I had never stopped to think on the difference between walk-exercise and bicycle-exercise. I thought they were about the same, until I almost have a heart attack trying to cycle uphill. No hurry, I have 2 years to get used to the bike.

Regarding school, I was able to get myself into the Japanese classes. Although that meant I had to chose my Master’s courses according to the Japanese classes schedules. But I will survive. There is not much more to say about school yet as it has only begun this week. So far I looooove that it is so lively, kids singing, jumping rope, dancing and just… being. I love it.