So, today was, as you can tell, my second day in Japan. We all went to bed just before midnight, but nobody slept very well. Given that we had slept on the plane and then done almost nothing at all, and then slept AGAIN, it does make sense. The air conditioner in here has a timer, so I woke up at 2:54am, all sweaty and gross, and gingerly leaned over my roommate to turn the AC back on. Turns out, both Christina and Ranetha were awake, too! Bitches didn't tell me they were up.

It's been fun, though. We all woke up at 5am. Those of you who know me, know I don't DO 5am. We had to be ready and stuff by 10am, so we had 5, count them 5, hours to get ourselves going. We sat around for awhile, ate some breakfast. (I made toast, with a cheese slice on it, because I couldn't handle a noodle cup for the first meal of the day. Call me a wimp if you will, but I can't do it.) We all showered, and dressed, and hit the streets to explore our area. There's a Sev'Lev (7 Eleven) down the street (sort of), so we popped in there. A LOT more dirty magazines actually, than back at home. Also, because they read right to left, the spines were all on the right side. Also, the driving is the same as the UK, so it's been a lot of looking both ways. (I have a feeling I'm more likely to be hit by a bike than a car at this point though; these people are psychotic about speed and turning.)

Came back and Molly, our assistant trainer, picked us up at the hotel. We went to the 24 grocery (which we already went to in the morning - what a fiasco!) with Molly. She pointed out some easy food solutions. It's a good thing I like sushi. I am warming up to the food. This AM I bought a bunch of tiny canned drinks to taste test. One was this lemon soda; apparently it has the vitamin C of 50 lemons in it! (No fucking way.) It tasted good. Also, had cafe au lait in a can, which was suprisingly not shitty. Yumma. Also, bought some bread. They sell bread - get this - in 6 slice bags, for between 99 and 200 yen. If they made bread this way at home, they could make HUGE long loaves, like 36 feet long if they felt like it. Nobody'd be the wiser. (Oh, the random thoughts of Lily...)

We also went to the Rat shrine. I don't know if that's the official title, but the main area is dedicated to rats. The god that's in charge of rice used to hate the rats, because they ate his rice. One day, he was robbed and got tied up and the rat chewed through his bonds! Haha, so then he liked the rats and gave them some rice. A nice, feel-good story eh? It's a Shinto shrine (there's no Buddha and no clapping).

Wow, am I ever long winded today! Anyways, so then we took the Midosuji (red) subway line from Daikokucho (my stop) 4 stops up to the AEON Kansai (my region) head office (honbu). We did some training, and then had lunch with our trainers at a Japanese (duh) restaurant. I had this tofu croquet thing, with miso soup, rice, vinegar'd cucumber, and some other stuff. I am getting used to the food, and it's pretty healthy so...

After lunch, we headed back up to the office to do some more stuff with Mark. Basic info and the like. We also dealt with insurance and contract stuff, too. OH! The stationary here is orgasmic. I bought highlighters, markers and a pen today. So pretty. Also, bought ibuprofen. They come in 150mg tablets! (Regular advils are like 250 at bare minimum!) So I popped 4 today to deal with some, err, feminine troubles. Not a good start to Japan, but it's been fun.

After training ended at 3:30pm, we headed up a stop of the subway line to hit up an electronics store - Yodoyobashi Camera! (also orgasmic) - to see if we could get some adapters for the other girls. (Their plugs have a grounding prong, and my beautiful, sweet Apple did not. Take that, Microsoft bitches! I digress.) I was in HEAVEN in the store. Phones, Cameras, Ipods (even these nano ipods... like the shuffle, a bit wider, but with a screen and credit card thick). Beautiful, beautiful things. Lovely macs, lovely mice, lovely lovely lovely. Expensive, but pretty. We may end up getting something later on, I think. No luck with the search for an internet wireless card, since we're unsure what the problem actually is. Many magpie moments. (Inside reference: those of you who know me know I cannot resist shiny objects.)

Not speaking Japanese is FUN! *I kid you not, gesturing is kickin'* I lie. Explaining, via pictures and such, what we needed was hellish. Glad my baby ibook is treating me right. I will never go back!

Currently, thinking about dinner. Thoughts about dinner are like this movie that's called "Playing by Heart." DUMB title. It was meant to be named after a line in the movie, which I think is dead-on. "Talking about love is like dancing about architecture." (Although, when it's pertinent, talking about love isn't half bad.)

I got a card from my school today. They sent it to Ottawa, but I was already out of Leeds so it never arrived. There were cute pics of my coworkers, both foreign ones are male. A black guy (God knows what his name is; his signature was a mess!) and Jose... One might be leaving as I replace somebody.

I think that's it for now. I need some food. Hope everyone at home is doing well.