My Empire for a Plug!

Jet lag sucks but it doesn't hurt to wake up really early in the mornings. I spent an extra hour in bed in disbelief that I was awake so early. Perhaps I could lie in bed a little longer and pretend to wake up somewhere more reasonable... perhaps I might fall back asleep again?? I spent an extra hour in bed... I didn't fall back asleep but it began to get brighter outside. It was time to get up.

A plug, a plug! My empire for a plug!

The last time I charged my laptop was in Canada, 3 days ago. I haven't been using my computer that much but with the batteries down to 50% it was time to feed my mobile machine. The only problem is that in Japan, nearly all electrical plugs are of the 2 pronged variety, not the 3 pronged type. I was quite shocked to realize this, thinking that my laptop would become useless here because I couldn't plug the sucker in despite making sure that my power supply could handle the minor voltage and frequency difference (the power in Japan is 110 V @ 50 hz as opposed to 120V and 60 Hz in Canada). I did learn, however that all was not lost! An adapter could be found and I did eventually find it during my excursion to downtown Sendai... a little more about that now.

9:00 am, meeting time at the lobby. We were greeted by the volunteer group that would take us to downtown for our alien residence registration, bank account setup and health insurance setup. I had to write down my name countless times on many forms, over and over... the ordeal was quite stressful since we couldn't make any/many mistakes else we would have to toss the application form and anew. The one part about Japan that is different from Canada is that you have to write your last name first then your first and middle name afterwards. I had to pause several times over and over to make sure I got the order straight. I did manage to fudge a few forms and had to redo the application. How annoying.

We were met up with a few volunteer students from the university that helped the many international students along the way for the applications. We went from building to building signing up forms and etc. The only one annoying part is that they have my official name down wrong... everything went by so quickly that I didn't really have the chance to correct it... and after it was wrong on one form the error propagated through. The mistake isn't a show stopper but it was just my middle name (it sounds the same but was written differently), the next time I have to move out of this place, I will correct this problem since I have to go back to these offices and have my address and etc changed.

We then had a long lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Some of the international students from Central America didn't know how to use chopsticks so it was amusing watching them learn. Reminds me of the first time I started using chopsticks when I was about 5 or 6 or something in that ball park. But enough of that... on to more important things... shopping.

Our first stop after the lunch was to the Japanese equivalent of a dollar shop, called a 100 yen shop. I went ballistic running around buying things. I walked out with about 20 different items including coat hangers, chopsticks, bowls, cups, waste bin, seaweed and etc. Food and things are so cheap there that if I played my cards right, I could eat for less than 5 or 6 bucks a day (the Costco run I did with friends in Hawaii comes to mind here as we were able to eat on a 10 day trip in Hawaii with only 7 bucks a day.. but I digress). The only things I'm missing are pots and pan, it's annoying to know that you have food at home that you can't cook!

Sergio and I get invited to a meeting for an international support club run by the Japanese university students tomorow. We are to meet in front of the university hospital at 9:50 am.

After that, it was back to the dormitory we go...