First day - Dec. 30 2006

It was 4:30AM when I woke up in my new appartment, freezing, almost in a state of hypothermia. The heater was off for a reason or another, and I could not understand the remote control to start the heat up again. After 45 minutes of studying the device, I was able to stand right under the heater to defreeze. My first encounter with not being able to use technology because of language... Today I also took the metro by myself for the first time. I had already been explained how to buy the train ticket and it seemed like a simple task to get to my destination to join a friend, but I totally lost confidence onboard and asked someone for a confirmation and somehow I was not going the right way. Finally I was able to find the spot without too much trouble. We shopped for my cell phone, I found out there are 3 big companies in Japan: AU by KDDI, Docomo and Soft Bank (which used to be Vodaphone)... The plans here are SUPER complicated and they can be quite expensive, so caveat emptor! You have to know if you are a heavy cellphone user or a moderate or light ect.. because not only you pay a monthly fee, but you also pay a rate per 30 seconds or per minute! The more expensive your plan is, the less is your rate... and there are application fees and cancellation fees, fees for email service and per email fee... I took a one year contract and will be able to cancel my phone service for a small 30$ charge, which is very acceptable when we consider the 400$ contract breach fee in Montreal. I also got an electronic dictionary that will help me hasten my understanding of Japanese, especially for signage. After some hours of shopping for those gadgets, my friend and I had a very typical Japanese meal called Gyudon which means beef ball. This was excellent and very cheap (about 3.5$ tax and tip included) Tax and tip is always included in Japan! Next I visited my friend's place and met his very kind mother who lent me cups, bowls and utensils for my appartment. When I got home today I was very tired and I felt like sleeping, but I had to stop at the Conbini (convenience store) to get something for dinner and not sleep to avoid perpetuating jetlag. For dinner I had instant noodles (Ramen) and also bought milk and cereals for tomorrow. My fridge doesn't seem to be cooling that much, so I think the milk will go bad :(.