First Thoughts

Having never been to Japan before, it was hard to work out what to expect. There were many stories and sharing of experiences, but because no two experiences are alike I was very keen to keep an open mind and go out and make my own adventure through living in an entirely different country and attending one of its universities. As such I found myself at Nagoya, one of Japan's major cities and a hub of transportation and industry. Most people I asked before coming told me that it was very nice but nothing exciting, so I was curious as to how far this opinion could stretch after I'd actually lived there. It's been a week - a hectic, manic week of rushing around with forms, fees and general franticness - but I've survived a week. Only 46 more to go then.

So, for a while I'll be posting some descriptions/observations/general things worth noting:

The Room
My room is on the 6th floor of one of Nagoya University's residences, the Ohmeikan (名古屋大学国際嚶鳴館 for all you kanji lovers). It's an ensuite with a bath/shower combo whatsit, with a balcony with laundry line, a large desk, a bed I can fit in, and a spacious wardrobe. The bed deserves special mention as it came fit with a Japanese-style pillow, which is essentially a small bean-bag. At first I scoffed at it, but it's actually really comfortable.
The room shares a smallish kitchen (couple of hobs, fridge/freezer, sinks, microwave, no oven) with around 16 people on the same floor, which is okay, except mostly things don't get cleaned. Every Wednesday at 10pm we have the Block Meeting, where so far (with my limited language) the other students babble for a bit then we clean up a bit of kitchen, so it's slowly getting back to some reasonable state. There are two other foreign students on the floor, so there's always someone to shrug at when things fly a bit too far over my head.
In total there are around 20 foreign students living here, so it's always easy to get together a group of people to head out and explore the city.

The University

Nagoya University is divided over three campuses, the main one being a short 10-minute walk from the Ohmeikan. I've yet to explore the majority, but so far within the campus I've discovered a Post Office, a subway station, various cafeterias, the occasional shop, and a Student Co-op. The building I'll be spending most of my time in will be the Education Centre for International Students (留学生センター) which has classrooms, a free computer room and a lobby for sitting around and chatting to anyone who happens to drop by. There's also a gym and a library, but library orientation isn't for a while yet.
In terms of study program, I'm taking part in the NUPACE (Nagoya University Program for ACadamic Exchange), with around 50 other students. According to Dr. Wikipedia, it's a fairly prestigious university, so it looks like I'm going to be worked hard. Good job lessons haven't really started yet - when they do I have to be up every morning to attend language classes from 8:45am to 12.

The Food
Ohmeikan is self-catered, but still it is fairly cheap to eat out if you're not so sure what the weird tentacle things in the supermarket are. There are literally loads of restaurants in Nagoya, and they are mostly all a very good deal, with a main meal costing around 800 Yen, or £4. For that you'd likely get a bowl of rice, some miso soup, as much green tea and water as you can manage, and whatever you ordered. Some dishes ("don" or　丼) are already served with rice. Nagoya is famous for its thick, dark miso, and it's therefore served with pretty much everything, so it's lucky its quite tasty. There're many variations with the miso, and as such there's always plenty of choice of Japanese food, espcially at lunchtime at one of the many cafeterias on campus. There are plenty of foreign style restaurants as well if that's not really your thing though, although these might be more expensive.
In terms of cooking for myself, the supermarkets of course stock different foods, so not everything is available/as cheap. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up one or two useful recipes as I go through the year, if not there isn't a huge difference in overall cost between eating out all the time and actually buying ingredients. There is news in the pipeline of some of the foreign students cooking together at some point, so I'll try and bring something tally-ho spit-spot British to the table. Any suggestions welcome...

More in a bit!