Second Week

As expected this week was much less busy, other than classes.  

PILLOW TIP

 I forgot to mention it last week, but I strongly suggest that you bring your own pillow, or buy one ASAP. This is the pillow provided with the cover.

Without the cover.  Inside there are these cylindrical beads and that is what makes it a pillow, and it is extremely uncomfortable.  I had refused to leave my own pillow behind, which I am very glad I did.  I actually used a Space Bag so my pillow didn't take up much space in my luggage.  I did, however, see that the home center next to the supermarket does sell pillows ranging from 1,000円 to 10,000円, so there is that option.

１日券

This is an 1日券 (いちにちけん), a one-day pass on the city's buses and subways.  It only costs 600円 on weekends and holidays and 800円, I believe, on weekdays.  If you take the bus to Hongo station it is 200円 each way and then if you take the subway again it is around 200円, depending on your destination, so I would strongly suggest you get the 1日券.  It is particularly useful if you take the wrong bus or get off at the wrong station.

WRONG BUS

I learned how useful it is to have the 1日券 the hard way, when I took the wrong bus on my way back from the city. I took the bus next to 7 Eleven to Hongo subway station and got to Nagoya without any problems.  On the way back I took the Higashiyama line to Hongo station got off and then got on the wrong bus.  It then took me to another subway station of the Linimo line.  I panicked when I saw the bus get to that subway station, especially since I didn't know the name of my bus stop.  I asked the bus driver about my stop and the 7 Eleven, which he did not know about (and given how many 7 Elevens there are I don't blame him).  Then I mentioned the university and that he understood and told me I would need to get back on his bus (you have to get off at the last stop and can only get on at the time the bus is supposed to arrive) and go back to Hongo station and get on a different bus line.  After a 5 min. wait I get back on the same bus and get back to Hongo station. Once the bus stops he points to another bus and tells me I need to get on that bus, which finally takes me back to the 7 Eleven.

This is the name of the bus stop nearest to NUFS and Proxy.  The bus stop is, incidentally, right next to Aichi Shukutoku University, which I think is the university the other bus driver had been referring to, not NUFS.  Lesson learned, make sure you know the names of the stops you need to get to and the ones you need to get back.

TRASH

This week the RAs also taught us how to dispose of our trash.  There are 4 different types of trash, each with its own collection day.  Burnable, Non-burnable, Plastic, Glass/Cans.  Upon arrival at Proxy we were given one Burnable bag (blue) and one Non-burnable bag (red). 

 This is a packet of a few Burnable bags, which can be bought at either the supermarket or the drugstore.  Make sure it says Nisshin City because the supermarket sells bags for another city; I'm not sure if the drugstore sells other ones as well.

 This is a packet of a few Non-burnable bags.  The booklet you get about trash explain the Burnable and Non-burnable well, so I won't explain those.

And this is a packet of a few Plastic category bags.  This one you don't need to buy. Instead you need to take the Plastic category trash, as well as the Glass and Cans, to the lobby where there are bins for them.  However the Plastic category is very complicated and has to be divided into different types as well.  It has been raining so they were stacked up inside, making it impossible to take pictures so I will go into more detail about the Plastic category next week. 

Once you have your Burnable and Non-burnable trash, you can go take out your trash only on the appropriate days; you get a calendar which tells you which trash is on what day.  You can also only take out the trash between 5:00pm the day before pick-up and 8:30am the day of pick-up, which is when the trash gets picked up I assume.

 Go downstairs to the first floor and turn right.

 The elevator hallway, go straight.

 The laundry room is in this hallway to the left.  I'm still not sure I have the hang of those machines yet, so I'm not gonna explain until I'm sure.

 Go out the door at the end and don't forget to take your key with you!

 Outside go straight past the emergency staircase, which curiously has a bike lock on it to prevent people from using the stairs. However, I can't help but wonder what would happen in case of an emergency, would we all be stuck on those stairs?

 Go down the little ramp to the right and to the net covered cement block.

 This is where you put your trash bags, the rear view.

Lift up the blue net and put the bags inside, then make sure you close the net again with the clips.


HAMASUSHI

Across from NUFS there is a conveyer belt sushi restaurant called Hamasushi, which is delicious and cheap.  On weekdays it costs 90円 a plate, unless otherwise indicated, and 105円 on weekends.

 The restaurant.

 The building across from it is part of the NUFS campus.

 The restaurant sign and you can see the building at the end says 名古屋外国語大学 (なごやがいこくごだいがく), which is Nagoya University of Foreign studies.

 Conveyer belt sushi is awesome.

 All the names where in Japanese so I have no idea what I was eating, but this one had something to do with cheese.  It was delicious.

 I ended up eating 4 plates of sushi (90円 each) and a strawberry chocolate cake (200円).

My friend's dessert was a crepe cream cake, we think.

FIREWORKS FESTIVAL

On Sunday, September 16th was the Fireworks Festival.  To my everlasting disappointment, I had completely forgotten about the festival, until I heard the fireworks start.  At least I had a good view of the fireworks from my balcony and I managed to record most of it, somehow I didn't feel pictures would be as good as a video.

Here is a link to the playlist of the videos: Video Link

I had a few problems with the camera and then to upload as well.

I suppose a quite a few things happened, but somehow it doesn't feel as if I did as much as the first week.