Daily routine:
Monday through Thursday are generally identical in their routine. The alarm on my tablet goes off between 8:00am and 10:00am depending on how late I stayed up the previous night and I spend a couple minutes on my computer checking for updates from family and friends. Once I've finished with that I bundle myself up in my towel and bathrobe and carry my shoes to the top of the outdoor stairs. Taking care not to wear my shoes inside the building, I toss them onto the top of the stairs and step out of the building into them and then descend to the first floor where I re-enter the building, take off my shoes, and choose between one of the two available private showers depending on how much water the previous user decided to spill on the only dry area to change.
The shower has a bit of a temperament and tends to decide to stop being warm, or decided to get super hot, or lose pressure on a whim and it can be frustrating when I'm mid wash, but usually it returns to normal if I wait a couple minutes. After that I return to my room, equally careful not to enter the building with my shoes on (The Chinese tenants seem to enjoy ignoring this rule that is posted on every door, so I can't avoid tracking dirt into my own room, but at least I can choose not to add to it.)
After changing into my clothes or the day, I'll start making breakfast depending on what ingredients I have. Recently I've been boiling up some pasta and slicing up some hot dogs into it with some Parmesan, salt, and pepper for flavor. I like pasta and it's affordable, but I'll need to find something new to make once I'm done with the few bags of pasta I bought. Some days I'll study some Japanese while I keep up with people on Facebook until I leave, and on other days I'll head out early to the school and work a little there until class starts.
I've got my walk to school down to muscle memory and, since I've altered it to miss all of the train crossings, it's pretty reliable as far as how long it takes to get to school, so I'm never late if I leave by 12:40.
Class official starts at 1:20, but has students rolling in until about 1:35. The lessons are broken into 4 parts with 3 short breaks to separate them and they tend to go fairly smoothly depending on the general atmosphere of the class. After class, depending on who's busy, I'll join a few people in Takadanobaba for some lunch/dinner and then head home. Some days I'll stay and play a few games of pool with another student before heading home.
The walk home from Takadanobaba is a little more than an hour, but I tend to zone out and think while I walk, so I hardly notice it. Upon arriving home, I usually look over some of the Japanese work we did and watch a few movies online. Tokyo is really expensive and there isn't much to do without spending a ton of money, so I zone out until it's time for bed.
Friday is often different to the extent that after school sometimes includes a trip to the Izakaya or a pub and twice it has lead to Karaoke. The rest of the weekend is usually spent either recovering my sleep schedule, or being cheap to balance the previous expenses.
Pizza:
Normally pizza in Japan is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. A $12 pizza at home cost about $40 here and that means I thought I'd simply never have pizza here. Fortunately I can almost satisfy my pizza addiction with a slightly different type of pizza that still tends to be expensive, but is more common than traditional American style pizza. There is a chain of pizza places called "Shakey's" that hosts a pizza buffet on Wednesdays for about $12 and I can eat as much as I want until they close. It's a great deal and is an easy excuse for people to gather.
The People:
I usually hang out with the other students at Yoshida. So far there are only 3 Americans including myself. The rest of the group I mingle with is overwhelmingly Swedish with a little Canadian, French, Moroccan, and Korean. There are other nationalities represented at the school, but the majority of the Chinese students are all in higher level classes and we rarely have a chance to talk to the morning class students.
The Market:
The stores I frequent are usually 7/11 and MaruetsuPetit. Aside from their smaller size and the different products they sell, they're otherwise unremarkable. The precooked foods they sell though are notably better than what you'll get at a store in the states though, so in a pinch, grabbing a bento box for lunch or dinner is always satisfying.
Cooking:
I really don't have much capability to cook anything complicated, so I usually cook simple things like pasta and rice and supplement it with cooked meat from the store. The microwave has an oven, toaster, and grill option, so I might be able to make something work if I can figure those out.
Now for something that wasn't asked for
Crossroads:
At this point I've been here for over two months and the novelty has worn off. Its unfortunate, but Tokyo is painfully mundane for anyone without a small fortune to blow. My original intentions were to try to stay for an entire year and maybe longer, but I find myself second guessing that intention. I might have to look into moving to a different city if I decide to stay much longer, or I'll have to decide whether to cut the trip short at 6 months and find something else to do until my adventure is over.
Of course the hope is that with the novelty out of the way, I'll be able to find a routine that keeps me drawn in. This job I'm applying to is hopefully the start of that improvement. The money from that job should also help to deepen my pockets a little more and make my time more enjoyable. We'll have to see in a month how things start to turn around.
Next update will be on Sunday, after my job meeting.
