Daijoubu desu.

All is well.

I crashed out at 9pm last night and woke up around 6 this morning. Had some serious first-day-of-school jitters ("What if I can't find my classroom? What if I don't make any friends?") but got myself out of the house on time after spending a little while half-heartedly flipping through the textbook to refresh my memory before the placement test.

One of the first things I found out was that I didn't, in fact, miss orientation. It was this afternoon. So that's a relief!

The placement test was fairly brutal, especially the oral part. OMG. It was so stressful and I don't think I did that well. But that's okay, I knew I was rusty and even if I get placed a bit back from where I was last semester, it will be good practice and mean that the classes are less stressful.

Then there was a break for lunch, and I met a few other English-speaking gaijin in the courtyard. Yay! So I don't forget, they are: Lee-san, an Australian who has been living in Japan teaching English to elementary school kids for a few years (not for JET, but for some similar program) and is commuting to Yamasa from the city next-door. Bryan-san, a fellow American (from St. Louis) who has also been living in Japan for a while; he teaches English (to high schoolers?) for JET just north of Tokyo and is staying in the dorms here. He's also doing a 4-week course. And Laura-san, a Canadian whose only previous study of the language is from books and anime. She's at a homestay. Laura-san also just arrived in Japan a couple of days ago. She's 22 and the two guys are both in their late 20s (I think they said 27 or 28).

The four of us had lunch together at the grocery store next to the school, commiserated about the placement test and got to know each other a little. After lunch we had a lot of time left, so we wandered up the street to a park and a different store, where I co-opted them into helping me find sunblock (because I was already getting a little burnt). Felt absurdly accomplished about that successful mission. All three seem very nice and fun, so I'm hoping to run into them more (I expect I won't end up in the same class as Lee-san or Bryan-san, but maybe Laura-san).

After lunch was orientation -- in English! Thank goodness for that. I finally got to meet Flavio-san, who works at the admissions office and was super helpful to me over e-mail during the process of applying to the school. I learned all about the complicated trash/recycling rules and a bunch of other useful things, so I have some notion of what I'm in for over the course of the next four weeks!

Surprisingly, Flavio-san mentioned that there was an earthquake yesterday morning at around 6am! He asked if any of us noticed it and no one had. But he said it was strong enough to wake him up. Damn! My very first earthquake and I slept through it! Very disappointing. :( (Not that I'm going to hope there will be others, because that's... kind of terrifying.)

One of the other people in the class was a friendly middle-aged woman named Yolanda-san, who is apparently Belgian, currently living in Switzerland, and speaks something like six languages. Crazy cool! She and I laughed about our grocery store misadventures (hers involved attempting to buy sugar). There was also a German woman, from Berlin, who lives in my same residence hall, but I didn't catch her name. :/

Yolanda-san asked about the trip to Fuji-san this weekend, which she was apparently already signed up for. This led Flavio-san to mention it and say there were still vacancies if anyone else wanted to climb Fuji-san tomorrow.............. yeah, you see where this is going. :P

So I spent the remainder of my day shopping for super-warm clothing in 100-degree heat. So. Surreal. (It's apparently going to be right around freezing at the top of the mountain.) On a tip from Bryan-san, I found a huge thrift store just up the street. Those of you who know me know that I looooove thrifting. And there were so many shirts with amazing Engrish on them! It was so good. I did manage to find an ugly fleece pullover and an equally-ugly-but-very-warm hat for the climb, and also bought a couple of shirts (for me, and for gifts). On the way back I found another store full of cheap things (called, appropriately enough, Garage Sale) where I acquired a scarf and a pair of gloves, total cost 152 Yen. And then I stopped by the 100 Yen store, where I added a flashlight, a rain poncho, a thick pair of socks and some leg warmers to the day's take. Hopefully I won't freeze. Trying to envision temperatures that cold is nigh unto impossible when you're sweltering in brutal summer heat. (This is the reverse problem of trying to pack for a trip to the beach during Christmas break.)

So, yeah, tomorrow I'm apparently climbing Mt. Fuji. Eep. We're getting on a bus right after class and, according to the info sheet: "We start with a break at the vast lagoon of Hamanako, before heading into Shizuoka. When we reach Mt. Fuji, we climb from Shin-5-gome, climbing during the night (with safety guide etc) from mountain hut to mountain hut and hopefully seeing the sunrise. ... After we descend Fuji, we head across the mountain face to the beautiful Shiraito-no-taki waterfalls before returning to Okazaki."

Let's see. I better go to the grocery store before it closes and get some supplies for tomorrow. Need to bring so much food. OMG. And while I'm there I'll see if I can't figure out laundry detergent (thanks so much for the advice, cdinwood!). And I need batteries for the flashlight too.

I would worry about this overnight hike thing totally destroying my sleep schedule, but let's be honest here... what sleep schedule? I'm so out of sync anyway that spending all night climbing a mountain isn't going to make it any worse. Well. Maybe it will, come to think of it, since I'm sleeping at more or less the right times right now. But. I will have Sunday to recover! :P

No pictures today, I didn't bring my camera with me. Gomen ne. :) There will be plenty from Fuji-san to make up for it.

Jaa mata!