The End of January 01-30-2026
Hello! This post is coming out of my dorm, Yui, in Hirakata once again. This is my fourth night, and I am still confused on how I am lucky enough to be here. At the risk of beating a dead horse, I won't say this place has everything, but it has a lot. I haven't spent any time bored yet, and I don't see that changing. Today culminated our orientation week, I am pumped for classes to start Monday and for the weather to warm up in the next few weeks but this weekend is also sure to be a good time. Tomorrow, there is a concert in Osaka and since the train stops at midnight, whenever anyone goes out in Osaka they have to take the 5 AM train home and then probably have a super productive next couple of days.
On the food front, I have been eating very well. My favorite items so far are these rice + seaweed balls filled with all different things, the salmon one and the beef + egg ones have been my go to breakfasts which is not a terrible way to start the day. Does it beat the Pop Tart Banana Celsius combo? Probably, but a head-to-head series is going 7 games; 6 at the minimum. For dinner, ramen has been my staple, a good one from 7/11 is like 4$ (I think) with everything included, and all that you need to do is microwave for 7 minutes. I have yet to try sushi here, but will make up for the lost time tenfold once I find the spot.
While still not even a week, I have met a bunch of really cool people. Not just from around the east coast but from all over the world. Last night, our 'rest right', we walked to a karaoke place and left around 2. Luckily, we all made it to campus this morning for orientation at 9. The place had a surprising amount of English songs which was clutch because that's the only language I know. So far at least. Having to communicate with most people in Japanese (even while knowing only know like 4 words) has done more than 9 months of Duolingo. I'm expecting that once I begin to take Japanese class it will be a fun process, picking up new words and then testing them out in the real world minutes later.
The time difference from back home has been really really weird, however it has made social media really boring which is a positive. The Super Bowl being Monday morning would be unfortunate, but I have Japanese at 9:00 so I can wake up early and watch. NBA games have been tipping off around noon here, MLB night games in the morning will be electric, matinees at 3 AM even more so.
That's all I've got in this update, any recommendations for things to do or places to eat are greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.
Oliver
