絶望した！一番の日は絶望した！

One down, many to go. Rock on.

Had three big things happen today:

1. Find/get to Keio University's Mita campus on time.

2. Get oriented.

3. Get a bank account.

These were covered in that order. Here's the lowdown.

My first Japanese train ride was indeed during the morning rush hour, but it wasn't nearly as packed or unpleasant as some would make it out to be. I had a very pleasant ride to Tamachi station in a filled, but not overstuffed car. It took about half an hour, for a total of forty minutes travel time. I had a little bit of a turnaround after leaving the station, but I did eventually make it to Mita campus and found a stream of bright-eyed, eager young faces heading exactly where I was heading. Orientation lasted about two and half hours, which could have been shorter but wasn't anything to lose sleep over, and then a bunch of us went out for lunch and then on to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. Amazingly enough, even over here, my money is ending up in the trustworthy hands of SMBC.

We timed ourselves well at the bank. When we came out of the conference room where we were all making our applications, there were about forty other students waiting to get going on theirs. Once we all had our new bankbooks, we headed over to SoftBank wireless to get cell phones, the next (last?) big item on our respective lists. It's sensible for us to all be on one carrier because for a very low monthly payment we can have free wireless calls and text messaging to all other SoftBank phones. We were there for a couple hours, first checking out the floor models, then finding the pricing sheets and everyone suddenly becoming enamored with one of the cheapest models available. Then, in a blaze of irony and after a very entertaining three-language negotiation/investigation of plans and prices, we were dismayed to discover that they were sold out of all of the phones that we all wanted except for a less-liked model that was only available in pink. It was a cute phone, to be fair, but it just wasn't me. We decided to call it a night and head back to our respective homes, and we'll make another go of finding phones tomorrow, probably at Bic Camera or some other electronics giant here in Tokyo. So, until I get into better communication channels...

絶望した！