Boring orientation Day 2

Academic policies, IES cultural events, volunteer opportunities aka super long and boring lectures. Sometimes, it's really hard to hear what the staff is speaking, because the staff speaks fast but doesn't enunciate enough.

The more helpful session is probably the one on transportation. When I looked at the Tokyo JR (train) and metro (subway) map, the first thing I thought was: this looks too complicated and messy. There are so many lines! I like Hong Kong train & subway map better, it's much easier to understand. Anyways, we watched a short video about how to take the train (IES probably assumes that Americans don't really take public transportation, which is very true). The staff said that trains and subways are usually punctual, but if there will be delays sometimes. If there's a delay, the ticket office will issue "delay certificate" for people to take to their company/ school. After all the intro, we filled out our application forms for buying monthly passes.

Application form for buying monthly pass

Student ID

Sub student ID for getting discount on monthly pass

We took the train to Nishi Furabashi for lunch with some e-pals today. 

train station

direction 

on the train

restaurant

We ordered our food from vending machines!

490 yen for udon & beef & rice bowl

Unfortunately, I don't remember everyone's name. The guy on the phone, Hiro (pronounced Hero in English) is an e-pal, the woman next to me is Watanebe-san, IES Tokyo staff.