~Chibizaki

I actually still feel like I'm on a plane.... feels like floating... @_@;

Well I've arrived, had some sleep (though I keep waking up at around 3am and can't go back to sleep.... ^_^; ), and I'm writing to you from the school's computer in my "office" that I'm sharing with 6 other employees including my Seneca colleague Maria (she sits beside me in the office).

I couldn't sleep much on the planes as the seats were quite uncomfortable - they make your back and neck curve forward (maybe it's 'cause I'm small and the countours of the seat aren't right for me...? I dunno). I wished I could actually stand for much of the flight because I constantly wanted to be able to arch my back backwards.

There are so many highrises here it's insane. Even from the plane... you're like looking down and you see about 1000 of them and you're like "oh cool". Then you realise you were just looking at the suburban area and then you actually see the city in the distance and it's like OMGxAvogadro's number. Seriously. It's like... they're GROWING these things and it looks like a big forrest with grey dark smog floating around in the distance. Haunted highrise forest - that's how it looked like to me from the window of the 747.

The cab ride back from the airport was interesting. You have to be brave to drive in this city. And cyclists and pedestrians have no fear of cars. I wouldn't be able to do it. It's scarier to actually watch other people driving/cycling/crossing roads. o_O;

Apartment is quite bare, dirty and needs a bit of settling in. I have a bed, desk, dresser, chair and that's it. Needs some cleaning too. Oh I have no bathtub... kinda weird since Japanese have deep bath tubs as part of our culture.... Everything here is quite dusty. Security for the apartment seems really good though. I'm living with Maria and another girl named May, a graduate from Sheridan. It's quite close to convenience stroes, restaurants, banks, and a gym. I'm quite excited to do some exploring on my own. Need lost of supplies and food... Fridge is empty save a few bottles of juice, cold flavoured teas, some pasteries...

Haven't had gastrointestinal problems yet... though Maria says that is to come shortly which I'm not looking forward to... >_<

School is interesting. They are currently a short cab ride away or two subway stops away. But they are going to move in late June, I think. Yesterday I sat in on a compositing class that uses Shake - very different than Combustion though the teacher said that it can do the same things they were covering in class. I feel bad because I was nodding off during the class, desperately trying to keep my eyes open, not because it was boring but because I'm so tired, and I seem to have a bad headache since the beginning of the afternoon... I hope I can get to play around in Shake soon...

I rode the subway back from school yesterday... and it's packed like in Tokyo. I've ridden the transit over there during rush hour so it wasn't such a big shock but I have to admit it makes me nervous about not being able to get in the train with the other TAs and get separated or something.

I'm constantly thinking that I should have reviewed a bit more kanji (like the ones that aren't used so frequently in Japan) before coming here... It's really confusing because they use simplified forms here unlike Japan so sometimes, I wouldn't even recognize the characters even though I may know the traditional forms. I'm seriously thinking of getting a tutor soon, just so I can at least say basic things to get around the city.

Oh, I don't have a computer at my apartment like promissed so the only way to access the net is at school. They close at 8pm too unlike the 24 hr accessability I thought we'd have (no more sleeping over on swivle chairs I guess, ahaha...). I may actually end up getting a lap top because I really want to do some projects (painting, modelling) of my own and the machine in my office is quite slow.... It currently can't run Maya because the license isn't installed in the machine.

It appears I will be teaching rigging soon.... I don't know how soon... no clue what's happening with that... I'm like... the only other person that knows how to rig stuff aside from this other generalist teacher....

Anyway, gotta go for now.