This morning I was as we say in Swedish: "uppe med tuppen", which means "up with the rooster". I got up at 04:00 and prepared by things and had some breakfast before I went to the station to take the train to Haneda airport (the airport most commonly used for domestic flights). Kikuyo went with me to the station to see me off and on the way there we heard a rooster cry from within a school area. To save space in my suitcase and my backpack I had put on double sweaters and a winter jacket (I figured it was going to be cold in Sapporo anyway so...) and the morning was cold so there was no problems there. Until the sunshine hit the train when I was on the monorail to Haneda. Whew! It was hot! And when I checked in and was going through the metal detector it of course beeped and I had to take out what might have set it off and go through again. And again and again. Because of the multiple layer clothing I had a lot of pockets with stuff in. Finally the man checking me asked if he could do a body search. He found nothing except some more stuff hidden in different pockets of course and so I was let through. When the plane finally took off there was a great view over the gigantic city and I could see Fuji clearly and it appeared to be very close. It must really be huge. And of course I saw the halo shadow thing again. How come I´ve never seen that before?

When I arrived at Chitose airport there was of course snow, but not as much as I had expected. A lot has melted away. Because I had failed to call my friend Ayako the day before, who was going to come and pick me up at the airport, she had to wake up by my call from the airport. I just don´t seem to be able to get things right, do I? Anyway, we met at Sapporo station instead and she helped me call the dormitory where I was supposed to stay and we went there together. When we got there (after some difficulties reading the map in the folder about the dormitory) a lady let us in and showed me around. She went through everything really fast and she didn´t seem to like that Ayako had come with me to help out. She actually told Ayako "you can go now" when we had carried my luggage to the room. I felt bad because I wanted to talk to Ayako and show the pictures I´ve taken so far, but everything was so upside down and I had to try and follow what the woman said so I just said a quick good bye to Ayako as she walked down to the entrance while the woman continued to show me around and telling me things. I had been waiting to get my stuff up to my room and get in order and then go to some calm place where we could talk. It was such an anticlimax. 

There are a lot of rules at this place. Last year I stayed at a place next to the Tokai University which was a corridor for the use of foreign students and guests of the school. We were a bunch of Swedish friends living there and we cooked our own food and had a common livingroom. It was great but I guess it might have been difficult if I hadn´t gotten along with the others. Although there was no manager (there was an office in the school building instead) there were a lot of rules such as that we weren´t allowed to let other people in there. We could come home at any hour though, which was good since we were out partying every week... The one bad thing was that we was a bit isolated from Japanese friends so we only spoke Japanese when we were out partying with our Japanese friends. (Well the rules weren´t followed very strictly so we had some Japanese friends there anyway, but not as much as it could have been.) This place is quite different though. There are more strict rules and food is served at certain times. This means I have to make plans following those times. For example, breakfast is from 07:00 to 08:30, dinner is from 18:00 to 20:30 and the doors are autolocked at 11. If I decide to sleep somwhere else I have to fill in a paper with address and stuff. When I go out and come home I have to turn a badge with my name at the entrance so that they know if I´m there or not. If a friend comes to visit I have to write who he (women are not allowed) is and the exact time he is here. Showers and bath can only be used in the mornings and evenings (I took a shower after packing things up and was told again, since I misunderstood it the first time when I had just arrived, about the bath hours). It´s a great bath though. Japanese people always (at every place I have visited) have a special Japanese tub and they bathe in a special way. First you wash yourself clean so that the water in the tub doesn´t get dirty, then you get in and enjoy, then, when you´ve washed off again and is ready, the next member of the family does the same thing without changing the tub water. The first one to use the bath is usually the father. But back to the dormitory - One thing that I didn´t know was that the electricity has to be payed seperately each month. Bummer. But on the bright side is that I have a phone with a personal phone number on my room. Of course there is a phone bill too...

When I had unpacked my bags and got everything in order I suddenly got struck with a feeling of loneliness. It is a combination of the uneasy feeling of starting to live in this dormitory where I don´t feel at home yet and the longing for closeness to a certain person (yeah Einstein, you guessed it). And I have been having fun for almost a month now, meeting friends and doing things each day, that I of course got used to it. And I also had the image of me coming to Sapporo and meeting my friends and having fun right away. Nobody has my number yet so that´s not happening and since the school is starting for both me and them it won´t be as much meeting friends as I would like. Anyway, all the fun I had before coming here made this coming year (that I had looked forward to before) seem dull and coming here and getting this weird anticlimax welcoming (effectively filled in by a rainy cold weather) feels like a confirmation that it will be dull all along. Also, when going to Sapporo station the bus passed the number one bar district Susukino and our favourite place Tiki Tiki Bar and I felt the urge to go there but the feeling was mixed with a frustration that I can´t do it with my classmates from last year. It won´t be the same without them. Of course I think it won´t really be all that bad but right now I can´t shake off this lonesome boring blue feeling.

Oh, if you didn´t know it already text appears when you put the pointer over the pictures, explaining about that very picture.