!

i have arrived! ! it's so surreal.. i still can't really believe i'm actually here. the temperature was something like 6 degrees when i arrived in tokyo, it hit me like a brick in the face. my week-long orientation there was a mixed bag of goodies. we got read the rules of the program about 20 times.. however, i had an awesome time with the other exchange students. it's funny how much entertainment you can get just from comparing accents. there are about 20 other students on the same program as me from all around the world (thai, canadian, american, kiwi, i forget what else).

anyway, on saturday my host sister yuka picked me up from tokyo station. she's cool, the next day she took me to watch her futsal team play, and ended up making me play too. i think i made the team lose. i haven't seen much of the parents yet. the mother manages a restaurant and is usually not home until around 1 am, and the father also seems to be working a lot. i think he is an architect.

the trip so far has been excellent. i hope this is really just a taste of things to come. tonight yuka and her friends are taking me to yokohama for a sort of welcome party shindig thingy. should be fun. i thought i'd never say it, but as much as i despise cairns, i think i am missing it. just a tiny bit.