Baba Station and Waseda

I meant to write more last night but... I fell asleep. XD

So, on the second day I got to Japan I didn't do that much. I unpacked and then watched television with my homestay father. We watched baseball (Nipponham Fighters vs. Rakuten Eagles). By the way, rakuten (or 楽天) means optimism... and nipponham means Japanese ham. (I think Rakuten and Nipponham are the sponsors of the baseball teams.) My homestay father is a huge fan of baseball, so it was fun to watch the game with him. He also told me that Waseda University has the best university baseball team in Japan.

Yuki Saitō, pitcher of the Nipponham Fighters, went to Waseda!
(Photo credit: 投稿者本人撮影)

The next day we visited Waseda University and my homestay father showed me around. He's an OB of Waseda (OB means Old Boy or alumni... another Japanese expression which comes from English, but is it really used in English??) so he knew the campus fairly well. I told my homestay family that I liked ramen, so my homestay father pointed out every ramen shop on the way to the school. There were so many!

Then yesterday it was my turn to go to Waseda by myself! Although I managed to get on the right train, and get to the right station, I left by the wrong exit so I was completely lost. Fortunately I found some people that were able to direct me to the right street!

By the way, the subway and trains in Japan are really confusing. Although trains might go to the same location, there's the express train, the semi-express train, and the local train. The local train stops at all the stops, whereas the semi-express and express trains only stop at some.

Waseda Avenue / 早稲田道り

The classic Waseda University photograph

Outside Takadanobaba Station / 高田馬場駅

Orientation was long and boring, but it was really fun to talk to the other exchange students. :) I'm excited to go to events and find great places to eat!