One of the first things we did once I got here was go to the local 'combini', ie convenience store. There are loads of them dotted about Japan, and my nearest is just 2 mins walk on the same street. The 3 biggest chains I have seen so far are Family Mart, Lawsons and 7-11. I got my first 'bento' and the shop assistant actually microwaved it for me :) I also got some oreo daifuku, which is like mochi with icecream inside! Very tasty.
When paying, you can hand over change or put it in a small tray by the till. I wasn't sure why, and thought it might by a hygiene thing or some polite custom, so I looked it up. There's not really a solid answer, but this article has some ideas: Change Trays
You also get a lot of coins and change here, as the notes only get used for 1000 yen and more (I think of them as like tenners, but they are a lot closer to fivers in value). You get change in similar denominations to UK currency: 500 yen, 100 yen, 50 yen, 10 yen, 5 yen and 1 yen coins.
Well this week has been busy! And I only have fleeting access to internet, so I will have to post a bunch of stuff in one go, then there might not be anything for a while. Sorry!
Well the flight went fine, it was a long journey!
When I got to Aberdeen airport in the morning (the 2nd Oct) it was incredibly foggy, so much so that we couldn't see anything a few metres ahead of us in the car! I thought it might delay my flight, but it didn't! It actually left early o_o
It was a quick 2 hour flight to Frankfurt, where I then got lost and nearly left the airport :/ I then had to go through security again, which was an hour. I wasn't fussed though, as I mentioned before I had a 5 hour layover to burn! And I got chatting to some people in the queue so it wasn't so bad. Afterwards I just wandered the shops and cafes until my flight came though.
On the 12 hour flight to Japan I just wasted time watching movies (Ted 2 and Terminator Genisys) and playing my 3DS, listening to music and sleeping. Since there was a tablet with movies I didn't feel the need to use my laptop, though I heard something about there being Wi-fi on the plane somehow..? I also had a nice meal on the plane, beef goulash and green tea noodles with wasabi! It was interesting. All the announcements were in 3 languages, first German, then English, then Japanese. I tried to decipher the Japanese ones as I heard them for a bit of practise! xD
So we touched down in Nagoya around 8:15am. I had to go though customs and immigration, it was a bit of queueing but not too long, as they gave us forms to fill out while still on the plane. Once I exited the building, it was lovely and sunny! And HOT. The teaching rep that met me at the airport told me they'd been having a heatwave the past few days, and yeah, I felt it! We travelled to Ichinomiya via the airport link train (Meitetsu), it was nice. The seats rotated before we got on for some reason. It was a great journey though, got to see some nice scenery.
Once I got to my flat, I just conked out. I was jetlagged though and only slept 4 hours xD
