Today was stressful, my first day in Japan was not the romantic idyllic fantasy I had imagined and in fact just tired me out. Today I was to meet a woman called Midoka at Osaka station and we would discuss accommodation over the next few months in Japan. My day started at 4am. Thank you jetlag. At 4 in the morning I was wide awake and trying to figure out whether I should just lie there in silence or get up. So I got up. I quietly went downstairs to the lobby and had a mooch. I read through leaflets and looked at maps and pictures and generally just tried to while away time until the world woke up and I could do something productive. at 5 someone came in drunk from the night before and talked at me for the next hour till I finally made an excuse that worked unlike the subtle ones id been throwing his way the last half hour. So at 6 I'm on my tod again. I decided to go back to bed and read. Which I did. Cat had bought and signed a copy of my favourite book "angry white pyjamas" and I read happily until 8 when my roomies alarm went off.

My meeting was at 11 and I decided that I would leave early and check out the meeting point and then do some window shopping. The first port of call was breakfast. This came in the form or one of the international constants...McDonalds. Being morning and that my grasp of Japanese on my first day amounts to naf all I went with the international language proposed to me by my work college Colin. This involved Pointing and saying "four, four, shi, four" very slowly and loudly until the overly polite woman behind the counter clocked the breakfast muffin meal I was jabbing my finger at. Very speedily my meal was bagged and I was on my first real stroll in Japan. This is when the sky opened. donning my jacket and very stylish black flat cap I soldiered on munching in to my breakfast muffin thing, as I did I noticed that McDonalds cup sizes are directly proportional to the size of the people of that country. I.e. if you order a regular coke in America you get a small bucket. Here your get an eggcup which they somehow also get ice into too aswell.

15 minutes later I was at the station this was closing in on 9 o'clock. I checked where the ticket machines were as we had decided to meet there and once I had the place cased I decided to see what they had for sale in Japan.This didn't go to plan. It seems the shops in Japan or at least Osaka don't open until 11am, they are open later but this was no good for me at 8;45 in the morning so I had a good wander about, I found "The Pokémon centre" a shop…a massive shop with all things Pokémon.Next time I'm down that way after 11 I'm going in. I've also spotted a Sega store which is going to get a look in in the future.

I wandered aimlessly until quarter past 10 having somehow befriended an old Japanese lady that stuck a red feather on me after I donated 70 odd yen to her charity box. I have no idea what the charity was or in fact if it was a charity. Could have just been a mental old biddy that liked to stick feathers on people. I got to the station at 10: 30 and not wanting to miss Midoka I took my position in plain site by the ticket machines and waiting while flicking through my phrasebook. She warned me to be on the look out for her in a blue shirt and with a brown bag. She also said she would spot me as there are not many foreigners. She was right as I stood there I became very aware that I was the only non Japanese person about. Was a little strange. I waited patiently until 11; I waited impatiently until 11:15 and scowled until 11:30. I had no way to contact her so I left.

With the shops now open I had a mooch and was amazed by the amount of stuff in the software store I found, the aisles were crammed floor to ceiling and were just wide enough for two people to pass by. I found in all of the stores that I went in that several people are employed to shout. I presume they are shouting out the latest bargains but I didn't have a clue. It seems similar to the grocer at a market shouting out about his wears but in the UK even the women that worked at a market stall came across sounding like frank butcher. Here they all sound like Elmo from Sesame Street being tickled. I made my way back to the dorm and sent an email to Midoka asking what to do next. I decided rather than wait around I would be pro active and head to the flat Osaka building. I had the address and my trusty friend Google gave me a bird's eye view. I marked an x on my map id acquired that morning and set off.

Was quite a trek involving a lot of walking and two trains and then when I got there I spent over an hour looking at every building for some sign that flat Osaka headquarters was there. I even tried asking in a shop and the language barrier caused a lot of confusion so I said "arigato" and left. At this point I was a little worried as I have no accommodation set up in Japan and only 3 nights in hostel set up. A walked back to the hostel again getting lost on the way. When I hit water I realised I may have gone in the wrong direction. On the way back to the hostel I hit the mother load. A 100 yen shop. I found Pepsi. And cookies and a packet of "Carl" crisps and despite being told buy Izumi that it did not exist (I don't think she's Japanese really) I found sweets and a half loaf of bread. There was a crisp sarnie in my future and all was good again. Back at the hostel I was met by a new room mate, called (clean forgot and felt rude to ask again). She is Spanish and has BLUE hair. It's mentally blue. As I type this she's giggling to herself and marking things on her map as it's her last day in Japan tomorrow. As me and my other roommate Brandon give each other the odd confused look.

Today started out frustrating but ended ok, the rain has stopped now that I'm indoors and I'm thinking of taking a late walk to see what some things may look like all lit up.But first I'm having a crisp sandwich.