Japan - Day 5

Wow, been here almost a week already, doesn't seem like it...
Today I got online when I woke up to apologise to the people I'd been talking to last night, as my computer crashed and then wouldn't restart -_- I guess it's handling the heat even worse than I am. I then went over to the building where biology orientation was (very early, naturally ><) and waited for my tutor to arrive Once the orientation started, it was all in Japanese >< So I had to get my tutor to help me with what to write where on the sign-up sheets, and the 'koshi' kanji in 'Oikoshi' (my dorm), which is a bit fiddly. We figured out that, although Manchester doesn't require me to take credited courses, I could probably fill all the credits I WOULD require using Japanese and Kanji classes only, which is good. I sure need the practice anyway ^^'
After orientation, and showing me where to collect my student card on Friday, my tutor arranged to pick me up at 2pm and take me to Tsukuba City Hall to apply for alien registration and sign up for National Health Insurance. This took about an hour, mainly sitting and waiting, though because my tutor and the tutor of another Manchester student are friends, the four of us went together, so I spent most of the time listening to the two tutors talking and trying to decipher what they were saying XD
With the health insurance card in hand and the alien registration in the works, we then went to a mobile phone shop. However, as it turns out, it's a little hard to get a Japanese mobile phone as it's mostly contracts, I'm not sure yet if they have a 'pay as you go' system. So, for now, I'm not going to bother with a Japanese mobile phone, and I'll see how it goes
My tutor then took me back to the dorm, and I came up to my room and tried to study a little for tomorrow's Japanese placement test. However, once again I was hit by a wave of homesickness and loneliness, so I went online to find someone to talk to and found practically no-one was online, stupid time zones -_- Eventually people started getting online though, so I wasn't too lonely for too long :-)
Anyways, that's about all I have to report this time around. Like I said, placement test tomorrow, and then probably some photo-taking to pass the time, which I'll probably post to my Facebook in the afternoon/evening. So until then, bai-bai!