Akita Achieved

I am currently in a very nice hotel in Akita called Plaza Crypton wearing a yukata, having just had a very nice bath, and making green tea. This luxury cost around $54 person, but it includes breakfast and we didn't really have much say in the matter anyway. It's definitely not so bad compared with the hats I was man-handling yesterday, my favorite of which was a $190 black top hat thing that was neatly asymmetrical. After being out until the trains started running again we hurried home, grabbed a quick nap and headed towards Haneda at 7:30 to catch our flight. We made it just in time but I was so tired I slept through both the bus and plane rides. We were all befuddled when we arrived at Akita airport, which is really tiny and cutely decorated with northern Japan-ish stuff. There wasn't really a plan for what to do once we got here, so after Katrina got hung up on by a man at AIU who only spoke Japanese, we sat about for a bit feeling frustrated and stranded. Not very many people here speak even a small quantity of English, so I suppose this is one sure way to improve my travel Japanese. This place had been mentioned by the people at Akita so I asked about it at the information desk and found out it was both close to the airport and close to the school. We got a taxi ride with an old man who chatted with us but was more difficult for me to understand because I suppose he spoke with an Akita accent. This hotel gave us a discount on the room for being AIU students and on dinner for being students in general. It offers traditional Japanese meals served in the cute little bowls and round boxes with small assortments of different things in each. In the restaurant there is also a traditional tatami room to dine in but I was sure if it was open for use, so we sat at a regular table.
Before dinner and check-in time we killed 3 or 4 hours wandering round the AIU campus. We just walked into one of the open buildings and toured some of the class rooms, a game/play room, the library, and the computer lab. When we went into Komachi Hall, the dormitory where I will presumably be living, we were pounced on by an old man, made to fill out a visitor registry and get tags, then introduced to a student who gave us a tour of the facilities. The facilities are substantially smaller than that of UNM of course, there are only 500 students, and some of the buildings are somewhat shabby. We met some of the freshmen students and hung out with a girl who had spent a year in Kansas prior to returning home to finish high school. I wish I had been brave enough to do something like that.
Tomorrow is orientation so I will have more info about how it's going to be at AIU then. Now it is time for me to finally recuperate from a couple of nights out on the town in Toyko. The most exciting was Friday night when I went with a girl from the hostel to a club called Womb (pronounced "oomb"). They set up a skateboarding area on the main floor so that some famous local skaters could perform. Unfortunately they were terrible and only managed to get about 1 out of 6 tricks without falling. Everyone seemed very excited thought, but I suspect it had more to do with the team spirit type thing than anything else. After the skaters two guys came out and did many BMX tricks, and unlike the skaters they were very good. I was much impressed by the ways the guys could balance on various parts of their bicycles, etc.
Sleep time now. maybe more and pictures later