Day 11: The ICC Building!
Tuesday, September 2
To take my mind off all other issues, I decided to finally give myself the campus tour I’ve missed out on during the orientation week. Since I have already visited most of the buildings on campus for classes and such, there was really only one area I have not gone to, which is what this post is about!
The building in question is ICC, which I believe stands for International Communication Center. It is slightly off campus, but is connected to it by a very small, but very cool-looking bridge. Prior to my little trip to the building, I had heard many people say it was the most beautiful building on campus. Well, let’s see how true that is!
The inside of the building (which is a weird way to describe the area, considering that it feels like it’s missing a roof) was indeed very cool! The whole theme of the building is pretty much set around the combination of the wooden and iron base with very modern-looking classrooms, some glass elements and lots of decorative plants.
Another good reason that made me decide to go to the ICC was the fact that there is a small italian restaurant on the first floor of the building. Supposedly, they serve a few somewhat limited, but tasty lunch combinations in the afternoon and then switch to a full menu in the evening, also changing from self-service to having waiters work the floor.
Since I went around 12 PM, the restaurant was operating using the very basic lunch menu: pasta (2 choices) or pizza (two choices), optional salad or drink. All of those options are represented on the ticketing machine.
I decided to be very boring and just go for a Margherita pizza. I was given this little device that lets you know when your order is ready to be picked up from the appropriate station, which is something I’ve seen before in America.
I think the only type of salad I’ve had in Japan so far is the 90% cabbage salad you see above, which probably isn’t very healthy. But then again I am already eating a pizza, so oh well! The pizza was good, so this was a great decision.
chocolate with strawberry filling, two.. really big Cheetos?
Speaking of great diet-related decisions… Japan’s adorable packaging for all the things bad for you is gonna be the death of me! Although, to be fair, for the amount of snacks that you’re getting, the prices are really high. What you see above will last me for at least a week (more in case of the chocolate). There is very little variety in the “gummy” section of any snack aisle. It seems to me like Japanese people prefer hard candy and chocolate, but I could be completely wrong in this assumption.