The First Week of Class

Classes started Monday. Had to drag myself out of bed at 8:30 in the morning, eat breakfast, and get my shit together. Classes start at 9:30 everyday. Classes are different everyday. Sometimes I have 3, sometimes 2. They're an hour and a half long each. I have around 45 minutes for lunch, which is actually not a lot considering how crowded the campus 711 is at that time. It's easier to just buy it in the morning before class, and run into the 711 at lunchtime to heat it up if it needs it.

Our classes are at times painfully simple. I think they might be trying to reach an aggregate between our individual levels of Japanese. I'm not going to post my whole schedule here because that's far too tedious, but for example, the "Japanese things" class was all about the freaking cherry blossoms, while the grammar class is just slightly above our heads where we need it to be. Our writing class is a bit ironic, because while we can all read and understand 90% of the kanji in the book, we cannot write them all (I guess it is writing class), nor do we know all the words formed by them (or at least not the ones they want us to). But, because we said it seemed so simple, they allowed us to try to test to the next book, but as per the aforementioned problem...I don't think we got it. But they do seem to understand and want to challenge us appropriately. I even managed to get our grammar lessons to NOT use English grammar terms by just asking what a couple were called. Aside from the asininity of teaching Japanese in English, it's not exactly fair to the Korean kid who doesn't know English, just because the Australian and the Lithuanian and the American do. So classes are overall...okay. I was expecting to be looking outside the classroom to do any real learning anyway. Just being here a few weeks has taught me a LOT.

I think Wednesday night there was a party for CUPS and exchange students and freshman joining CUPS. Maybe ESS (English as a Second...Something?) too. It was a fun little affair. I got to meet more people. Most interestingly, there were two guys in jumpsuits, one of which was wearing an orange one and whose name was "Stick" (so he said), the other of which was wearing a black jumpsuit and who's name was D.K. (for Donkey Kong).

After this official party held on campus, there was an after party at a bar. There's this amazing thing in Japan called a 飲み放題(nomihoudai), which pretty much literally means "all you can drink". We paid ￥3000 for two hours of this with some food, too. Didn't get as drunk as I'd have liked to, but it was a hell of a good time. Met a number of cool people, and got extremely comfortable holding a conversation in Japanese. In class the next day, a teacher asked us about it and taught us the word for after-party. This whole country is like Morgantown.

The next day (Thursday), I had a date with Chelsea. We just went and hung out around Sakae (I still have to write about that, don't I? Shit!). She's already written about the date here. That restaurant was really cool. I just wish I'd known what it meant when the guy said, "末席" when we came in, instead of looking like a retarded foreigner. Why they never seem to find these things important enough to teach, I'll never know... Makes me want to teach Japanese to save the poor students from whoever else they might be getting it from.

Wonderfully, I have most Fridays off. I only have class on certain occasions for the culture class, such as the tea ceremony and flower arranging. Not too interesting, unfortunately, especially when compared to the culture I do know (swords and fighting!). But, hey, the tea ceremony was popularized by Oda Nobunaga, so that makes it cool right? ...right?

This classless Friday was spent sleeping, paying a class fee, catching up on my flashcards, and sampling the karate club. Their karate is much different than mine. I'm not sure how it's going to conflict with the knowledge and technique I already have. And I also want to try a bunch of other martial arts clubs. So I don't really know what I'm going to do. I could probably spend a week sampling each one, and find something that's really interesting to me. That could take time, though...

But when I went, the guy who basically made me his responsibility had trouble speaking simply enough for me to understand. Not his fault, that's tough. I also think I have trouble expressing the difference between when I don't understand and when I do understand and am listening for you to continue. Something physical like karate is a surprisingly difficult thing to do in a foreign language. Lots of little instructional words like body parts and positioning, types of movement, breathing, time. It didn't help that the kempo club was on the other side of the same room being very loud. I was basically a beginner again because the basic movements are totally different from what I know. Also because they don't know what I know, which is always a frustrating thing.

So that's pretty much my week. I've got to go and shower now. My room is freezing. Idk why, but it feels like the coldest part of the building.

Oh, and for the record, Blogger's post composer/html generator sucks. I would be better off if I just wrote it in html myself. But, tags are tedious...

The Other Castle

Today we went to Inuyama. There's a festival going on right now, but I'm not sure why. Probably for the cherry blossoms and spring in general. They had these huge floats that were basically a wooden cart, 30 feet high, with puppets on top. They would start in front of the shrine, do a puppet show, start playing music involving something-resembling-a-flute players and drum playing children riding the thing, and then start pulling it down the street. But not before a bunch of young men lifted it up onto a wheelie, spun it around, and started pulling it down the street in this manner. I shit you not. These things' wheels don't turn, so they just turn them like Hot Wheels cars. And those videos are pretty much exactly what it's like to be there. It's just nowhere near as weird seeming in person. When you're there the whole thing seems like a fairly normal thing to do. The atmosphere was comparable to Wellsburg's Applefest.

Follow the festival and you'll end up at a shrine, which leads to the castle, one of the oldest in Japan and a National Treasure. This one is a bit cooler than Nagoya castle in that fact. It was not destroyed and "rebuilt" in the last century, and every part of it is around 400 years old. Unfortunately, it's mostly empty. Probably because of it's age, it is unsuitable as a museum environment (the building is not "sealed" like a modern structure). Nagoya castle is cooler in that it has lots of cool stuff in it (specifically swords). All the castles around here seem to have something to do with the Oda clan, which produced the serious badass, Oda Nobunaga, who was one of three generals who resulted in a unified Japan. The whole Sengoku Jidai is very interesting. Awesome reading material, which has also has a lot of really cool modern interpretations. Oda Nobunaga lived in Nagoya Castle, I hear.

I ate lots of cool food. First some okonomiyaki, which is always delicious, and which also had some yakisoba in it (also delicious). I washed that down with an Asahi beer. They apparently have no public drinking laws here. Also, I was not carded, and hear Joe never been either. They either don't care, or are overestimating our ages. I tried a corndog, which was labeled as an "American Dog". It really wasn't any better. And the mustard was HOT in that horseradish-type way. I washed that down with a snow cone, the syrup for which was extremely thick and sweet. Not watery like in America. Just outside the train station on the way home, I grabbed a can of Pepsi from a vending machine. They're 500ml here!

So, the day overall didn't involve a lot of various things. Just being there for a long while. And train rides. Look through albums I'm tagged in on facebook for photos, as my camera is still broken. I'm in the middle of a back-and-forth with Nikon US about what to do about that.

The Timeskip

So the last couple days we've been sorted into classes. As I mentioned in the last post, I had to write an essay, and take a short, simple interview, as well as a straightforward test to see where I'd go. I got into the bottom of the three JSL classes, but it doesn't really bug me because I know I don't do all that well at all and I get better every day anyway. I also think that if me and the three others got the lowest scored, even if they weren't that bad, we'd have to be in the lowest class. So it doesn't so much mean we suck, just that we're not as good as everyone else here, which was already fairly obvious.

Anyway, after all that, there was an official welcome party, held at the Center for International Programs, which involved the staff members, the teachers, and the Chubu University Peer Support (CUPS) students. Food. Soda. Good. Everyone had to give "speeches". Really just an introduction, but I was terrible anyway. The Koreans are really good.

I've also finally applied for my foreigner card. It's required to get on within 90 days, and I have to carry it with me at all times. If a cop asks for it, and I don't have it, and I've been here over 90 days, I'll be arrested. The application involved riding a bus to Kasugai City hall, signing two things, paying 300 yen, and waiting for 3 hours. Of course there were about 9 of us applying, so individually, it may have taken much less time.

That night (3/31), a few of us went into the woods to find a temple. It actually happened to be the temple I found during the day just this week. It was still interesting. Very creepy. I will track down some pictures sometime. It reminded me of Fatal Frame II. That game scares the hell out of me.

Was that just last night? Today we got the results of the placements test, which I've already talked about above. Hmm... Well, after we found out, we split into our respective classes, got our schedules, and were given orientation sessions by the teacher who would be teaching us first next week. We also applied for the JLPT August. I decided to wait and take it in December. 1.) Because it's kind of expensive and 2.) it just doesn't really mean that much. The biggest point made in that link is that if I can manage to apply and interview for a job in Japanese, why would I need a certificate to tell you I am proficient in Japanese?

After all that, we kinda split up around campus, but met in CIP to get some papers needed to purchase cell phones. However, that requires payment using credit card or Japanese bank account, or post office account. So I'll be getting something in the next few days. With the student discount, the basic plan is free for 36 months, the basic data plan is free for 36 months, and there's some sort of discount plan also applied so that the data packet charge starts at certain amount and can never go over a certain amount. With the student discount, it starts at zero and I don't get charged until a certain amount. Cell phone hours are virtually opposite of America. You get free, within-network calling during weekdays, and are charged nights and weekends. So all I'm really paying for are a phone and activation fee. I would also be paying for a charger (yes, it doesn't come with the phone), but we have some spare phones and chargers in the dorm from previous students who don't need them outside Japan, and all this company's phones use the same chargers.

So that was pretty much today. I looked at some bikes. Didn't like any of the rentals available, and I really want my own shiny new bicycle. They did look nice, but between $150 and $200 means I can wait another month for my next scholarship payment.

After we got back, I walked with Joe through the club fair again. He finally found the computer club, and I finally went to look for the karate club. Still never found them, but found a graduate practicing. He took some information and said he's pass it along. On my way back, the kyuudou club go ahold of me and I finally got to go try it out. For some reason I had to aim really low and to the left to hit the target, but it worked and I got a few bullseyes in the 30-45 minutes they let me shoot. I would really enjoy joining this club, but I also want to see the karate club. The Judo club is a bit too brute force for me, but maybe. Of course, they weren't very inviting when I was around the dojo. I have no idea what kenpo is like; apparently it's probably kung-fu. Aikido is high on the list, of course. I've always admired it. I'd join them all, but dammit, there's no time! I also haven't found any sword school, but I'd jump right on that! Oh, crap, there's supposed to be a kendo club...

To describe the environment of the first week, when the clubs gather in the center of campus and set up tables and hand out flyers and do whatever it is they can to get your attention, I will draw from what I said to a friend: "You have any idea how rabid the clubs here are? They're all advertising themselves to the freshman right now. There's a huge crowd in the middle of campus pushing flyers on anyone walking by. I saw a guy in a Tony Tony Chopper costume! And another in a Pikachu costume! And I have no idea why!" So, yeah, I also described this a bit in the preceding post, so look if you missed it.

So gosh, did all that, came home, at dinner. Did my usual thing, studied, watched some videos on ニコニコ動画, and waited for the girlfriend to get online. She was having trouble figuring out how to put the bedding together, and from her description, I would too. I've just been watching some stuff online and decided to skip ahead to the latest stuff that's been happening, because trying to remember older stuff to write is getting harder and harder to do and I just don't really want to, though I always feel about writing about the latest happenings. Why fight it?

じゃ、それだけです。明日また!