Semester Start

Tuesday, I got up at 6:30, got ready, had breakfast (half a tomato, a handful of heated snow peas, a small bowl of cereal, a roll basically filled with egg salad and a glass of apple juice) and headed out.  I got half a block away before I remembered I'd left Miho's cake in the fridge and went back to get it.  I still made it to the bus on time.

I read a few pages of Ulysses on the bus.  The man who sat next to me asked permission first and bowed when I consented.  Then he fell asleep.  After tranferring at Hirakatashi-eki (the station), I wasn't sure if I was on the right bus and felt rather proud of myself for being able to ask the woman behind me if it went to the university (kono basu wa kansai gaidai ni ikimasuka).

Miho really liked her cake, or at least acted like she did.  It was kinda melted by now and obviously had seen better days, but she really did seem excited.

The first class I had was Reading and Writing Japanese and I quickly discovered I'd circled the wrong time on my schedule.  So I killed another hour before heading to my actual class.  It's taught entirely in Japanese and is more than a bit intimidating, but it still seems like things I should know, so I should be okay.

Immediately afterward was my speaking class, which was also slightly intimidating, but we all did our introductions and I didn't seem to be too far behind the rest of the class.  The guy next to me was from Hungary and I kinda wanted to give my last name to see how he reacted, but I didn't because we moved on and class ended.

I ran to get lunch after that and ran back to the CIE for my Religion in Japan class.  It was a pretty quick introduction and seems like it would be interesting, but I still think I'd prefer Shinto, so I said so on the student information sheet we all had to fill out and give to her before leaving.

Arianna, Daniel and I sat in the lounge for a while after that.  Arianna went to class and Anna, my classmate from Visual Anthropology, found me and we went for our homework photoshoot.  We were instructed to take portraits of each other and send them to the professor before the next class.  We wandered around the library and she took a bunch of me by a study abroad section sign and amidst the stacks.  I took a bunch of her by some art and with the reflection of windows.

Then it was back to the lounge for time-wasting of the game-playing variety.  We finished our dot game from yesterday (Arianna won by one point over me) and played a few different card games with the deck I brought.  We attempted 5-card draw (I think that's the right name, I don't know poker) and I won... with a 10, J, Q, K, A... in one round.  Then we tried War and then Slap Jack before deciding it was time to go home.

There was no one there when I got home.  So I started on my homework.  Okaasan and Misa got back first and we had soba for dinner (cold noodles) that they added soy sauce and what I think was some sort of rice porridge.  It ended up the consistency of puke... but I managed to eat it all.  I brought my homework downstairs and Misa helped me with the Japanese portions.

Okaasan will be in Tokyo for the rest of the week, so Misa will be doing the cooking and taking care of the house while she's away.

Then it was shower and off to sleep.

The roads were wet when I woke up this morning.  It was raining, though not hard like the other day.  I got myself ready and had a roll with a glass of juice before heading out.  The bus ride was uneventful but it was peaceful in the lounge with the windows open after the rain died down.  It was still fairly windy, so I had the sound of the trees blowing around.  It was nice.  There was a message in my mailbox from the religion teacher telling me to come to the Shinto class today if I wanted to enroll.  Yay!

Speaking class passed fairly quickly and I wasted time in the lounge and getting food before heading to Shinto.  I still really preferred it to the Religion in Japan class, so at the end, I ran down to the office and got an add-drop form and am now officially enrolled in Shinto.

Immediately after was my Intro to Japanese History class, which just kept finding ways to impress me.  We're going to watch Ran, go to Mt. Hiei and Asuka and many, many other things.  The professor gave us a quick intro to shrines and other notable places in the area.

Visual Anthropology was slow, since we had to critique the portraits everyone took.  The professor had emphasized something he wasn't looking for, so the picture I submitted wasn't what he was looking for.  I get the feeling I'm going to get frustrated by this class, but in the same way I did at my 6th grade art teacher for judging art on ability (or lack thereof) alone.

But I like the classes.