The Sea is Calmer Now

What a wonderful day!

I woke up early, once again, but a little later this time. My jet lag is starting to go away and soon I should be completely used to the Japanese time zone schedule. Today was rather busy, with orientations, a placement test and grocery shopping. But I experienced more of the Japanese culture again today, which makes the day even more exciting.

This morning, I walked over to Lawson's, in order to get a few food items to help me through the day. I was still not sure at the time whether or not I was going to be placed into a homestay, so I decided to buy a little bit of food at a time so that I did not have to waste. I ended up buying what I recognized: Frosted Flakes and milk. I had a rather American breakfast before I headed over to the academic building for orientation at 8:30.

Orientation was given by Kawaguchi-san. He gave us a history lesson on Shiga and Japan Center for Michigan Universities. He explained why Shiga was populated the way it was, and famous sights around the Shiga Prefecture.

For those who are unclear about prefectures and cities, let me explain using the United States as an example. Kansai Region = Midwest. Shiga = Michigan. East Lansing = Hikone.

He also gave us some information on cultural activities around Shiga that will be taking place in the next few weeks. There will be an art festival/exhibition next weekend. There will also be a festival on Sunday, June 13 in Takatori. In two weeks, there will be another exhibition of art, this time at JCMU. A ninja character, Ninjaemon (にんじゃえもん）will also visit. Later in the evening, a professor from the Business School of Doshisha University will come and talk about the globalization of Japan and the Japanese. Half of the lecture will be in English and half will be in Japanese. In three weeks, the weekend of my birthday, the students here at JCMU will be going on a field trip to Arashiyama (あらし山). Therefore, I believe I will try to visit Tokyo and my friend the following weekend, the first week in July. By that time, I should have completed another semester of Japanese and I should be ready to take on the big city.

After Kawaguchi-san left, Iga-san finished the orientation about the campus and the rules and regulations that we were expected to follow. Iga-san is very lively so the orientation was not dull at all. In addition, she offered to us the chance to join a club here in Japan during our stay. As much as I would like to join a club, (I was looking at playing tennis with Shiga University), I am now unsure because of a new opportunity has come up. (More on that later, since I am trying to go in chronological order)

After Iga-san, the sensees came back into the room and we all filled out an information form. For those who wanted to get into level 2 or above, we had to take a placement exam. It tested our knowledge with reading, writing, listening, kanji, katakana, and grammar structure in short answer forms. Afterwards, I felt as though I proved that although I was not a genius in the Japanese language, I was adequate enough with the structure, writing forms, and comprehension of Japanese to make it into the second level.

And second level I was. Right after seeing my name posted in the second level group, I headed upstairs to Yoshida-sensee's room where she gave me review packets for the second half of Genki 1. She also gave me a weekly schedule that listed what we were going to cover in which class on which day, what I needed to do to prepare for the class and what homework would be assigned and due. I also received a syllabus which I looked over right away. This seems to be exactly the type of course that I want to take. Intensive and immersive. I am ready.

If you read my last blog, then you should know that I will be staying with a host family for the remainder of the summer. They are an elderly couple whose sons have already grown up. However, sometimes the grandchildren visit them for a weekend or so. My host father used to be an art teacher for a junior high school, and now he spends his days painting in his studio. In addition, they have exhibitions, (apparently the Japanese love art exhibitions) sometimes where their friends and other people from the neighborhood come to their house and look at the pieces of art. My host mother works with many international exchange programs, and so the family is used to foreign students living with them. In addition, she loves to cook. I'm so excited to try new things.

My host family lives about a 14 minute train ride away from Hikone, so I will probably have to put aside about forty minutes every day to commute to class. A bike has already been delivered to their house so I should be ready to bike ride to class every day starting in approximately one week. I should be moving into their house either next Saturday or Sunday. Exciting times!

Afterwards, I got together with a group, consisting of my new roommate, Jackie, (her old roommate wanted to switch to a different room, no problems here!) Nikki and Heather from down the hall, Nikki's roommate, as well as Pat and Chris, two guys who are also here at JCMU. The seven of us biked to the grocery store, but first we stopped in the hyaku yen (百円）store, Japan's equivalent to the dollar store, and bought some goodies there. I bought some Kanji practice books, a folder, and lots of chopsticks. The girls and I then did furyu (ふりゅ）the Japanese equivalent to a photo booth. It cost 400 yen, approximately $4, which we split. Then, we got in, chose five different backgrounds, took pictures like crazy people. After that, we chose the three that we liked the most and then moved to the side of the machine, where we were able to draw on our pictures. If you ever go to Japan, I highly recommend this for some fun. At the same time, you get to practice your Japanese, since all of the directions are in Japanese.

Then, we went to the grocery store. I got some soba （そば）as well as bread and tea. I will probably go back soon and get some rice. I also found that rather interesting. For being in Japan, rice was rather in limited supply and choices as well as very expensive. Two of the girls decided to split a bag of rice. Soy sauce, however, was not in limited supply. It had it's own aisle and everything was special for some type of food. There was fish soy sauce, rice soy sauce, tenpura soy sauce. Do to our limited kanji knowledge, we had to resort to guessing what was on the pictures.

Note: Even though it is the first alphabet that one usually learns in Japanese, Hiragana is not used often. Katakana is used regularly on buildings and in the supermarket for foods and such, but generally kanji is usually what you have to read in order to get around. This also brings up another note. My roommate, Jackie, has a Nintendo DS. She also has a program on her DS where if she sees a kanji, she can copy it by writing it on her screen, and then the DS will let her know what the kanji means. It can also work backwards where she writes the hiragana in order to find out what the kanji is for that word.

And so, we traveled back to JCMU by bike just as the sun was setting on the horizon. I am still just in awe of the wonderful houses that line the streets of Japan. When we got back to the center, Jackie, Nikki, Heather and I came to mine and Jackie's apartment where we had our first "Japanese" dinner. Which oddly enough, consisted of cup ramen, spaghetti, potato salad, tea, peanut butter sandwich and grapes. Not sure about the Japanese part of the food, but we did eat with chopsticks.

Well, I am not off to study for my first class tomorrow. We are going to review for a couple days before we get into some new stuff.

In another note, my luggage has finally arrived! We had a great time unpacking all of my shoes.

でわまたあした！（See you tomorrow!)