Thursday, October 27, 2011

Update on everything

Hello everyone!  I'm sorry for the lack of blogs lately.  I've been so busy with school and having fun here I've forgotten about my blog.  Let me give you a run down of how I'm doing here:

My daily routine at school is like this:
9:00 : leave for class
9:20 - 11:05/12:35 : Japanese language class
After that, depending on the day I either have a Fieldwork Research Methods class, an intermediate Translation class, or Japanese Culture.

 Japanese class itself is a bit different from my Japanese class at OSU.  For one thing, I feel like I can talk a little bit more in class here than over there.  There's also much more discussion, because the teachers has us compare Japan with other countries.  However, there are times when class becomes really boring for me, and I lose my concentration.  Mostly, those are the times when we are going over the chapter reading, and our teacher is asking us questions like, "What is the subject?" and "What is the predicate" over and over again for each sentence.  Other than that, I like class a lot!

My other classes in themselves are fairly easy, but they can be time consuming.  Fieldwork in particular is taking up a lot of time, because I am doing a research project in that class.  That is why I'm learning Japanese sign language (日本手話).  In my Japanese class, I also have a small research project.  With another classmate, I'm going to interview a very old kimono cloth shop.  Besides making the interview questions, I haven't done much for that though.

After class, I do a variety of things.  Sometimes I go to a place called "Japan Plaza", where people can only speak in Japanese in there.  A lot of exchange students and native speakers go there to meet each with each other, or receive help on homework.  It's really fun - because everyone is really eager to talk to each other.  There is another place called "World Plaza", where people can speak anything BUT English.  However, even though this place is bigger and more popular, it's much stricter (if you speak in Japanese twice, you get kicked out).  I haven't gone in here yet, but I want to one day.

For the most part, my classes end so late that I just end up going back to my dorm for the night.  Over there I usually eat and hang out with my roommates downstairs, or watch a movie with them.  On days when I end class early, usually I hang out with a friend or two.  Sometimes we go shopping in Sakae (栄え), or chill at a cafe (喫茶店), or go exploring.

Like today, I went with a roommate to find a golf range (he loves golf and has been trying to find one for a while).  Once we did find it, he taught me how to play golf and we swung a few balls for a while.  It was really relaxing and a very different environment than what I was used to; only the elderly were there.  Afterwards, we went to a French cafe, where we chilled and ate a lot of sweets.  By the way, if you ever come to Japan, please make sure to go to their cafes and try their cakes - they're way better than the ones in America.  Maybe compared to Hong Kong cafes they're similar . . . but anyways, they're really good despite their slightly expensive price.


Next week I'll be going on a small trip with a friend or two to Kyoto!  We have an idea of what sights we want to see, but basically I just have a list of things to do once we get there.  If there's anything that people want from over there, please tell me!  Because I probably won't have another chance to visit there again until after winter break!

And since it is night time over here: おやすみなさい(Good night).

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