TheLeong.com

Let’s see….yesterday, Saturday, I did absolutely nothing. That is slightly overexaggerated, but not by much. I woke up around 9 or 10 and bummed around. Got my TV that I rented here at the dorm, and got that all plugged up (it’s only a 14 inch screen, but I can watch weird Japanese TV now). Actually, weird Japanese TV probably deserves it’s own blog post.

I decided to not go on the “Tokyo Tour” with the other IES kids and the e-pals (have I explained that these e-pals are Kanda students who are basically supposed to lead us around? We each got “assigned” to one a little bit before we left, and conversed via e-mail. Mine was at the airport the first day, but haven’t seen her since. I guess I’m just that great.) So, instead of going on the tour to places like Harajuku, where I’ve been several times, I decided that I would be better off on my own. And what did that amount to? Why, taking a nap in the afternoon that lasted until around 4 or 5PM! Bryan came back to the dorm, I had dinner here with him (first and only meal of the day), and that was about it. I fell asleep before 10 while watching バイオハザード (Resident Evil).

Sunday: Woke up today around 7, nearly in perfect time to watch Dekaranger and Kamen Rider Blade on TV. After that, slept for another hour. Finally showered and got out of the dorm by noon. I was really bored so I decided to go to Akihabara. And lucky me, by the time I had left it had started raining. Actually, despite the slight drizzle, it was nice. The weather was about 10 degrees F cooler than normal, which was a welcome change. Made my way to Akihabara, AKA dork’s paradise. Didn’t buy anything except for 2 little keychains which costs less than 300 yen. Spent a few hundred yen in arcades, which netted me an old-school Super Mario Bros hand towel. Yippie.

After a bunch of emails and cmails on the ol’ 携帯(cell phone), I coordinated a few people to get together for dinner. Note that I am seriously going to STOP using my phone as much as I have been, particularly in downloading stupid stuff (ie, Kamen Rider ringtones), as my bill is going to be ridiculous. I actually spend a good portion of the evening worrying about this. Here on Japanese cell phones, you get charged by the “packet,” some unknown, mysterious unit of data. I have no idea how many bytes or kilobytes a packet is composed of, but I DO know that I’ve transferred a buttload of them. Yarg…..

That was about all that happened of even remote interest to me this weekend. It’s about 10:30 now, I have to write a 6oo character paper for tomorrow (less than a page), and on top of that, I also have to wear a shirt and tie for tomorrow’s 入学式 (New Student Ceremony). Note that it’s even worse, since it’s not the big, all-school event that these things usually are. Japanese schools start the year in April, not September. So now is the beginning of the second semester at Kanda. So the only kids who are going to be here tomorrow are the foreign exchange kids. What fun is that?

Well today was a busy busy day. Woke up around 6:30 to the annoying ringing of my newly purchased \1000 Kamen Rider Blade alarm clock (I needed a clock!). It’s an old-school analog clock, with an actual bell for the alarm. Scared the crap out of me when it went off.

First attempt at my total 45 minute commute. It’s not bad, except for the walking in the heat and humidity. I think once the weather gets a little cooler I’ll be fine. Also lugged my laptop around all day, which I’m not going to do much, and once I get intenet in the dorm, I don’t think I’ll ever do it. Also bought a 3-month train pass (teiki) from my station at Baraki Nakayama to Kaihim-Makuhari where school is at. Since it was between two different train/subway lines, I could only pay with a View credit card or cash. I haven’t ever heard of view, so it would have to be cash. The total was \23,320 (around $200). And yes, I had that much cash with me. I was planning on paying for a cell phone with that, but it’s OK.

Class placements: we all sat in a room while Tsutsui-sensei read our names and Japanese level placements out loud to everyone. Pretty nerve wracking. No one cried (at least not in the room). I was put in JP401, the highest one they have. I’ve been studying this stuff for about…..6 years, but the test was hard and I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if I was in 301. But ah well, I’m just that good. 7 people are in the class, including me. Fun times. Class was long, not too difficult. This begins the 2 weeks of “Survival Japanese.” You could call it a Nihongo Bootcamp. Tomorrow we’re supposed to go to some person’s house or something weird like that.

Afterwards, had a 2 hour long session where Shin-san of IES tried to explain the AU pricing plans and etc. Long and confusing. They were only allowing people to have this one model of a Sony phone, in either baby blue or yellow. That was no good. Me, Adam, and Dan Lee decided to go to another store and get different phone models. One of the Japanese girls came with us to translate and stuff. Long story short: it was a waste of time to go elsewhere, we couldn’t do it, and they didn’t have the phone color I wanted (blue). We ended up walking back to the school, where Shin-san and the AU guys still were. I signed up for the phone I wanted, but in crimson red instead. It’s OK I guess, but I wanted blue. Ah well. It’s still a better phone than the one they were originally offering. Should actually get the thing tomorrow.

If I write Blog entries about everyting I do everyday, it’s going to get really really long. I dunno…..do people even want to read about all of this, or should I just post really weird or cool stuff (I’m asking this to the 5 or so people who read this. I don’t even think my parents do. Need to tell them the address). Anyway, ate dinner at the dorm (Salisbury steak or something like that), now I’m reading e-mails I downloaded with the 10 minutes of internet I got when I plugged in at the IES center. I’ll take my computer on Wednesday again and send/receive mail and post these few blog entries. Signed up for internet and a rental TV here in the dorm. Hopefully I’ll have that soon and I can have the internet at home.

That’s all for tonight. If you read this whole entry, you deserve a cookie.

Turned in the case this morning with my team. Phew! Now with I-Core over, I see why it is the main attraction at our business school. It really was a good experience, and the case is definitley intense. I’m not going to be one of those guys saying “oh, business school is so hard, better than everything, blah blah blah,” but I will say that I-Core is tough. Mainly the case, just because you have to do it all in 9 days. Anyone who says that business school is cake needs to go through the I-Core Final Case.

And with that, I begin the countdown. 5 more days until I leave Bloomington (wish I had more time). Then I’ll be leaving for Japan on August 23rd. I’ll be in St Louis in between. Are you ready?

The case continues….

Ops is over.  Marketing tomorrow; Finance and Strategy after that…

I’m becoming used to being at the library very late in the night/early in the morning.

I just finished my last Ops lecture, and I’m in the library again.  I’ve been averaging about 4 hours a day or more here, for the last 4 days.  Hopefully it will be worth it and I can do decent on my finals next week.  Then I’ve got a 1 day break in Baltimore for the L’arc concert, then back here for a week and a half of “the case,” which means (probably) a lot of work in a concentrated amount of time.  Then I have about 3 days to pack up everything, go to St. Louis for a week, and head to Japan.

This next month is going to fly by.  Leave me comments.