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On Saturday we had an IES Field Trip type of thing to Asakusa and Sumo Wrestling. Asakusa was interesting, just seeing the huge tourist trap that was once a temple. It was probably the 3rd time I’ve been to Asakusa (where the big Thunder Gate is), but it’s fun to walk down and see the shops, although you never buy anything there except for expensive souvenirs (I bought nothing).

One odd thing was near the smaller temple, there was a wedding. A bunch of us were in the courtyard, waiting for the rest of the group before we moved on to the next location. Next thing I know, I turn back around towards the temple and there was an old guy laying on the ground. Apparently he had fallen (was walking with a cane) and hit his head. I didn’t see that part myself. We were wondering if we should call an ambulance. I really thought we should have. 2 police offers walked up within a few minutes and seemed to have things under control. I never saw an ambulance before we left, so I have no idea what they ended up doing. I did however see them lift him up and move him away from the main entrance of the temple. Maybe it was to give him a better place to lay down? Maybe it was so he didn’t bring bad luck to the wedding in progress in the temple? I really don’t know, but I felt sorry for the old guy. It looked like he was walking around the templegrounds alone…

After that, we had a long hike and then a fun water taxi ride to Ryougoku. The boat ride really was awesome; we got to stand on top of the little boat taxi thing. After that we had sumo food called chanko-nabe. It’s pretty much just a big pot of meat, vegetables, and tofu. You cook it at your table, eat all the stuff, then cook udon noodles with the remaining broth. It was good but there was too much food (I suppose that’s why sumo like it). Also, since you cook it at your table, and there were a bunch of tables in the room cooking also, the room itself was like an oven. Not the way I like to live, let alone eat my meal.

Watched sumo afterwards in the sumo arena. Really a cool place. When you first walk in, it’s like any huge sports stadium, but then you realize that it’s decorated with a bunch of traditional Japanese decor, and instead of a playing field or a court, there is a little pavilion type area with 2 fat guys duking it out. The actual matches are fun to watch, but there is a lot of build-up and ritual before each match. Honestly, after about an hour of being there I started to doze off, but I guess I tend to do that in any sporting event where you actually go and sit in the nosebleed sections.

Overall, a fun day. The lunch and sumo tickets were covered in my IES payments, so no money spent there. Hoorah~

I know it’s been a while since I posted last. Well, now it’s time for two or three posts to make up for that. First will be a summary of my first full week of classes. You don’t want to hear about my classes? Then don’t read this.

I’m taking 18 credit hours here, between classes administered by Kanda University (神田外語大学) and the IES Center. Wow, Anthony, that’s a lot! Sounds like it, but I don’t think it will be that tough. Definitely shouldn’t be anything compared to I-Core. Plus, if I can get good grades, they will figure into my GPA at IU when I go back, which needs some padding. Oh, and if I really want to be sneaky, I can drop any class that I start doing bad in (except for Japanese, which is un-droppable). Withdrawal date here is NOVEMBER 20th or something ridiculous like that. Also, IES doesn’t put “W”‘s on transcripts, which would mean that it wouldn’t go back to IU. So it would be like I never took the class. Heheheheh, I can’t lose.

JP401 Japanese in Context (実践日本語) (7 cr): Meets every day for an hour and a half (1 period here). Japanese language class. Same teacher as Survival Japanese, which I had for the past two weeks as the lead-in to this class. Same students plus two new Korean girls. Honestly, this class probably shouldn’t be 7 credit hours for the amount of work I do. Which is less than I did for IU Japanese (bahahaha and how much did I do there?). Mainly I have a few quizzes, some papers, and a few presentations. Not bad at all. It’s pretty much just a continuation of Survival Japanese, so no surprises. From what Brian has told me, I think that this is going to much easier than what the folks at IU are doing with Rubinger. Taught all in Japanese.

Kanji Level 3 (2 cr): Amazingly, I tested into the kanji level that corresponds with my language class. At least I’m not behind. This class actually has the same teacher and 4 of the same students from my JP401 class, so that’s kind of funny. There are also about 10 other foreign exchange students. It’s a mix of Americans, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Koreans. Meets for one period every Tuesday. So far, we’re doing kanji I have already studied, so it won’t be too bad. If anything, this class is going to bore me to death. Taught in Japanese. Oh, and here I will mention 2 of the American students. They’re not IES, they’re with the other foreign exchange program here called Bekka (別科). I cannot stand these two guys. They’re both cocky, arrogant, and definitely not as good as they think they are. The worst of the two tries to seem super mellow and emotionless, and apparently he is a huge computer dork. During our self introductions to the class, he stated his hobby as “my computer,” after which he turns his cocky head to me and mutters in English “it’s my baby.” Seriously? Hey that’s great man. Why don’t you take the thing and jump off a bridge. Also he couldn’t write the kanji for fire (火) correctly, which is one of the most basic ones out there. We’ll see how these two turn out. But for now, I can’t stand them.

AN345 The Fantastic World of Japanese Manga and Anime (3 cr): I was fearing this class because I figured it would be full of the anime dorks from the IES program. I was half right about this, but the Professor seems really cool. He started off class asking who likes anime, and a bunch of us raised our hands. He then asked who would be considered a “mania” (like otaku, the world here for super-obsessive fans with no life), and there was only one guy who raised his hands. I knew he would. I won’t name names right now, but this kid is a very typical American otaku (the kind that I hate the most). Professor Aoyagi then proceeded to say he “doesn’t want those kind of people in his class.” The otaku’s head dropped. I was loving it. Taught in English primarily, and we’ll be doing a lot of analyzing and relating things to cultural conditions, etc. Sound like what I was looking for. The class will be pretty interesting, and if it transfers to IU as Kierstead’s anime class, I will be done with my Japanese major. And won’t have to deal with as many super otaku as Brian did. Bahaha

AN391/S391 Seminar: Social Organization of Japan (3 cr): This is the semi-weekly seminar class that goes with my field placement in the Japanese high school. Other people are placed in schools, non-for-profits, businesses, etc. Basically we will be trying to analyze Japanese organizational and group structure from the inside. It will be pretty easy. Taught in English and Japanese. The only thing I don’t get is why the class is only 3 cr hours. Sure, the seminar itself only meets every other week, but the field placement is once a week for around 8 hours (a regular work day). Seems kind of unbalanced. Ah well, it should be interesting.

HIS336 The History of Tokyo (3 cr): First bad sign: this class is in the IES conference room. We all sat in foldable chairs facing the teacher who had a desk and a whiteboard. For about 25 students, we really need a bigger and better room. No desks is a pain, and the room was a bit too hot for comfort. It will be an decent class, because I’m interested in the topics (looks like we’re analyzing Edo/Tokyo from the Tokugawa period to present day. The professor is a nice lady, but seemed really nervous. Hopefully she’ll get over it and go through material a bit quicker.

Well my today seemed like a really busy day, but in actuality, it was not. Woke up around 7 or 8, got ready to head out to Kanda U campus. Oh but today is Wednesday, and there is no class. So what did I get to go out there for? A TEST. Yep. Kanji Placement Test, so that I can take a kanji elective class. Note: For those who don’t study Japanese, kanji = “Chinese characters.” Japanese uses these characters in addition to their two phonetic writing systems. Mainly for names, verbs, nouns, and pretty much anything. There are something like 2000000000 kanji. (OK not really, but there might as well be).

Finally got to campus, after riding 20 minutes of trains and walking about 20 minutes in mind-blistering heat and humidity. Get to building #2 and who is there to greet us students? Why it’s Ichikawa! But we heard through the rumor mill last night that he was fired. And yes, we got an e-mail this afternoon confirming he is no longer with IES. What was he doing at Kanda today? None of us know. Maybe he doesn’t want to admit that he’s been canned. Or he’s going crazy…

On to the test. There were 4 levels. Once you take the first, you can move on to the next. First exam was easy. Second was kind of tough, but I think I did OK. Got the third one…. it seriously looked like Chinese to me (written entirely in kanji, and I had no idea what it said). I flipped through it, gave it back to the proctor with a “akiramemasu” (I give up), and left. That was that. I’ll probably be in Kanji level 2 or 3. Fine with me, I need to learn this stuff.

After the kanji massacre, bummed at the IES Center for about 3 or 4 hours. Nothing like wasting time with everyone there. Finally got a group together to go to Tokyo. It was me, Derek, Seth, Dan, Bryan, Adam, and Mii. Met up with Yuuji, Ari, Mike, Annie, and Merry along the way. We went to Ikebukuro for a Yakiniku Tabehoudai, which means All-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. Man it was good. About 2400 yen for 2 hours of all the food you want. You get plates of raw meat, vegetables, etc, and cook it on your table (has a little gas grill built in). I was so full.

Wandered about Ikebukuro for a while afterwards, nothing really going on. Came back home, and now I have to write another fun 600 character report for tomorrow morning’s class. Plus at 4PM tomorrow in Tokyo I have my “interview” at the high school where my field placement is at. I’ll be helping the English teacher there I believe. I don’t really need an interview as I already have the position, but I guess it’s just procedure. Time to get writing this report…

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.

Until I get internet access in my dorm, I’m going to write blog entries and post them all later. I’ll mark them with the correct date and time, though.

I moved into my dorm yesterday afternoon. It’s pretty nice. In some ways it’s a lot like a dorm at IU, but in some ways it’s like a weird apartment complex. The age range of residents here is from 18 to 60, and people pretty much stick to themselves. There are 3 other people here from IES, and a few other American college students from California.

My room is about the size of a single at Ashton (at least I think). I’ve got a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and a bookshelf. It’s not too bad. I think it’s going to work really well for when classes start. It’s about a 10 or 15 minute walk from the nearest train station (Baraki-Nakayama on the Tozai Line). Morning commute to school will probably be about 45 minutes.

I can write more details (and maybe show some pictures) of the dorm later on. Right now it’s 10 AM, I had a nice leisurely start to the day, woke up around 8 but went to sleep last night around 9PM. I was so exhausted from all the moving and walking that I just couldn’t stay awake.

Going to spend the day maybe shopping and buying stuff for the room. I also want to just relax before I start intensive Japanese classes tomorrow morning. Will get internet access and probably will rent a TV for the semester sometime within the next week or two. Tomorrow I should be getting a cell phone (through AU, as they have the best student discounts). That’s all for now! Hope everyone back at IU is ready to start classes also.