It's really hard to believe that I've been here for three weeks already. I guess that's because school has only now started picking up. It's also been very rainy so no one really wants to go out and do anything. I met my host family a week ago. They seem very nice, they're both school teachers, although the husband doesn't speak English well. The wife teaches health, so I've been pretty psyched about that considering I'm a health and society major and all. We're hopefully going to go traveling with them soon.
We've had two three-day weekends in a row, Monday we had off and Friday we had off so it's been pretty lazy here. Some of us had planned to go hike up Mount Chokai (鳥海山 Chōkai-san) which is the second tallest mountain in the Tōhoku region of Japan and is 2,236 m (7,336 ft) tall according to Wikipedia.
Mount Chōkai is regarded as sacred by followers of the Shugendō branch of Shinto and is popular with hikers; it's one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan. Unfortunately, it was raining, and no-one wanted to go for an eight-hour hike in the rain. We will probably try again later.
Otherwise, I've pretty much contented myself with video games since no-one wants to go out in the rain. Unfortunately, my computer keeps crashing on me, even on the lowest graphic's card settings. Luckily for me my Manga Mania professor knows a website to order computers straight from the Sony Manufacturers. On October 16th a Sony VAIO F series with graphics cards the likes of which gamers only dream of is being delivered to me! I'm basically getting a computer that's $5000 in America for around $1000 here in Japan. Life is awesome.
I've also started planning a trip to Kyoto in November for my friends. It will be expensive, but if we pool our money we can get a decent price on a night train car, a few rooms in a traditional inn, and a guided tour around Kyoto. It's kind of intimidating being the one planning all this, but I'm also excited too. Maybe I'll also plan a little trip to a hot spring in December if I have enough money left. We'll see.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
I'm In The Mount Vernon of Japan
While the past few days have been eventful, they haven't exactly been exciting. It has been one long bureaucratic experience. After the seminars we were required to attend (only a few of which were actually useful) we went to immigration to get our alien registration cards. Then it was paperwork and class registration drama. Registration is done by lottery so it's never certain if you will get into all of your classes. So last Friday I found out that I did get in to everything I wanted, except for Tea Ceremony. I was kind of upset, I really wanted to take Tea Ceremony!
The upperclassmen foreign students told me not to worry, that come add drop week lots of people drop classes. Apparently here it is common practice to sign up for more credits than you need just to make sure you get enough come lottery day. I went to the Mall that weekend with a lighter heart, and came out of it with lighter pockets. While I did find some things I needed like good tea, and shoes in my size (a find considering every other foreign student couldn't find a pair) I did buy a lot of things I probably didn't need. I really need to get out of this IT'S JAPANESE OMG I MUST BUY IT!1!!!!! phase. It probably won't help that this week for Friday's class in Manga Mania we are going to a manga super store.
Then later in the week I went again and spent more money, but that was ok because I actually needed to buy a new hard-drive so I can have a functioning computer, which I will soon! That will make it easier to blog, it's awkward to blog in the computer lab, where it feels like everyone is watching. Anyway, I'm getting off topic, I noticed something in my trips to Akita City. And it is to Akita because there is nothing surrounding the college except woods and rice fields, it's a fifteen minute bus-ride to a city that's a little smaller than Des Moines.
I am in the Mount Vernon of Japan.
Seriously, the similarities are striking. Cornell College: Small well-known good college surrounded by cornfields. Akita International University: Small well-known good college surrounded by rice-fields. Thank goodness I joined some clubs as there is nothing else to do here. I just had the first few meetings. I'm In Aikido club and Tea Ceremony club, since I can't get into the class. I'm really loving Aikido club, the instructor speaks English and he is such a great teacher. It meets Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30-9:00. Check out this video of them:
If I practice hard with them I will be able to do all of this when I go home in December. I also went to Tea Ceremony club today, and between the two of them I am very sore. Yesterday in Aikido I was doing martial arts, which I haven't done in a while, and while learning Tea Ceremony I had to sit seza (on my knees) the whole time. Who knew clubs were so athletic?
They both take up a lot of time, but that is good because I ended up taking only 13 credits. Japanese 300 quickly turned out to be too hard for me, maybe if I had reviewed my Japanese more over the summer, or if I had learned my Kanji better I would have been fine, but as it was I would have been having to review way to much material while learning new material and I didn't want to do that to myself. I haven't given myself an easy semester since middle school, and frankly, I deserve one. What's the point of being in Japan if I'm studying too much to travel. Besides now I can focus on speaking and Kanji, it's nice to know what people are saying to me in Japanese, but I have a hard time replying so this will help according to my adviser Akiko Sugiyama (who is also the head of the Japanese department)
However, I had to ask Beloit if I'd get credit for taking 200 all over again. I wasn't sure who to ask so I asked Kathy at OIE who forwarded me to Ogino-sensei. Ogino-sensi said it was ok, but that she would prefer I take 300. I thanked her, but unfortunately I accidentally called her Akiko. I have no idea how that happened, and I apologized right away so I hope she's not too upset.
Anyway, I'm now taking Japanese 201 (6 credits), Japanese Practice (1 credit ) this is an Independent Study I plan to use to study kanji, Social Problems in the US (3 credits), and Manga Mania (3 credits). Add that to my clubs, Aikido Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30pm to 9:30pm counting independent practice hours and Tea Ceremony on Wednesdays from 4:00pm to 7:00pm and I'm a very busy girl. I might even add another class if anything good opens up in the last two add/drop days.
There is a free bus to a water-park this weekend but my friend Matt (he one from Britain) and I are planning a Tea party with the interesting tea's we have found. I really want to try this lose-leaf strawberry's and cream tea I found. I also have to meet my Akita host family Sunday, I was lucky because twenty people got turned down because they didn't have space. Plus, I want to spend some more time getting to know my roommate.
Her name is Hazuki, and she's actually from and we are getting along beautifully. I'm actually making a lot of female Japanese friends, they like my sarcasm apparently. Anyway, Hazuki has really excellent English, so communicating with her has been easy. She was in Australia for volunteer work this summer, so that is why she arrived so late. She is studying English, Japanese History, and Chinese. She's also in modern dance club.I don't see her a lot because she is studying for the TOFEL which is the English graduate test she needs to take. Basically, the GRE but on English. Whenever we do get to talk we've had a good time. We also get up and go to bed at the same time so we don't have to worry about that.
We are also getting along well with our suite-mate Yumi, who is an upperclassmen that Hazuki knows. We've sorted out cleaning the bathroom and haven't had any drama so far. I haven't talked with Yumi too much, but she's been very nice to me so far. She's been very gracious about letting me borrow her electric kettle until I get my own. I hope we all can continue to get along well.
That's all for now, hopefully next time I will write on my own laptop!
The upperclassmen foreign students told me not to worry, that come add drop week lots of people drop classes. Apparently here it is common practice to sign up for more credits than you need just to make sure you get enough come lottery day. I went to the Mall that weekend with a lighter heart, and came out of it with lighter pockets. While I did find some things I needed like good tea, and shoes in my size (a find considering every other foreign student couldn't find a pair) I did buy a lot of things I probably didn't need. I really need to get out of this IT'S JAPANESE OMG I MUST BUY IT!1!!!!! phase. It probably won't help that this week for Friday's class in Manga Mania we are going to a manga super store.
Then later in the week I went again and spent more money, but that was ok because I actually needed to buy a new hard-drive so I can have a functioning computer, which I will soon! That will make it easier to blog, it's awkward to blog in the computer lab, where it feels like everyone is watching. Anyway, I'm getting off topic, I noticed something in my trips to Akita City. And it is to Akita because there is nothing surrounding the college except woods and rice fields, it's a fifteen minute bus-ride to a city that's a little smaller than Des Moines.
I am in the Mount Vernon of Japan.
Seriously, the similarities are striking. Cornell College: Small well-known good college surrounded by cornfields. Akita International University: Small well-known good college surrounded by rice-fields. Thank goodness I joined some clubs as there is nothing else to do here. I just had the first few meetings. I'm In Aikido club and Tea Ceremony club, since I can't get into the class. I'm really loving Aikido club, the instructor speaks English and he is such a great teacher. It meets Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30-9:00. Check out this video of them:
They both take up a lot of time, but that is good because I ended up taking only 13 credits. Japanese 300 quickly turned out to be too hard for me, maybe if I had reviewed my Japanese more over the summer, or if I had learned my Kanji better I would have been fine, but as it was I would have been having to review way to much material while learning new material and I didn't want to do that to myself. I haven't given myself an easy semester since middle school, and frankly, I deserve one. What's the point of being in Japan if I'm studying too much to travel. Besides now I can focus on speaking and Kanji, it's nice to know what people are saying to me in Japanese, but I have a hard time replying so this will help according to my adviser Akiko Sugiyama (who is also the head of the Japanese department)
However, I had to ask Beloit if I'd get credit for taking 200 all over again. I wasn't sure who to ask so I asked Kathy at OIE who forwarded me to Ogino-sensei. Ogino-sensi said it was ok, but that she would prefer I take 300. I thanked her, but unfortunately I accidentally called her Akiko. I have no idea how that happened, and I apologized right away so I hope she's not too upset.
Anyway, I'm now taking Japanese 201 (6 credits), Japanese Practice (1 credit ) this is an Independent Study I plan to use to study kanji, Social Problems in the US (3 credits), and Manga Mania (3 credits). Add that to my clubs, Aikido Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30pm to 9:30pm counting independent practice hours and Tea Ceremony on Wednesdays from 4:00pm to 7:00pm and I'm a very busy girl. I might even add another class if anything good opens up in the last two add/drop days.
There is a free bus to a water-park this weekend but my friend Matt (he one from Britain) and I are planning a Tea party with the interesting tea's we have found. I really want to try this lose-leaf strawberry's and cream tea I found. I also have to meet my Akita host family Sunday, I was lucky because twenty people got turned down because they didn't have space. Plus, I want to spend some more time getting to know my roommate.
Her name is Hazuki, and she's actually from and we are getting along beautifully. I'm actually making a lot of female Japanese friends, they like my sarcasm apparently. Anyway, Hazuki has really excellent English, so communicating with her has been easy. She was in Australia for volunteer work this summer, so that is why she arrived so late. She is studying English, Japanese History, and Chinese. She's also in modern dance club.I don't see her a lot because she is studying for the TOFEL which is the English graduate test she needs to take. Basically, the GRE but on English. Whenever we do get to talk we've had a good time. We also get up and go to bed at the same time so we don't have to worry about that.
We are also getting along well with our suite-mate Yumi, who is an upperclassmen that Hazuki knows. We've sorted out cleaning the bathroom and haven't had any drama so far. I haven't talked with Yumi too much, but she's been very nice to me so far. She's been very gracious about letting me borrow her electric kettle until I get my own. I hope we all can continue to get along well.
That's all for now, hopefully next time I will write on my own laptop!
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