Classes started today, in a manner of speaking. As it turns out, I was a little wrong about the nature of my classes; they are all but one going to be taught in Japanese, but some of them may have readings in English. In any case, the class I had today was basically a glorified International Cultural Encounters class, which is in itself a glorified conversation class. There are about 20 Chinese, 3 Americans, 1 Australian and maybe 6 Japanese in the class, and we're just supposed to have guided discussion about Japanese cultures and our various home countries' perceptions thereof. This process works out to mean 'ask the funny-looking white guys all sorts of complex questions in Japanese', but fortunately the Japanese find my name a little diffifult to pronounce, so they are less likely to call on me. My friend from North Carolina has the misfortune to be named Owen, the Japanese pronunciation of which also means 'to cheer'. Every time he introduces himself he makes this little woot gesture with his hand to indicate cheering, and I swear it's so funny I just about wet myself every single time.
The other class I was supposed to have was some class helpfully entitled 'Hiroshima', but the professor didn't think anyone had signed up so he didn't show. Yay! There are only four of us in the class, so it should be pretty good once he decides to show up.
I had some awesome conversation practice today just sitting around the international center talking about literature and music for about two and a half hours. I'm really glad I put the time in to become familiar with Japanese literature last year, because it's paying pretty big dividends as an entree into interesting conversation. I'm such a lit nerd. Right now I'm reading a Murakami book that I've already read in English. It's a pretty good book, and he has a really simple style that's great for learners to read. Occassionally I can go almost a whole page without looking anything up! SUPER NUMBER ONE BRAIN POWER!
To the right is a rather unclear photo of the field of scooters at school today. At a price of just over $4 per gallon, gas is too dear for cars, so scooters and mini-motorcycles are the vehicles of choice. They are incredibly cool, and every time I see one I'm seized by a nigh-uncontrollable to push down the rider, snatch the scooter, and run away hooting with glee, triumphantly bearing the scooter above my head.
We had an all-dorm party on the roof this evening; it was X-treme with extreme prejudice. We had yakiniku, which works like this: get a ton of fairly thinly sliced meat, dump it on a giant grill with some vegetables (if you so choose); next, get a jug of yakiniku sauce (yakiniku tare), put some in everybody's bowl; lastly, let everyone crowd around and grab meat off the grill whenever they think it's done, dunk it in the sauce and eat.
= Delicious*informal*fun quantity squared!
Tomorrow I'm going to Miyajima. If you've ever seen or read Rashomon, that's the kind of gate they're talking about.
Apparently older Japanese people still follow the Buddhist/animist tradition of auspicious/inauspicious days. Young people don't believe in them, but they will still know which days are inauspicious. Some older people still won't make important decisions or start trips on inauspicious days. What is this, the third century? I'm so glad I don't have to pretend to respect that. Three cheers for absolute truth!
