Well, I had classes today, and... um... that's it. I didn't take any pictures or anything, so these are stock photos from when I first arrived.
Classes are shaping up to be great. I had my first Japanese subject classes today, and I think that they will be really challenging. The professor is trying this new technique similar to the one used to train simultaneous translators; if I could come out of this year in any way capable of simultaneous translation, I would positively wet myself with glee.
I'm also taking this all-Japanese-language politics class that looks to be pretty groovy - it's about east Asian politics since the Cold War, so it should be good.
Turns out that this school is not all gravy - there are absolutely no places to sleep on campus. At ASU, there are all sorts of benches around campus to crash on, and the library is full to bursting with nooks, crannies and couches just right for the occassional student catnap. I guess the Japanese spend so much time sleeping through classes that they don't need to sleep around campus as well. Today I was forced to spend the three hours between classes catching fits of sleep propped up on two library chairs, with people coming and going all the time. That is a crime of the first order. I don't want to be too down on that sleep, though - it was some top-quality sleep despite the handicaps of its circumstances.
So reading this Murakami book in Japanese is making me painfully aware of the weaknesses of his style. It's no big deal to read page after page of narration like "I opened the door one-third of the way and slipped in, then shut it. The entryway was still. More still than necessary. After that, I recognized the red pumps I knew. They were a familiar sight. The muddy tennis shoes had been put between cheap peach sandals, and looked like an end-of-the season christmas present," in English, but to pore laboriously over it in Japanese is a bit trying. Of course, that's a pretty rough translation, but it gives the spirit of the text. Anyway, it's teaching me good vocabulary and usage, and that's really the point.
I whipped up a pretty mean dish of yakisoba this evening. It was delicious, healthy and cheaper than Taco Bell. Then I made some rice balls with umeboshi (these delicious pickles plums) and seaweed wrappings. Mmm, breakfast! Now imagine this for two pages and bookended by surrealist philosophy and you have Murakami! Yay!
