January 21

It was particularly hard to get up today as I had stayed up until 2:30 watching the presidential inauguration. As I was watching it, I was wondering why I had thought it was so important to see.

When I went down for breakfast, お母さん gave me a particularly large one; soup (from the night before, and happily met), a (fully cooked) egg, toast, part of an apple, orange juice, and tea. I was a little late in leaving for my train, but I made it just in time; as I ascended the stairs to the platform, the music started that signals the coming of the train. My friend, however, had to run to the platform (though she had beat me) since she was late in leaving also after having watched the inauguration.

When I got to school, I found in the CJS office lots of Japanese calendars up for grabs. I took a large honda one (whose pictures were comprised completely of felt animals with no cars involved) and an Audrey Hepbern one. I was very pleased. I also found a note (that I could not read) in my mailbox and when I brought it to the desk, I found that there was a part of my bank application missing; a deposit into the account. As a result, I made a deposit of a whole ten en for my account.

I was surprised to find that I was not tired in class this morning. Our professor was the reading professor (the only one who isn’t a girl) and his lectures seem more interesting than the super-sweet 先生の and the older 先生の.

After class, I went to コパン for early lunch, and then back to the CJS office to have my ISEP meeting. The meeting was kind of long, and nearly fully redundant. Ms. Montessa talked about meal reimbursement, transcripts, and health insurance.

All of this was okay because the meeting ended early enough and afterward, I went on the Nagoya tour!!!!!! At about 1:30, we left 南山 for Nagoya Castle. I was able to get a few good pictures before we went inside (where picture taking is controlled) and luckily, it did not rain until we had finished the tour. We spent a lot of time at the castle, and we could have spent a lot more, but to be honest, I was tired by that time.

Afterward, a few of the students (five with me included) went to Osu!!!!! 大須 is a giant, covered outdoor mall that sells tons of stuff. I was impressed by all the fashionable clothes, shoes, arcades, and food. I had to leave before I really had time to look closely at things I wanted to buy, but I plan on going back on Saturday.

Right now, my feet hurt from all the walking and I’m really tired.

I went to dinner with 両親 ten minutes late because I was expecting お母さん to call me to dinner as usual. I guess I should just go at seven regardless, or so it seemed from the (only partially understood) exchange between myself and her. Today, I ate a lot, but I finished around the same time as お母さん and お父さん, so it seemed alright. We had fish with daikon (daikon tastes like the delicious version of rutabaga), salad, rice (I love it!), and broccoli greens. For dessert, we had German fruitcake again.

I think I finally experienced my culture shock today (or at least my culture embarrassment). At dinner, お母さん showed me the correct way to hold dishes while eating. Apparently, holding a bowl so that it rests on your palm and is stabilized on the sides with your fingers is considered arrogant. Instead, you are supposed to rest the base on your fingertips (held together) and use your thumb on the rim to stabilize it. I apologized, but お母さん told me not to worry, since I had probably seen people at school eating that way.

After dinner, お母さん and お父さん discussed and decided on the birthday gift for their granddaughter. After that, お母さん pulled out a bunch of calendars she had received and gave one (with traditional Japanese pictures for each month) to me to hang on my wall. Of course, I told her it was pretty, but that I had picked on up from school that morning, but she insisted. It really is a pretty calendar, but it is the tear-off type, so I had to ask お母さん what to do because I didn’t really want to tear it, but it was the case that I had to.