January 30

It was not a very eventful day today. I had breakfast as usual, but I didn’t have time to eat part of an apple (like I usually do) so okaasan gave half to me to take to school. (:

We had our chapter two test today. I didn’t think it was any harder than the first one (though the instructors told us it would be). We’ll see how it works out. One (or two?) of our instructors was/were sick today (or had to visit a relative that was sick) so the third section of the class merged with the first two (sections being defined the same way as they are in the States). As an added bonus, we didn’t have the fourth period of Japanese language class (since the other instructor(s) wasn’t there. I think we’ll be making up for it next week, but everyone was happy at the time.

The chapter two reading (for the lessons as well as the test) was on the subject of phrases not being easily translated directly between languages. One of the questions we had to answer in homework was “What phrase from your native tongue doesn’t have an equivalent in Japanese?” It was entertaining to hear our sensei share some of our answers (and I think the other sensei’s response/questions) on the subject of “what’s up,” etc.

After Japanese, I had my weekly three-hour dead time (the time between Japanese class and Art and Culture class where there is nothing to do because all of my homework is already done and it’s too short of a time to go anywhere really). I did go to the panya at Valor (that I somehow have not been to) and spent about four bucks on the 98en pasteries. I’ve got to say, it’s going to be a goal to try everything in that panya before the end of the semester. Today, I had a mochi biscuit with green sweet beans and seaweed in it (which was great because the mochi was actually cooked to bread consistency), a bacon/curry sandwich (yay, bacon!), a cream-filled donut with corn flakes on it (what?!), and some kind of chocolate sandwich. I’ll admit I splurged quite a bit (by eating about two meals in one sitting), so next time I won’t buy so much, but for crying out loud, Japan knows food.

I was really depressed going into art and culture class today, since it’s a 2.25 hour class, but luckily, the class was actually interesting today. It’s still really hard to sit in one place and just listen to a lecture for that long. Additionally, it’s kind of hard to take the instructor’s Japanglish and try to write notes from it. Today’s lecture was on Japanese pottery and the World Exhibitions for the most part.

After class, it started raining (hard) and I had that nice weather (and the dark) to walk home in. I was worried that okaasan would be thrown into a fluster since she had asked me last night if I would be going out with my friends this evening and I had told her that I didn’t know yet. I didn’t call her today to tell her I would be coming home, but when I finally did come home, she seemed surprised only by the fact that I was there (I always seem to sneak up on her) and I saw a dish at my place setting, so I was reassured that I hadn’t made an imposition.

We had American dinner today; pretty much pot roast (it seemed a bit different somehow), salad (with avacado and crab, yay!), and gohan. For dessert, I had green tea ice cream for the first time ever. It’s not quite as good as green tea creamsicles, but it’s pretty good. (: Okaasan finally let me do the dishes after dinner today. I felt useful for a change.

P.S. I seem to be generating money (knock on wood) very slowly. I’ve been keeping a record of my expenditures and I seem to have a few more cents (yen) in my possession as compared to what I should have. No complaints, of course.