January 20

Once again, I did not want to get out of bed this morning. お母さん made scrambled eggs with my rye pumpernickel toast (she also made me finish off the grapefruit juice). (: Afterward, I rushed off to school (still worrying about troubling お母さん about the bank account.) As I walked through the neighborhood, I noticed a man on the other side of the street who was walking faster than me. Partially in rivalry and partially in concern over the possibility of missing my train, I made it my mission to beat him to the 駅 (whether he was going there or not). I succeeded (: and met my friend at the 駅 on time.

At school, I picked up my atrocious quiz grade, and realized I was at school very early. On Tuesdays (and, I think, Wednesdays) class does not start until 10:30am. I think I’ll still ride the 地下鉄 early and explore a bit (and try to take pictures) on the way to class, at least for a few more days. Keily and I used the time to investigate the chapel. We couldn’t figure out how to get in, but we walked around the outside (and on what seemed like an unstable roof) and decided it was a very strange building. It looks like a group of eggs surrounding a turret and there are bunker-like buildings (apartments? the nunnery?) around it. To be honest, Nanzan University is a pretty depressing place to look at. It is true that the brick of NC State is boring, but it’s not depressing like the concrete and grey of 南山.

Class dragged on today and we got a new assignment; a journal with a Japanese student. I was really worried about it, since I thought that entailed walking up to students I don’t know until one agreed to write a journal with me. Fortunately, the Japanese (language) students (me included) will write the journals and the instructors will pair us with appropriate Japanese (native) students. This may turn out to be a good situation.

After class (finally) there was a long break, so I went to Lawson’s and bought おにぎり and a cream puff. After, I went to the locker room to talk with the other 留学生 and do homework until my afternoon (はんが) class. This is when David encouraged me to go on the Nagoya Castle tour trip tomorrow. I wasn’t planning on going because of the bank work I had to do with お母さん, but we went to the CJS office to sign up for the trip (tentatively) and I was pleasantly surprised; the staff took care of my bank account despite their claim that yesterday was the only day they would help. This was a triple score; 1 I didn’t have to cause お母さん any trouble (to be explained further) 2 I don’t have to deal with the bank application (very boring/unpleasant) 3 I get to to go to Nagoya Castle!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very excited and happy that I won’t have to miss this opportunity (Although I wish I could have gone on the Tokyo tour today, but my schedule wouldn’t work with it).

As for the bank plans... Last night, I told お母さん that I needed to open a Japanese bank account. She suggested a bank very close to our house (probably the one I pass on the way to the 駅), but I had to admit that 南山 said I had to open a Bank of Nagoya account. This was, of course, inconvenient. お母さんの and my schedules didn’t match up well this week. お母さん said she would cancel a plan she had for Wednesday to take me, and I felt horrible. I told her we could do it the following week, but she was set on this Wednesday. So, feeling horrible, my plan (this morning) was to appeal to 南山 (which had previously said that yesterday during the information session was the only time they would do the paperwork for us, as opposed to us doing our own paperwork) to give me a rain check. I was very lucky to have 南山 take care of the whole thing (even help me with the paperwork previously distributed).

After all of this was はんが class. Like the しょうど class, there were too many students in the section, so, at the beginning of class, the CJS staff came in and nervously asked if anyone would be willing to move to an earlier section of the course. Of course, most of the class raised their hands, not wanting to spend their evenings (until 4:45) in class. The staff was pleasantly surprised. I hope that I will be able to get into the early class as well. Today’s class was relatively boring though (many people fell asleep). We watched a movie (in Japanese) concerning an impressive はんが artist, then went home, or in my case, to the 百円 Lawson’s!!!

Lately, people have been talking about the 百円 Lawson’s, but no one would take there when they mentioned it. After はんが class though, David showed me the way to the store. It is so close to the campus and even cheaper than the Lawson’s at school!!! It’s true though, that they tack on a 5% tax to some items, which makes it a more-than-百円 Lawson’s, but that’s okay. It’s still cheaper than on campus.