February 5

It was a very tiring day today. I had my usual breakfast and rushed to the chikatetsu, but I made it on time. At the station where I make my transfer (Yagoto) I saw my least favorite Japanes instructor (least favorite because she constantly says “ne,” and not as a fully enunciated syllable, but as a breathy, almost uncontrollable habit). Someone said it was considered cute by the Japanese, but it’s kind of annoying. I have nothing against her, I just have a hard time dealing with her quirk.

Class was long (it was a four-hour day). We had to record ourselves doing hatsuon on cassette tapes (I still can’t get over the technology gap) during the first hour. The second hour was review for the test we have on the day we get back from our break (which started today after class). The third segment was where we would talk with Japanese students (who coincidentally all turned out to be girls). I thought it would be fun, but it was a bit awkward (and set up like speed dating). We were supposed to write questions ahead of time to ask the Japanese students, but that just added to the awkwardness. I was kind of jealous of the girl (exchange student) next to me because she seemed to have fun with the exercise and didn’t have to resort to her written questions once. I wonder if there’s something socially wrong with me. D:

After class, I went to the CJS office (Exchange Students’ Office) to sign up for the Toyota Plant tour (which I hope will have something to do with sports cars) and for a discount for my fare to and from Tokyo. I almost forgot completely about Nanzan’s 10% student travel discount (which, in True Japanese style, can only be given to a student 10 times and requires an application), but another student happened to be walking by around lunch time when I was talking to my friends and mentioned it.

For an update (since I’m not sure if I’ve written it before) the foreign exchange students are on holiday from the 6th of February to the 15th of February. Some friends are going to Tokyo from the 9th until the 13th and I’m going with them. We haven’t got our act together yet, but we’re going to buy tickets to and from Tokyo tomorrow and we’re still booking our (my) rooms. Luckily, the hostel my friends have chosen seems pretty high-tech and clean. They have a bunch of services (including lockers, which are benri=convenient given the circumstances and 24-hour internet access). I really want to go to Harajuku and the Ghibli (Totoro) museum. I’m going to spend tomorrow reseraching and looking through my guide book. As for transportation, I thought I would be able to use Google to compare rates, but the only transportation it shows is the (super expensive) shinkansen, which I don’t want to pay for, since I want to spend my money in Tokyo, not getting to and from it.

Last night, Okaasan had encouraged me to spend this evening with my friends, since I’m on holiday, but I thought it would be more monetarily sound to stay home and reserach my trip instead. Then again, I think my host parents want me out of the house sometimes, so I took the hint and spent the afternoon working on my woodblock print at school so I would be there at six, when my friends went to kaitenzushi. For those who don’t know, kaitenzushi is a type of restaurant where sushi is put on plates, the plates are placed on conveyer belts, and the food comes (on the conveyer) around all of the tables. If you see something you want, you just take it off the belt and eat it. Each plate (except dessert and salad bowls) was 105en, and while they seldom had more than two pieces of sushi on them (which were not the higest class of sushi) it was a fun experience and fairly tasty (the experience was worth more than anything else). If you think about it (which I did) Usually, in the States, it’s five bucks for a roll of sushi and you get about six pieces. With kaitenzushi, you get two pieces for about 1.20 bucks (exchange rate factored in). That’s about 3.60 as compared to 5.00, so it’s not bad. I had eight plates of sushi (2 shrimp tempura, tuna roll, bacon, some kind of marinated beef, shrimp with avacado, some kind of white fish, and another variety of white fish). The record in our group (which numbered about 25 people) was 18 plates, held by Ken, who I think is Japanese. It was a really cool thing. I wouldn’t go again (to that particular restaurant since the food wasn’t that great) but it is definitely a personal recommendation to go to a kaitenzushi restaurant.

When I got home, I started reseraching my trip to Tokyo (online) and okaasan told me that she thought it was bad that young people felt they had to use the internet every day. I see it much differently though; if you use the internet, you can usually save a lot of time (and money in the case of Japan where public transit is king) if you can just stay home and research everything on the internet rather than going out to the places you’re researching (in the case of checking fares, rates, and other service charges, etc.).

I was able to resolve (to the best of my knowlege) the problem with my NanoJapan application interview (explanation to come) and make some progress with my foreign correspondent (this too will be explained). I did not go to Jusco and I will probably not go to Osu tomorrow, but it’s alright. Right now, I’m tired though, so I will leave further explanation to tomorrow.