Shock!
Anyways, let's start with yesterday. Yesterday was technically a national holiday, but Waseda decided to hold class anyways. I'm not sure about the extent of the holiday. I don't have class on Mondays or Wednesdays, though, so it didn't make much of a difference to me.
Met Dan and Rebecca in Takadanobaba around 12:30, went for lunch at a nearby Indian place. 790 yen for salad, curry, and naan-tabehodai (all-you-can-eat naan). I got the mutton curry. It was delicious, but despite being marked as "spicy" on the menu, was completely tame; I'm not sure it would pass as mild at India Quality back in Boston. Delicious, though. They're planning to make this restaurant a weekly trip, which could be quite dangerous.
After lunch, walked to campus down Waseda-dori with Dan and Rebecca, followed them to the student coop. I bought a small notepad, which I plan to write journal-ish notes in to help me keep some sort of regularity in updating this blog.
After Amy got out of class, we went to Picaso and Blue Parrot. Picaso is essentially a mini-Don Quixote (a Japanese discount store chain). Blue Parrot is an English language used book store. Both are on Waseda-dori. I bought a copy of Words in Context; it looked useful. Amy bought a large Japanese grammar tome that made her inner (and outer) linguist quite happy.
Class today as usual. Afterwards, I went to the coop and bought a A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar on Celia's recommendation. 2500 yen after member discount, and worth every one.
It's been in the high 40's to low 50's lately, which normally would be no problem. However, since my room pretty much matches outside temperature, I've been freezing my rear off. I finally asked otou-san if there was anything I could do, at which he promptly pointed out the switch for my heated floor. Whoops. We'll see if it works.
I've also noticed that Japanese laundry seems to be fairly brutal on my socks; in two months, a few of them are close to being worn down. It's a good thing I brought extras.
That's all for now. I have ideas for a number of article-ish posts, though I need to get around to actually writing them.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Sashiburi
Three weeks since I last posted... whoops. A lot's happened since then.
Let's start with the current. I'm sitting in the living room. Okaa-san's preparing dinner. Otou-san's watching TV and reading, Mio's watching TV and looking at music sheets. Oh, and humming the Sailor Moon theme song. Yousuke's in his room.
Anyways. Amy and I started dating about two and a half weeks ago, so I've been spending most of my free time with her.
Last week was the Japan Study retreat to Karuizawa; Waseda was on break for Wednesday and Thursday. Waseda owns a resort property out in Karuizawa, about a two or three hour bus ride from Tokyo. Stayed overnight. Wasted time until dinner, then we had a meeting about our cultural practicums. Then we had a party, which was fun. Then some of us went out to the field to watch the pre-meteor storm (the real thing started at something like 2 PM). Fun, and a lot less light than the city. Not quite enough for a full view, but much better. Cold, but hey.
Dinner's going out on the table. Looks like fried calamari? Yum.
Let's see. Prep work for teaching a class session at Mita High School, a public high school in Minato ward. I was partnered with Hana, a Waseda student who's studied abroad. Taught the class on Monday. Fun, though definitely nerve-wracking. I was surprised to find about a quarter of the students blatantly not paying attention. As in, sleeping in class levels of not paying attention. Should've put them on the spot, taught them how American classes work. Would've been entertaining. Ah well. Self-intro, then a short quiz about Boston and the US. After that, Q&A. Then group work; we put them into groups of 4 or 5, and they had to think about a given subject on the States (food, cities, etc.) and give a short presentation. The presentation about American cities being noisy, dirty, and dangerous was...
... dinner. Yup, it was fried calarmari. Tasty!
... anyways, that presentation was... interesting. We wound up running out of time, since they only gave us about 50 minutes. Two hours definitely would've been better. After returning to Waseda, some of us went to Shin-Okubo station and met up with some of the folks who went to the elementary school (I had class then). Shin-Okubo's a Korean-heavy area; we went to a yakiniku-ish Korean place for dinner. Fun, delicious, tons of meat. Also tried a couple of Korean alcoholic drinks, though I still have no idea what they were. Pretty good, just no clue what I was drinking.
I have a bunch of ideas for mini-articles (not so much journal entries) that I'll have to write up at some point. Though that would require me to be less busy.
Oh, and I got a haircut today. I've yet to take a shower, so I'm not entirely certain how it turned out. Seems okay, though, and 1000 yen beats the heck out of 4000. Not that I'd necessarily get a better cut at the pricier places. There's a chain of haircut shops with locations in train stations that charges 1000 yen, but they (literally) do a 10-minute cut. Amy found a place near Waseda that does it for 1000 without the 10-minute factor. I was amused when they took a vacuum to my head after the cut. They cut my hair without wetting it first, which I found rather surprising. They also touched up with a straight razor, which was nice, but I'm not sure how I feel about their not using shaving cream.
Let's start with the current. I'm sitting in the living room. Okaa-san's preparing dinner. Otou-san's watching TV and reading, Mio's watching TV and looking at music sheets. Oh, and humming the Sailor Moon theme song. Yousuke's in his room.
Anyways. Amy and I started dating about two and a half weeks ago, so I've been spending most of my free time with her.
Last week was the Japan Study retreat to Karuizawa; Waseda was on break for Wednesday and Thursday. Waseda owns a resort property out in Karuizawa, about a two or three hour bus ride from Tokyo. Stayed overnight. Wasted time until dinner, then we had a meeting about our cultural practicums. Then we had a party, which was fun. Then some of us went out to the field to watch the pre-meteor storm (the real thing started at something like 2 PM). Fun, and a lot less light than the city. Not quite enough for a full view, but much better. Cold, but hey.
Dinner's going out on the table. Looks like fried calamari? Yum.
Let's see. Prep work for teaching a class session at Mita High School, a public high school in Minato ward. I was partnered with Hana, a Waseda student who's studied abroad. Taught the class on Monday. Fun, though definitely nerve-wracking. I was surprised to find about a quarter of the students blatantly not paying attention. As in, sleeping in class levels of not paying attention. Should've put them on the spot, taught them how American classes work. Would've been entertaining. Ah well. Self-intro, then a short quiz about Boston and the US. After that, Q&A. Then group work; we put them into groups of 4 or 5, and they had to think about a given subject on the States (food, cities, etc.) and give a short presentation. The presentation about American cities being noisy, dirty, and dangerous was...
... dinner. Yup, it was fried calarmari. Tasty!
... anyways, that presentation was... interesting. We wound up running out of time, since they only gave us about 50 minutes. Two hours definitely would've been better. After returning to Waseda, some of us went to Shin-Okubo station and met up with some of the folks who went to the elementary school (I had class then). Shin-Okubo's a Korean-heavy area; we went to a yakiniku-ish Korean place for dinner. Fun, delicious, tons of meat. Also tried a couple of Korean alcoholic drinks, though I still have no idea what they were. Pretty good, just no clue what I was drinking.
I have a bunch of ideas for mini-articles (not so much journal entries) that I'll have to write up at some point. Though that would require me to be less busy.
Oh, and I got a haircut today. I've yet to take a shower, so I'm not entirely certain how it turned out. Seems okay, though, and 1000 yen beats the heck out of 4000. Not that I'd necessarily get a better cut at the pricier places. There's a chain of haircut shops with locations in train stations that charges 1000 yen, but they (literally) do a 10-minute cut. Amy found a place near Waseda that does it for 1000 without the 10-minute factor. I was amused when they took a vacuum to my head after the cut. They cut my hair without wetting it first, which I found rather surprising. They also touched up with a straight razor, which was nice, but I'm not sure how I feel about their not using shaving cream.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
orz
So, I'm sitting here in the SILS reading room. I came to campus after not being able to access the Waseda homepage, since I had class for period 3, 4, and 5. I pick up a bento, walk into building 11, and am greeted by a sign saying all classes are cancelled for today. Hurr.
Ah well. I wanted to go to Tokyu Hands anyways, so it's not a complete loss. And it gives me time to write my little essay for orientation. Which is due tomorrow. Bleh.
I think I slept through most of the typhoon itself. The weather's actually quite nice right now, if a bit windy.
Ah well. I wanted to go to Tokyu Hands anyways, so it's not a complete loss. And it gives me time to write my little essay for orientation. Which is due tomorrow. Bleh.
I think I slept through most of the typhoon itself. The weather's actually quite nice right now, if a bit windy.
Whoops
So much for updating every day.
Anyways, I'm using one of the computers in the SILS reading room (i.e., study area / computer lab). I don't actually have class today, but hey. It's now been a week and a half since classes started. I wound up dropping the constitutional law course. Before classes started, I thought I might want to drop the Japanese elective class (Taigu - Communication). Looks like it's going to be a good course, though. Discussion of what words have what sort of connotation, that sort of thing; stuff that isn't discussed in a typical class. I'm looking forward to the rest of it.
Classes here have relatively low requirements compared to Case. Comparative Cultural Studies has five short compositions (as in, maybe about a page) and a final essay exam that we already have the prompt for. For Contemporary Japanese Policy-Making, half my grade is a single paper; the other half is attendence.
Stuff that's happened in the past week and a half... Classes. Friday night was spent deciding whether or not to drop the constitutional law class. Got a minor cold around noon on Friday, which lasted until Monday. Joys.
Saturday I went with Amy, Sara, and Tue to Akihabara. Tue bought Cowske, Amy bought a DS Lite and denshi jisho (electronic dictionary), Sara looked at netbooks. After shopping, the four of us went to a maid cafe. It was... an experience. Involving a creepy old guy with a camera sitting next to us as we were getting ready to leave. We paid 800 yen each for melon soda floats; you're required to buy at least one drink at a maid cafe, and regular sodas were 600 yen. Strangely, they had alcohol on the menu. Also watched some tourists make total jackasses of themselves when they didn't notice the "no photography" sign. You want your picture taken with the maids, you get to pay 500 yen like everyone else.
Sunday was the barbecue with Niji no Kai. Fun times! Met a whole bunch of people, ate food. Jumped right in the shower when I got back, since my clothes and I smelled like a campfire.
Monday, I went shopping for a denshi jisho in Akihabara. Found a couple of models I was interested in, asked my Japanese teacher about them on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I went back after class and bought the one I wanted at the Casio outlet store. Cost me about 22,000 yen for a refurb of last year's model; a great deal.
Casio XD-SP9500. It's a business model rather than a high-school student's model, which makes it a bit more expensive. On the other hand, it's a heck of a lot more useful for English-Japanese and Japanese-English. It even has a million (!) word technical dictionary with every single engineering term I can think of, that can handle both E-J and J-E. And I can write kanji with the stylus and look up their meanings, which is amazing. Stroke order means nothing! Nothing! I can fudge it all I want, the dictionary still knows what kanji I mean. My first actual use of the gadget was today, when I was reading a text message from my host mother and didn't know some of the kanji.
Random discoveries. Yousuke has cram school fairly frequently. Apparently Mio used to have cram school every day for about five hours per. Kids apparently start going when they're three (yes, three!) years old. I'm quite glad I didn't have to do anything like that. Also, okaa-san apparently has a class on ikebana today.
Oh, and there's a strong typhoon coming tomorrow; my first ever. They haven't cancelled classes yet. This ought to be fun.
Anyways, I'm using one of the computers in the SILS reading room (i.e., study area / computer lab). I don't actually have class today, but hey. It's now been a week and a half since classes started. I wound up dropping the constitutional law course. Before classes started, I thought I might want to drop the Japanese elective class (Taigu - Communication). Looks like it's going to be a good course, though. Discussion of what words have what sort of connotation, that sort of thing; stuff that isn't discussed in a typical class. I'm looking forward to the rest of it.
Classes here have relatively low requirements compared to Case. Comparative Cultural Studies has five short compositions (as in, maybe about a page) and a final essay exam that we already have the prompt for. For Contemporary Japanese Policy-Making, half my grade is a single paper; the other half is attendence.
Stuff that's happened in the past week and a half... Classes. Friday night was spent deciding whether or not to drop the constitutional law class. Got a minor cold around noon on Friday, which lasted until Monday. Joys.
Saturday I went with Amy, Sara, and Tue to Akihabara. Tue bought Cowske, Amy bought a DS Lite and denshi jisho (electronic dictionary), Sara looked at netbooks. After shopping, the four of us went to a maid cafe. It was... an experience. Involving a creepy old guy with a camera sitting next to us as we were getting ready to leave. We paid 800 yen each for melon soda floats; you're required to buy at least one drink at a maid cafe, and regular sodas were 600 yen. Strangely, they had alcohol on the menu. Also watched some tourists make total jackasses of themselves when they didn't notice the "no photography" sign. You want your picture taken with the maids, you get to pay 500 yen like everyone else.
Sunday was the barbecue with Niji no Kai. Fun times! Met a whole bunch of people, ate food. Jumped right in the shower when I got back, since my clothes and I smelled like a campfire.
Monday, I went shopping for a denshi jisho in Akihabara. Found a couple of models I was interested in, asked my Japanese teacher about them on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I went back after class and bought the one I wanted at the Casio outlet store. Cost me about 22,000 yen for a refurb of last year's model; a great deal.
Casio XD-SP9500. It's a business model rather than a high-school student's model, which makes it a bit more expensive. On the other hand, it's a heck of a lot more useful for English-Japanese and Japanese-English. It even has a million (!) word technical dictionary with every single engineering term I can think of, that can handle both E-J and J-E. And I can write kanji with the stylus and look up their meanings, which is amazing. Stroke order means nothing! Nothing! I can fudge it all I want, the dictionary still knows what kanji I mean. My first actual use of the gadget was today, when I was reading a text message from my host mother and didn't know some of the kanji.
Random discoveries. Yousuke has cram school fairly frequently. Apparently Mio used to have cram school every day for about five hours per. Kids apparently start going when they're three (yes, three!) years old. I'm quite glad I didn't have to do anything like that. Also, okaa-san apparently has a class on ikebana today.
Oh, and there's a strong typhoon coming tomorrow; my first ever. They haven't cancelled classes yet. This ought to be fun.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Class?
Sitting in the living room, watching TV with Okaa-san and Mio (who's being told to take a shower). Otou-san's in here brushing his teeth while watching TV.
No class today, but went to Waseda anyways. Somehow managed to run into about 5 or 10 of the other Japan Study students. Went with Dash and Tyler to Akihabara, since we all had to buy electronics. Ross joined us after Dash went. I returned my router and bought some ethernet cables, Tyler bought a monitor so he can play his PS3 and XBox 360 at the dorm. Tyler and I also bought doner kebabs; I'd been missing those.
Anyways, fast and reliable internet access now. Huzzah! On the other hand, I'm waking up at 6:30 tomorrow morning, since I haven't done the route during rush hour before and don't know how long it'll take. It's now 10:14, so I'll need to got to bed soon. Bah.
Oh, and I've been watching Wizard People, Dear Reader on one of the JS students' recommendation. Win for people who like Harry Potter, win for people who don't. It's quite made of win.
No class today, but went to Waseda anyways. Somehow managed to run into about 5 or 10 of the other Japan Study students. Went with Dash and Tyler to Akihabara, since we all had to buy electronics. Ross joined us after Dash went. I returned my router and bought some ethernet cables, Tyler bought a monitor so he can play his PS3 and XBox 360 at the dorm. Tyler and I also bought doner kebabs; I'd been missing those.
Anyways, fast and reliable internet access now. Huzzah! On the other hand, I'm waking up at 6:30 tomorrow morning, since I haven't done the route during rush hour before and don't know how long it'll take. It's now 10:14, so I'll need to got to bed soon. Bah.
Oh, and I've been watching Wizard People, Dear Reader on one of the JS students' recommendation. Win for people who like Harry Potter, win for people who don't. It's quite made of win.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Lazy Sunday, Part Deux
Back in the living room. Otou-san's watching sumo wrestling on TV, while Mio's watching videos of a Japanese talk show (I think) on Youtube.
... huh. Something about it being 6 PM on a Sunday, and therefore changing the channel. End credits of Chibi Maruko-chan. The answer is apparently more Chibi Maruko-chan.
... wait a minute, I can actually understand a decent amount of the show. Huzzah!
Let's see... courses. I'm taking:
Oh, I met my host grandmother yesterday. We're on the second floor; she lives on the first floor. Didn't spend much time with her, but she seems nice.
... toilet? Our toilet seems to be an older version of your typical advanced function system. Water jets, faucet, that sort of thing. The flush button is on the remote, though; I had to ask my host family how to flush the first time I used the toilet. I wonder what happens in a power outage. Does the toilet have a battery backup?
6:30 PM. Looks like Sazae-san is starting now.
Oh. I checked my bank statement earlier, and they charged me something like $15 on currency conversion to withdraw 40,000 yen, plus a couple bucks for using a non-affiliated ATM. Blech.
Update: Sazae-san has stuff about dad going out drinking with his work buddies, including depictions of them drunk. Sazae-san is a children's show. Nice.
Update 2: Oooh! And mention of pachinko!
... huh. Something about it being 6 PM on a Sunday, and therefore changing the channel. End credits of Chibi Maruko-chan. The answer is apparently more Chibi Maruko-chan.
... wait a minute, I can actually understand a decent amount of the show. Huzzah!
Let's see... courses. I'm taking:
- Intensive Japanese (level 3)
- Special Topics - Communication (level 3)
- Comparative Cultural Studies
- Contemporary Japanese Policy-Making
- The Constitution of Japan
Oh, I met my host grandmother yesterday. We're on the second floor; she lives on the first floor. Didn't spend much time with her, but she seems nice.
... toilet? Our toilet seems to be an older version of your typical advanced function system. Water jets, faucet, that sort of thing. The flush button is on the remote, though; I had to ask my host family how to flush the first time I used the toilet. I wonder what happens in a power outage. Does the toilet have a battery backup?
6:30 PM. Looks like Sazae-san is starting now.
Oh. I checked my bank statement earlier, and they charged me something like $15 on currency conversion to withdraw 40,000 yen, plus a couple bucks for using a non-affiliated ATM. Blech.
Update: Sazae-san has stuff about dad going out drinking with his work buddies, including depictions of them drunk. Sazae-san is a children's show. Nice.
Update 2: Oooh! And mention of pachinko!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Lazy Sunday
I'm sitting in my host family's living room; moved in on Thursday. I have a host brother (Yousuke, 15) in his first year of high school and a host sister (Mio, 13) in her first year of junior high. My host father (otou-san) is a businessman, and my host mother (okaa-san) works part-time as a librarian.
The house is small by American standards, but average by Japanese standards. I have my own bedroom, as does Yousuke. Mio sleeps in my host parents' bedroom. A standard Japanese-style toilet room and shower/bath room. Single main living room, small porch (mostly used for drying clothing it seems), and a kitchen. Japanese appliances tend to be rather smaller than their American counterparts. The oven, for example, is only a few inches tall; I think most things use the burners. Living room has a Western-style table and chairs for dining, and a couple of tatami mats and Japanese-style table for relaxing/homework/television/whatever. One computer in the living, plus a cable running to Yousuke's room for his laptop. I picked up a wireless access point so I can move around, but it's been pretty wonky, so I might return it and just run a cable into my room; that seems to be fine with okaa-san.
My bedroom's a decent size; maybe on the order of 8' x 11' or so, including the built-in closet. Bed, desk, some drawers in the closet. Works just fine for my needs.
I'm sitting at the table. Okaa-san's preparing lunch right now. Udon, I think. Otou-san's in here watching TV, and Mio's watching TV and practising guitar. Yousuke's in his room. He had school of some sort yesterday, despite the fact that it was Saturday. That seems to be common to the Japanese educational system. Mio hasn't had school for the past week or so thanks to some disease outbreak.
Among the random things I've learned: routers here don't seem to have 802.11n and gigabit Ethernet. What's the point of 802.11n if your wired network can't handle the speeds? Also, when you buy a cell phone, it doesn't come with any accessories. You have to purchase your own AC adapter, even. Though my phone was free, and the store gave me 5000 yen in Visa gift cards for some reason, so it's not all bad. Plus my phone has 1seg TV and an 8-megapixel camera.
What else... commute. I'm living in Seijogakuenmae, part of Shinagawa City (one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo). It's about a 10- to 15-minute walk to the train station. I take the Odakyu line to Shinjuku, Yamanote line to Takadanobaba, and finally Ginza line to Waseda. Then it's another 10 minutes or so to campus. All told, probably around 60 to 70 minutes. Apparently around average to slightly longer than average.
Lunchtime, I think. I'll post more later.
The house is small by American standards, but average by Japanese standards. I have my own bedroom, as does Yousuke. Mio sleeps in my host parents' bedroom. A standard Japanese-style toilet room and shower/bath room. Single main living room, small porch (mostly used for drying clothing it seems), and a kitchen. Japanese appliances tend to be rather smaller than their American counterparts. The oven, for example, is only a few inches tall; I think most things use the burners. Living room has a Western-style table and chairs for dining, and a couple of tatami mats and Japanese-style table for relaxing/homework/television/whatever. One computer in the living, plus a cable running to Yousuke's room for his laptop. I picked up a wireless access point so I can move around, but it's been pretty wonky, so I might return it and just run a cable into my room; that seems to be fine with okaa-san.
My bedroom's a decent size; maybe on the order of 8' x 11' or so, including the built-in closet. Bed, desk, some drawers in the closet. Works just fine for my needs.
I'm sitting at the table. Okaa-san's preparing lunch right now. Udon, I think. Otou-san's in here watching TV, and Mio's watching TV and practising guitar. Yousuke's in his room. He had school of some sort yesterday, despite the fact that it was Saturday. That seems to be common to the Japanese educational system. Mio hasn't had school for the past week or so thanks to some disease outbreak.
Among the random things I've learned: routers here don't seem to have 802.11n and gigabit Ethernet. What's the point of 802.11n if your wired network can't handle the speeds? Also, when you buy a cell phone, it doesn't come with any accessories. You have to purchase your own AC adapter, even. Though my phone was free, and the store gave me 5000 yen in Visa gift cards for some reason, so it's not all bad. Plus my phone has 1seg TV and an 8-megapixel camera.
What else... commute. I'm living in Seijogakuenmae, part of Shinagawa City (one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo). It's about a 10- to 15-minute walk to the train station. I take the Odakyu line to Shinjuku, Yamanote line to Takadanobaba, and finally Ginza line to Waseda. Then it's another 10 minutes or so to campus. All told, probably around 60 to 70 minutes. Apparently around average to slightly longer than average.
Lunchtime, I think. I'll post more later.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Leaving on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again...
Anyways, leaving for the airport now. The butterflies in my stomach aren't fluttering, they're being thrown around in a hurricane. Ah well, it'll be fun.
Anyways, leaving for the airport now. The butterflies in my stomach aren't fluttering, they're being thrown around in a hurricane. Ah well, it'll be fun.
Friday, September 11, 2009
First post!
Less than 24 hours from now, I'll be sitting on an All Nippon Airways plane en route to Tokyo, where I'll spend a full year studying at Waseda University. Less than 24 hours. Anxious? You bet. Looking forward to it? Absolutely.
I don't know what my internet access situation will look like, but I'll try to update once I get to Japan.
Bags packed, souvenirs purchased... Man. Am I really doing this?
I don't know what my internet access situation will look like, but I'll try to update once I get to Japan.
Bags packed, souvenirs purchased... Man. Am I really doing this?
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