Today, I'm taking the day off.
The past three days have been very productive (finally) and I will be considered after Monday's Crime Seminar to be fully oriented.
The speaking test on Thursday was fine, and I discovered the joys of the co-op canteen. There's a wonderful salad bar and all kinds of food, and now I no longer have to worry about finding at least one decent vegetarian meal per day. We were, however, frightened by the great deal of paperwork that was thrown our way.
In the evening it got better though when Dave confirmed that his tickets for coming to see me at Xmas are all booked :)
Yesterday, we had the morning free before orientation started again at 1pm, so I went and opened up a bank account, at last. They gave me this cute little bank book with happy cartoon people on it, and my cash card will soon follow.
I then decided to cycle to the semi-nearby "Hyaku-En" (100 yen) shop, which I was given vague directions to, but having no sense of direction at all, i got lost 3 times before I found it. And the road was terrifying (see "My Bike", above.) I bought all the stationery that I needed, and a cute little whiteboard for my door so that people can leave messages. It's shaped like an apple. The shop itself is wonderful, it sells just about anything you could ever want, the quality is good enough, and everything costs just 100 yen (about 50p). It's so great. Trying to find my way back again was a bit of a problem, I got lost again, but I made it back to the dorm to drop my things off before heading to uni, although i was a bit of a sweaty mess by that point, as it was average 28C yesterday and always sunny. I then had limited time to get to uni, and, of course, I got lost on the way there, but eventually I made it and got into the classroom just in the nick of time. Unfortunately, on the only day that I wasn't early, the staff were handing out free tickets to a Noh play that is showing next week, they were the last tickets, and just as I got in the door Jason handed the last ticket to the girl in front of me, then said to the rest of us, "you weren't early, so TS." Just a minor annoyance.
We were then assigned to our Japanese language classes, I got assigned to the middle group along with Mat, and I also got in to the Calligraphy class, although his name wasn't drawn for the arts course that he'd chosen. We were then offered options of taking other classes, but most of them centred around Japanese Law, Japanese Economics and Japan-America Relations, which just don't interest me. There were two that I was interested in taking, International Aid and one discussing Homer's Odyssey (randomly stuck in there) but they both clashed with my timetable. So, this semester I'm just going to use the extra time to work on my dissertation, and next semester there will be historical and cultural-themed classes available, which I'm very interested in, so I can take some then. It was great though, we were the only people whose home university didn't demand a certain amount of credits - most people I knew had to take at least 4 of these extra classes, (people not doing Japanese language had to take 7) and I know i would have been bored stupid if I'd had to do that. I know it probably sounds like I'm skiving off a bit, but my timetable is actually "full" as it is, (with the same amount of classes per week that I would take in Edinburgh) plus my "extra" calligraphy class, so this way I won't be uber stressed, and I will have time to do research and practise my Japanese in general. And actually see Japan a bit. Hooray!
After our timetables were determined, we had a health seminar with the charismatic Dr Nakagawa, a tour of the library, and we were given our email addresses and computer IDs for the machines on campus. By then it was 5.30, and I was about to head back, when Mat asked me to show him the way to the Hyaku-En shop. No-one asks me for directions, no-one, and he soon realised why.
So we made it, although it was rush-hour so the roads were even more insane than usual (again, see "My Bike") and we had a good rake, then had a really fun ride back, as it was dark by this point, and it was just a bit terrifying. I think it goes unsaid that with me leading, we did get lost a couple of times. Well, that temple just jumped out of nowhere.
So, today, I'm just conserving my energy for the big party tonight that we're having, later on I think I'll go down to the "Liquor Mountain" and see their wares. Sounds promising, anyway.
The past three days have been very productive (finally) and I will be considered after Monday's Crime Seminar to be fully oriented.
The speaking test on Thursday was fine, and I discovered the joys of the co-op canteen. There's a wonderful salad bar and all kinds of food, and now I no longer have to worry about finding at least one decent vegetarian meal per day. We were, however, frightened by the great deal of paperwork that was thrown our way.
In the evening it got better though when Dave confirmed that his tickets for coming to see me at Xmas are all booked :)
Yesterday, we had the morning free before orientation started again at 1pm, so I went and opened up a bank account, at last. They gave me this cute little bank book with happy cartoon people on it, and my cash card will soon follow.
I then decided to cycle to the semi-nearby "Hyaku-En" (100 yen) shop, which I was given vague directions to, but having no sense of direction at all, i got lost 3 times before I found it. And the road was terrifying (see "My Bike", above.) I bought all the stationery that I needed, and a cute little whiteboard for my door so that people can leave messages. It's shaped like an apple. The shop itself is wonderful, it sells just about anything you could ever want, the quality is good enough, and everything costs just 100 yen (about 50p). It's so great. Trying to find my way back again was a bit of a problem, I got lost again, but I made it back to the dorm to drop my things off before heading to uni, although i was a bit of a sweaty mess by that point, as it was average 28C yesterday and always sunny. I then had limited time to get to uni, and, of course, I got lost on the way there, but eventually I made it and got into the classroom just in the nick of time. Unfortunately, on the only day that I wasn't early, the staff were handing out free tickets to a Noh play that is showing next week, they were the last tickets, and just as I got in the door Jason handed the last ticket to the girl in front of me, then said to the rest of us, "you weren't early, so TS." Just a minor annoyance.
We were then assigned to our Japanese language classes, I got assigned to the middle group along with Mat, and I also got in to the Calligraphy class, although his name wasn't drawn for the arts course that he'd chosen. We were then offered options of taking other classes, but most of them centred around Japanese Law, Japanese Economics and Japan-America Relations, which just don't interest me. There were two that I was interested in taking, International Aid and one discussing Homer's Odyssey (randomly stuck in there) but they both clashed with my timetable. So, this semester I'm just going to use the extra time to work on my dissertation, and next semester there will be historical and cultural-themed classes available, which I'm very interested in, so I can take some then. It was great though, we were the only people whose home university didn't demand a certain amount of credits - most people I knew had to take at least 4 of these extra classes, (people not doing Japanese language had to take 7) and I know i would have been bored stupid if I'd had to do that. I know it probably sounds like I'm skiving off a bit, but my timetable is actually "full" as it is, (with the same amount of classes per week that I would take in Edinburgh) plus my "extra" calligraphy class, so this way I won't be uber stressed, and I will have time to do research and practise my Japanese in general. And actually see Japan a bit. Hooray!
After our timetables were determined, we had a health seminar with the charismatic Dr Nakagawa, a tour of the library, and we were given our email addresses and computer IDs for the machines on campus. By then it was 5.30, and I was about to head back, when Mat asked me to show him the way to the Hyaku-En shop. No-one asks me for directions, no-one, and he soon realised why.
So we made it, although it was rush-hour so the roads were even more insane than usual (again, see "My Bike") and we had a good rake, then had a really fun ride back, as it was dark by this point, and it was just a bit terrifying. I think it goes unsaid that with me leading, we did get lost a couple of times. Well, that temple just jumped out of nowhere.
So, today, I'm just conserving my energy for the big party tonight that we're having, later on I think I'll go down to the "Liquor Mountain" and see their wares. Sounds promising, anyway.
posted by Lisa @ 6:37 am
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