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This week the Japanese students began their classes. Now there’s a lot more people and it feels like an actual university campus. I haven’t been doing much aside from some homework and hanging out with people here at the dorm. I’ve cooked dinner a couple days and it turned out alright. It’s a kind of chicken stir-fry that I got the original recipe from this site. I just ended up adding snow peas and bean sprouts to it. I only use 2 chicken breasts to feed me and Jess, and the rest of the vegetables fill up the pan enough for 4-6 servings in a bowl over rice. I just need to give the chicken more flavor.

Last night we went to this bar/eatery to eat some nabe. Nabe is like a potluck dish (except you know what’s in it as opposed to relying on luck) where you have the food cooking in a pot in the center of the table and you just grab the food out of it as you go. What we had in the pot consisted of: cabbage, bean sprouts, pork, and noodles (I don’t remember what else was in it).

I’m a bit stressed because I have to work on a presentation for my Japanese class and the subject matter is public transportation manners. It just feels like I have a lot to do and little time to do it/Not sure where to start/Don’t really want to have to do it in Japanese. (That last part is killing me)

I have a Japanese bank account now, for easier handling of my Japanese money needs (The school’s going to deposit money into the account for food, although we’ve been living off our own money for the last month…which is kind of stupid). I also got a Japanese cellphone to stay in better contact with friends here, however international calls are expensive.

Oh, it’s cooling off here now. Nights are hitting the 50-60s I think, and days are in the 70s. When we first got here the heat was just terrible. Now I don’t break out into a sweat when I go to/come from school.

There’s an aquarium in Osaka that Jess and I would like to go to. Maybe we’ll do that this or next weekend. Also, a Kyoto trip is up in the air for sometime in October. One of my friends here might ask his grandfather to let him use his timeshare for a location in Hokkaido over the winter break. If that’s the case, Jess and I might be able to go as well which would be cool.

http://www.aoinamida.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=2294

This is the link to my photo gallery with pictures of Japan. I’ll be updating it as much as I can.

Over the weekend a group of us went to a section of Osaka called “Den-Den Town”. Den-Den Town is the local, smaller version of Akihabara, which is where a lot of anime, game, and such related things are located (which is pretty much right up my alley). I wanted to go because of an arcade I had searched out to play some select games that I hadn’t gotten the chance to play yet. I did buy some things like anime figurines though.

This weekend was a long weekend because we had Monday off due to “Respect for the Elderly Day”. Monday we tried to make Japanese-style curry (which ended up coming out as a kind of soup). Next time should be better I think. I also got a group to go to an arcade that is closer to our dorms (yay games) and we played for a couple hours there.

Classes are going well. I dropped Intro to Japanese History, however I’ll take it next semester. They kill you with reading for the classes that are taught in English, and the classes stacked on almost the same days which would have left me with having to read a lot in a night.

The heat is starting to subside and some of the trees are starting to change color/lose leaves. It’s not so picturesque around here since it’s all residential, but one of these weekends we’re going to go to Kyoto and visit the shrines and see all the changing foliage. It should be a good time.

Until my next post!

So, I officially moved into my dorm room on Sunday. I turned in my temporary accommodation key and in return received my official room key, food locker key, and side gate key. (Before everyone had to be back by 11PM or else we were locked out, but now that we have the side gate key we can potentially stay out as long as we want.) To celebrate, some friends and I went out to eat and do some karaoke. The food wasn’t bad. I tried a bunch of different things that I don’t know what they were, but it was tasty. The place we went to karaoke was probably a bad choice on our part because drinks were expensive and so was the price per hour of singing. Half of us sang Japanese songs while the other half sang in good ol’ English. Next time we’ll look for a better deal.

Classes started on Monday, and the classes I chose seem interesting. I got placed into Level 5 Speaking Japanese (which is a level higher than I expected. If it seems too hard in the next week and a half, I can drop down to level 4) and Level 4 Reading and Writing Japanese (which is studying and practicing writing Kanji). The non-Japanese classes I am taking are: The Body and Communication in Japan, Intro to Japanese History, and Sexuality and Culture in Japan: Desire, Power, and Social Order.

The Body and Communication in Japan is a look at how Japanese communicate non-verbally, as well as taking a look at the Japanese deaf culture and Japanese sign language. It should be very interesting and hopefully help me to understand Japanese body language.

Intro to Japanese History is pretty straight forward, the professor is going to teach us about everything up until before the Meiji restoration I believe, which happened in the late 1800s after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Sexuality and Culture in Japan is a look at Japanese customs regarding sex, how sex is portrayed in the media and pop culture, and learning about Japanese gay, lesbian, and transsexual culture.

5 courses is a pretty full workload with reading or other homework in every class. Spoken Japanese meets 5 days a week, Reading and Writing meets 3 days a week, and the other 3 classes meets 2 times a week.

So, after the Japanese placement test, a group of us decided to apply for our gaijin papers at the city hall. Although none of us had been there before, looking at Google Maps before hand helped us find its location near Hirakata City Station. The process was actually quick and painless, and there’s a lot of interesting stuff near the station. There’s a Mos Burger near there that I have to try at one point, which is added to my list of things to see/do/eat.

On the way back, we were fortunate enough to get a free sample of donuts from a place currently being built on the main road that leads from the school to the station. The donuts were really good; they had a different texture and taste from American donuts. When the store is done and open, I’d like to go back and see what other goodies they’re going to sell.

Outside of Fresco, a 24 hour market, the takoyaki (pieces of octopus in dough) vendor was there again, but this time setup across from him wasn’t the yakitori (grilled chicken) vendor, but a fresh pan (bread) vendor. I bought a fresh baked melon pan for 160 yen and takoyaki, 10 for 300 yen. It started sprinkling a bit on the way back to the dorms, with thunder looming behind us. We made it back before the rain got heavier, which was good since none of us had brought umbrellas.

Walking around and stuff makes me tired. Even with a good amount of sleep the night before, I am tired by 8pm and feel like taking a nap for a couple hours.