Placement Test II

One thing I love about classes in Japan is that all the teachers here hand back assignments the next class period. And if not the assignment with comments on it, then at least the grade. I don't have my review placement test back yet but because I did not get a re-placement note in the mail (we have little mailboxes in the CIE building) that means I get to stay in the class. I passed. Of course, I'm not sure if that means I did well or not, but it does mean that I passed, which makes me feel so much better.

I am on what seems to be a never-ending epic quest to get a cell phone. I feel like Odysseus on his way home--it seems like something is always baring my way (though thankfully I haven't come across any swirling whirlpools of death yet).

I also have a kanji quiz coming tomorrow. I have decided to stay at level 2 for my kanji instead of moving to level 3. Level 2 is a little slow for me because I know more kanji than I'm supposed to know, just not the right ones, but in order to jump I'll have to spend today and tomorrow cramming something like 100 kanji into my head. So, I have decided not to cram and stress out, but instead to take the slower pace and count my blessings. I kind of need the writing class to be a little slow because spending every day in speaking makes my head hurt. (I'm definitely at the right level but still it's a lot of information to cram into my head). So I can relax a little instead of stressing out over two Japanese classes.

Update on Fushimi-Inari Shrine:
I still do not have a card-reader (the goal is to get that either tomorrow or the next day) so no pictures yet. However, I do have some information on Inari, the patron of Fushimi-inari shrine. It so turns out that we discussed the general understanding of shrines and divinities in Shinto class yesterday and as an example, the teacher used Inari. So, here's what I learned: Inari is the Shinto god of rice and sake (ah, so the sake makes sense now) and his nature is understood in several different ways. To the priests, Inari is an old man. To the commoner, Inari is a fox. To the businessman, Inari is the god of business as well as rice (because rice was once the business of Japan). To the Buddhists in Japan, Inari is actually a young woman who rides a white fox. Regardless of what you think Inari is, it is generally agreed that Inari owns a few special objects. These objects are the jewel of wishes (a Buddhist thing but integrated almost seamlessly into Shinto), a scroll of "teachings" (though Shinto has no sacred texts or overall recognized rules, so maybe the scroll is blank, but that sounds rather like Zen to say that), and a key to the gate of the great rice storehouse. Therefore, Inari holds the key to rice, wealth, and happiness. However, Inari is not necessarily a nice guy. He's not someone that lavishes his gifts on human beings--instead, he will give you these gifts in exchange for proper practice at his shrine (which explains the businessmen that were all over the lower-level of the shrine). This, of course, is a very simplistic understanding of Inari (the class isn't about indoctrination, so we're only learning a very general understanding so that we can then discuss how it affects life in Japan), but I thought you might be interested to know what I found out about the shrine itself.