Hoping for a Better Week

I haven't written since Wednesday because there hasn't been much to say. I didn't go to class at all on Thursday, and I went to campus for the sole purpose of turning in my homework on Friday, and I spent the day indoors on Saturday. The reason was because I was sick. On Sunday, I had just barely got better and was going to go to church but saw snow and thought it might not be the best life-choice to go and wait on the bus in the snow after just getting better. I instead went out later on in the day when most of the snow had melted and ate lunch at good ol' Mickey D's because I simply HAD to get out of the house. Monday was a lesson test, tomorrow is a vocabulary quiz, and tonight there's something about dinner with Ruth since it IS her birthday... So hope that everyone had a good weekend and wasn't as sick as I was!

Edit: Some information you might be interested in hearing about...

1) Fixed the link to the second blog (you'll find it in the side collumn). It should work now.

2) To the immediate family: I have spoken to my friends and we have agreed to help with "flat stanley goes to Japan" on one condition: in addition to photos for the school, we must be allowed to take a few for our own entertainment.

3) I recommend everyone read the Because It's Japan blog on Wednesday afternoon. I will be discussing Kitkat bars in Japan.

Not Much to Say...

Unfortunately there hasn't been much happening since Friday. I went window-shopping in Kyoto Station on Saturday with a light jacket while it snowed (it was quite warm when I left the house, thank you, I'm not completely crazy). I spent Sunday sleeping most of the day because I had a really bad sore throat, but I spent two hours out of the house anyway because I just couldn't stand it. Monday, Tuesday, and Today have all been spent on homework, and I suspect Thursday will be the same. Monday night, though, I did go out and have myself some wonderful indian food (Chicken Masala, pomegranate lassi, naan, etc).

Sorry for the dull, dull post. I officially dropped one of my classes so I am down to 14 hours and the workload is now bearable. Most of this week has been spent on work for class. For Peace, Developement and Democratization, I have been doing lots of research on Burma. For Issues in Contemporary Japan, I've got another presentation/paper thing to do, and I've been thinking about Disabilities in Japan or Elderly in Japan (since they sort-of overlap). For Visual Anthropology, I actually did not go to class on Monday because we were watching a film called Neighborhood Tokyo which I have seen numerous times and didn't think I could possibly sit through it again without going insane. Our big project for that class is the blog (shameless plug).

This weekend, I intend to sleep in and not do much so as to help with my being tired all the time, and I now have a very large new book to read that I shall endeavor to not begin reading until Saturday, and then do the typical Amanda thing of "drop everything and read non-stop until the book is finished." Oh, and church would be nice.

Valentine's Day in Japan

I now have a second blog for my Visual Anthropology class. If you are interested, it is linked Here and also in a new bar addition on the right.

In other news, Thursday was Valentine's Day in Japan. The day was actually rather dull for me because I didn't give or get anything but since such is usually the case, I was not expecting Thursday to be any different. But my host sisters were very busy giving chocolate away to their male friends and to their boyfriends as well. In Japan, the girl gives the guy chocolates on Valentine's Day but the gifts aren't just for the men that they like. These gifts are for all the men in their lives. Some are meant for romantic relationships, but others are called "giri-choko" which is best described as "obligation chocolate" but in this case it has no negative connotations that the word "obligation" carries in english.

Now, I'm supposing that you're thinking, hey, that's great for the guy, but what about the girl? Doesn't she get flowers or something? No, in Japan it doesn't seem to be normal for anyone to get flowers on Valentine's Day and Valentine's Day is strictly for girls to give gifts to guys. A month from yesterday will be White Day, when all the guys who recieved chocolate now have to give something (usually chocolate) in return. I won't be getting anything on White Day either because I didn't give anything on Valentine's Day. Not that I have anyone to give anything to anyway. But, because Valentine's day is so different in Japan, I thought I'd leave you with a post about it for fun.

And on a totally unrelated subject, I gave up caffinated drinks (with the singular exception of hot chocolate because it's still officially winter here) for Lent. Completely irrelated to this statement, I have found myself eating chocolate more frequently. Valentine's Day therefore became a sad excuse to buy more chocolate and eat more sugar which I should not have done but did anyway.

And I know this is dangerous to say but to those of you in on the joke, it's late February and I'm still in the club this year. We're getting close to a record for me! Hee hee.

SNOW!

Though you probably already gathered this from the title, there was snow this weekend! This resulted in me cancelling my trip to Kobe, among other things. But I’m fine with that.

Friday, February 8th
On Friday, I got up really early and went to campus to chat with the family for two solid hours. It was a very nice feeling to hear their voices! I was very pleased! But, all good things must come to an end, and so I got off the phone with them an hour before class because the computer lab was getting horrendously noisy and they could hardly understand me.

I then went and got some hot chocolate (though I have sworn off sodas, I do not include in their number hot chocolate, even though it technically IS a caffeinated drink… Reason being it IS winter here and I am not giving up a hot drink) with Reggie, who invited me to join him and a few others to a trip to Kobe on Saturday. They were going to go see the Chinese New Year going on in Kobe’s Chinatown, and naturally I wanted to go. After our walk to get his coffee and my hot chocolate, we went back to the lounge where I sat and talked until time to go take the test. Yes, I had a test on my first week of school. This was actually my SECOND test…

The test was alright. I feel like I did good on it because she didn’t employ very much vocabulary that I didn’t know. I also feel like I was more free for interpretation of the answer (when I have to write just one word, then that forces me to say things only one way. When I’m given entire sentences to translate, it’s much easier on me). So, I finished that and then went to my Peace, Development, and Democratization class. It was interesting. I then went home and immediately fell asleep. Without lunch.

Later that night I woke up and had dinner (which was smaller than I would have liked, but good). I spent the rest of the evening sleeping because for some reason I was REALLY tired.

Saturday, February 9th
I woke up, took a shower, blow dried my hair, and got dressed all in the expectations that I would be going to Kobe. I also ate, brushed my teeth, grabbed my purse, put on my shoes and gloves, all in the expectation that I would be going to Kobe. But when I opened the door to begin my trek to Kobe, I found that it was snowing. Soooo, I turned around and got my camera, took about twenty pictures, cancelled my trip to Kobe, and went outside to dance in the snow. After being near frozen even in my heavy coat, I opened the window to my room from the outside so that I could see out. I then spent most of the day sitting on my computer, facing the huge window so that I could watch the snow. I don’t have much a view of the street because there’s a row of about four bushes directly in front of my window, but I can see the car parked under the cover, the gate that Aki-chan left open in her rush to get indoors, and the persimmons that are orange as ever, giving this snow in Japan a very strange look indeed. Where I sat was at the much lower table so that I was seated on the electric mat, and I turned the little awesome heater so that it blew on my back. I was quite toasty in my room (a pleasant change) and enjoyed my snow. It was being downright serious about the snow. Snow was coming down in big clumps, about the size and shape of white Coco-feathers (one real Coco-feather of this nature somehow managed to stick to a shirt so I have it sitting here on my table like a prize). I’d say we had four or five cm by the time lunch came around.

It snowed on through the rest of the day, leaving what I later found out to be the largest snow in ten years. But unlike Arkansas snow (where it’s 6 inches of ice and a light dusting on top and has a tendency to shut the world down for a few days), this snow was perfect packing snow. I would have had a snowball fight too if I had had someone who knew how to play (Yoshi-chan said it was too cold to go out in the snow and I have no idea where Aki-chan was). Ruth and I met at the station but instead of playing, we took our laptops to Makudo and sat on the internet for a few hours watching the snow. We didn’t leave until after dark, when the snow finally stopped. I’m sure the people at Makudo hate us.

Sunday, February 10th
On Sunday, I set my alarm for church and it did indeed go off, but I overslept and missed the bus. By overslept, I mean I remember hearing the alarm, and I remember turning it off, and I even remember thinking “I need to get out of bed” but that’s the last thing I remember. This means I must change my alarm to some other tone so that I don’t do that again. I don’t want to be able to shut my cell phone alarm off in my sleep!

I slept until 1:15 without realizing it. Then I got dressed and was trying to leave before the Yuasa family had a visitor (my host father’s sister) because my host mother had done that typical Japanese thing of “I don’t want you interrupting but I don’t want to tell you not to interrupt.” I missed my chance by just minutes and therefore had to spend the rest of Sunday (which wasn’t much) in my room which is fine; I have many things in my room to entertain myself with so I was not in any way deprived of anything.

Monday, February 11th
Monday was one of those infamous Japanese holidays. If the holiday occurs during the week, then they move it to either the Monday of that week or the Friday of that week so that we all get a three-day weekend. Sometimes I wish the US did that so that all that crazy “random day off next Wednesday” stuff doesn’t happen. Of course, the US also doesn’t have NEAR as many holidays where this is a problem. I swear, Japan has at least one for every month. NOT that I’m complaining, mind you.

So, on my day off, I got up, got dressed, and went with Krissy and Ruth to Kyobashi. We ate at the pasta/pizza place there, and then walked through a few of the shopping places. We also stopped at this little “italian” café where they had “honey toast and chocolate.” This toast, I kid you not, was approximately a 4 inch cube with a scoop of ice cream in the middle and honey and chocolate just drizzled on top of it. And we’re talking real honey too (which is impressive for Japan). Ruth, most unfortunately, had given up sweets for Lent, so it was up to me and Krissy to finish it. It took both of us to finish the thing and I could not have eaten a whole one by myself. Oh but it was absolutely FANTASTIC! And pretty cheap when you consider the ingredients (bread, honey, and chocolate are all twice as expensive here as in the US). I’m pretty sure we’ll be going back…

Then, we went to Osaka Castle where the plum trees are blooming. Unfortunately, there is only a very few subtle differences between plum trees and sakura tree that all three of us poor Americans didn’t know until AFTER Ruth and I bought a tree to give to our host families (fortunately, both families love gardening and were glad to have the tree anyway). Difference 1: Sakura are usually taller than plum. We can’t help it if we thought they were baby Sakura, because not all trees start off tall. Difference 2: Sakura blooms later. Well, we thought it was awful early for the blooms too and that should have been our first clue, but we heard all the Japanese visitors there saying “Haiyai, Haiyai!” which means early by the way, so we were mislead. Difference 3: Plum flowers bloom on the actual branches. Sakura flowers have a stem that the bloom hangs from. While our two little trees only cost 1000 yen (10$), there were trees that were smaller but had more of an interesting shape and were potted in a special pot and were 50,000 (500$)! So, of course, when we brought the tree home, our host families freaked out thinking we’d spent so much on them and we had to calm them down and tell them that it was very yasui (cheap) because we found a bargain and as best we could figure it was because it wasn’t in a special pot and didn’t have any special shape. The really good thing that came out of the trip is that while we were shopping there, one of the guys at the stalls starts talking to us and I was able to understand the whole thing. Here’s a rough translation.
Shop keeper: this is (English) blooming. (starts waving us to some that haven’t bloomed yet)
Me: Oh wow, they’re so small! (to krissy) It’s bonsai!
Krissy: Wow!
Shopkeeper: (English) You like bonsai?
Krissy: (Japanese) It’s a gift for our host families.
Shopkeeper: Oh, is it okay if I speak Japanese (this was in Japanese)
Ruth: Yes, it is.
Shopkeeper: You live in japan?
Me: yes
Krissy: we’re living with homestay families right now. We go to Kansai Gaidai University.
Shopkeeper: Oh, you study Japanese?
Ruth: Yes, but we also study asian studies.
Shopkeeper: Do they teach you Kansai-ben? (this is Japanese with an Osaka “accent.” It’s actually a word that’s conjugated differently or an entirely different word to begin with.)
Ruth: A little. But at our home universities, they teach us Kanto-ben (standard dialect), and they don’t let us use Kansai-ben. But because of our host families, we have to learn Kansai-ben. You know, things like wakara-hen, ohaiyo-san, etc
Shopkeeper laughs. Ruth points to a very small bonsai tree.
Ruth: How much does this cost?
Shopkeeper: 3000 yen. The prices are written on the back of the tag.
Me: Huh? 3000 yen?
Ruth: But it’s so small!
Shopkeeper: Yes but see, it’s leaning over and it’s got this trait (I forget what he called it, but it’s where the tree trunk folds in on itself). That one over there is 50000 yen.
All three of us: WHAT? Really?
Shopkeeper: Yes, see it’s much older than the rest and not only does it have that folding trait but it’s trunk also does this curling thing (he had much more technical terms than that).
Ruth: Oh that’s so expensive! We’re just college students…
This went on for a good thirty minutes before we finally left the little stall disheartened because they were all so expensive. However, just around the corner was a stall that sold boring, unwanted plum trees (because they didn’t have the curl or the folding trunk etc), and that’s where we bought ours. But it was still nice to know that I could listen to a 30 minute conversation and understand all of it. I suppose you might be wondering why Krissy and I spoke so little, even though out of the three of us, Krissy is the highest level. Well, Ruth was the one with the quickest response, so we just stood there most of the time nodding and agreeing with her. She also has a host family that speaks absolutely no English, so she gets the most day to day practice.

So I went home, discovered my tactical error, but was pleased that the host family still liked the plant. My host mother loves gardening, so I knew she would like it anyway. Now for the weird part. As some of you remember, we eat tempura (fried foods) “for our health.” Well, Monday night we had tempura, but instead of the dipping sause made of soy sause, my host mother gave me a small pile of salt. For my health. And I sat there thinking just thinking to myself “for my health? But it’s salt. For my health. …okay….” But I ate it to be polite. Didn’t taste too bad, but I was really glad she didn’t give me a whole lot. I would have cried, I’m sure.

Tuesday, February 12th
Tuesday was much less fun than my weekend, partially because it meant I had to go to class. I was almost late to my Japanese class (because I almost overslept again; hey, I walked a whole lot on Monday). I then had lunch (curry rice) and went with Ruth to talk to Dr. Scott before class started. He gave us a whole bunch of books on Burma (our project for that class). I’ve already read one of them and I think I’ll be done with the other two fairly soon. It’s interesting but sad at the same time.

I then spent the rest of the evening doing the ever-so-thrilling activity of studying for a vocab quiz and a kanji test. Ha ha, whee…

Update on Internetz

ha ha, there IS free internetz at Makudo! The trouble is you have to sit upstairs facing a particular direction. I am posting at Makudo right now and this new news makes me very happy indeed. It takes me almost no time to get to Makudo and the internetz is free and all is well and dandy and I'm just so happy!!! So happy that yes, I am typing like an idiot. Please forgive my momentary lapse. Anyway, end of story = makudo does indeed have wi-fi and I missed it the first time because I was there at high traffic hours and could not sit where I was required to sit in order to get internet. But now we know... mwa ha ha.

Back in the Swing of Things--Sorta

Though I have not yet found internet access in Makino, there is one advantage to having a computer—I can type up an entry to this blog, save it onto the jump drive, then cut and paste the entry into the blog once I am on campus. No more hours spent trying to remember what happened; I can write immediately after the fact and then post later. This past week was surprisingly busy and so today’s post is going to be exceptionally long. I apologize.

Friday, February 1st
For the first of the month, I neglected to go on the Kyoto tour and instead went to Shinsaibashi with Ruth where we walked from the station there to Namba station in search of three things: 1) guitar shops in which Ruth could look at guitars, 2) a birthday gift for Heather, and 3) a pair of boots for each of us that did not have an impossibly tall heel. Why? Because tall boots are warm. So, we walked around Shinsaibashi for most of the day and were successful with the first two of the three objectives. The third objective was an absolute and total failure despite walking into every single shoe store between around Shinsaibashi and Namba. Apparently they were all out.

We ate at a little place just off the main street that was radiating with such a delicious smell that we actually turned around to find where it was coming from. We both had okonomiyaki and a fuzzy navel that was incredibly devoid of alcohol. After eating, we finished walking to Namba and then spent an hour and thirty minutes walking around in circles with horrible directions from two separate police officers and a very bad map within the train station. When we finally were back on track, we were across the street from where we started. What we were searching for was America-mura, which apparently runs parallel to Ebisubashi-suji (the covered street that connects to Shinsaibashi-suji). We never actually made it down to America-mura; we stopped for coffee and hot chocolate and then turned back around and went home because we had other things to do and other people to see and were both really tired of walking around.

The next stop was Kansai Gaidai where I finally got my official schedule with Japanese classes included. I love it. Mondays aren’t so great (all but one of my classes meet on that day) but all the other days are much better. I am in Japanese Speaking level 4 class A, Japanese Reading and Writing level 3, as well as the afternoon classes that I have already told you about. I have also realized that with all the credits I will have accumulated by the time I return, I will have my Asian Studies minor almost complete (I think I lack one class), and my Anthropology upper-level open credits mostly complete. This means that for my last two years of college (I have already come to terms with the fact it will take me 5 years to complete), I can focus on finishing my Anthropology requirements and the core credits that I have been neglecting for quite some time. This means I’ll be taking stuff like football physics, astronomy, philosophy, and crazy stuff while I’m a senior. I’ll have to look at all the credits once again to make absolutely sure that I’m right about all this, but that’s a personal assignment and so it will have to wait until all class assignments are finished.

I also picked up my unofficial transcript from Kansai Gaidai (I will get an official one sent to me at the end of this semester—no sense in paying for one now when it won’t have this semester’s work on it). My grades were a pleasant surprise! I have all A’s and B’s except for that Spoken Japanese. But, instead of a D as I was expecting, I got a C+, which I’m not sure how I managed but am pleased. I got B’s in Reading and Writing and Shinto (I chose not to write the extra paper that would have given me an A in Shinto because I had too much else to worry about and a B is perfectly acceptable), and I have A’s in Dynamics of Modern Japan and Culture and Everyday Life (another score I’m not sure how I got since I completely BS-ed that final project…).

Afterwards, I went with Heather and several other friends to a restaurant called Gasto in order to celebrate her 21st birthday. Gasto is a place not far from campus that can best be described as a Japanese version of Dennys. The food was fairly good, though a little greasy, and they had this wonderful invention that they like to call “White Hot Chocolate.” This little invention is just like hot chocolate only it uses white chocolate rather than milk chocolate. It is wonderful!

I went home at about 10:30 instead of going with everyone to Daddy’s Shoes (the bar) because my phone had died and I was pretty sure that I had dinner waiting on me because I wasn’t able to call and forewarn my host mother that I wouldn’t be eating dinner with her. Fortunately for me, dinner was quite small and part of it could be saved for breakfast. So I ate what could not be saved, saved what could be, and then stayed up a little later than I meant to because I can’t go to sleep immediately after eating.

Saturday, February 2nd
On Saturday morning, I woke up feeling rather sick (I attribute it to having a slight cold before coming to Japan and then allowing it to get worse by neglecting to sleep enough for two weeks). I slept most of the day because I wanted to go with Heather for the “official” birthday party (though she turned 21 on Friday, she wasn’t able to do much more than dinner and only one drink at Daddy’s Shoes because she teaches English on Saturday mornings), and in order to handle said party, I needed to sleep as much as possible so that I could go to the party and still be coherent for church the next morning. I woke up to hunger (how I could still be hungry, I’m not sure) and so I went with Krissy to the Tomato and Onion, which is a restaurant that’s maybe three blocks from my house. Then I went back home and went directly to bed. Thus, I missed the “official” birthday party, but it was probably for the best because I am still not feeling absolutely fantastic and its Wednesday.

Sunday, February 3rd
I woke up as late as was absolutely possible and caught the next to last train to Tanbabashi, and switched to get a train to Shin-tanabe, which is the stop for Kyotanabe. To clear things up, kyotanabe is the name of the town and the JR train stop, Shin-tanabe is the name of the kintensu line’s stop. Based on the kanji, it’s likely that Shin-tanabe is the newer station. The train ride was also more expensive than I remember it being. It was 645 yen just to get to Shin-tanabe. This makes me very unhappy…

It had been raining in Makino off and on for three weeks, but apparently it had been snowing in Kyotanabe. There was still snow on the ground but it was misting when I arrived. Outside at the taxi shop (which is where the church bus picks up attendees), I saw something that was really strange. There was a mom, a dad, and a 7-11 year old son standing near the stop. What was odd about this family was that the son was standing on the wet, near freezing pavement completely barefoot. Weirder still, it looked like the mother was holding him in place. The boy was alternating between whimpering in Japanese that I didn’t understand (partially because of the tone of voice) and screaming in an angry and gruff voice that sounded more like a cross between a growl and a roar rather than a scream. At one point his screams escalated into real high pitched screams. This went on for a good thirty minutes. Then, the mother and father traded places and she put the boy’s shoes back on. At first he looked like he was fighting her, and then he did finally put the shoes on. At this point, his feet were both entirely bright red. The family then walked into the train station with the boy screaming that angry and nasty sounding growl the whole way, stopping only to take a breath. I had no idea what was going on but it struck me as very strange indeed. I intend to ask my professors what they think of it, provided I remember in my rush to get everything taken care of.

Church was wonderful as always, even if Ruth was making fun of me because I knew the words to “When We All Get To Heaven.” Called me a crazy Babtist (Ruth is a Lutheran and not from the south, so she doesn’t understand) which I had to correct her and say Methodist. As for the song, the worship team wasn’t playing it fast enough but that’s probably because they didn’t want to get their Japanese friends (some of whom don’t speak very much English at all) all tounge-tied. You try singing that song with a thick Japanese accent and you’ll see what I mean.

Anyway, the lesson was on Noah and the promises God gave him after they left the Ark. One of the interesting points that the pastor made was that God put man’s fear into animals, thus making them more afraid of us than we are of them (see Genesis 9:2). This made me think of a pleasant memory and I’m sure God will forgive me for letting my mind wander…

When I was little, we had several parakeets and occasionally we’d let them out to stretch their wings, because, you know, if you were stuck in a small cage with 10-12 of your friends all day, you’d like a chance to get out too. They had been socialized to think of each other as a flock and we humans were not members. We were only bringers of the food. Anyway, after a few hours out, it would be time to put the parakeets back in. We couldn’t let them stay out forever because in case you don’t know, parakeets make quite a mess. But with the kitchen ceiling as tall as it was and the kitchen as big as it was, it was very difficult to catch a bird because birds are bundles of energy and they won’t necessarily just go in their cages when they are hungry. To remedy this situation, we invented what my sister and I liked to call bird-ball. Bird-ball is a great deal like tennis, except for the goal isn’t to hit the ball because that would just be cruel. Bird-ball is played with three people, two brooms, and as many parakeets as you can find. Two people stand at either side of the room, each armed with a broom. Their job is to startle the birds into flying around the room and never let them land on anything too high for the third person (usually me) to reach. The third person’s job, naturally, is to be armed with a hand towel and follow the birds from one end of the room to the other, waiting for one to land within reach. When that happens, they then catch the bird with the hand towel and then put it back in the cage. We eventually had to quit playing bird-ball because the parakeets eventually figured out that the broom wasn’t going to hurt them and would just sit still and bite at the bristles of the broom when you nudged them with it.

Lunch was curry (the church’s curry is really really good) and apples. After that, I went on the first bus home because I wanted to rest some more before going to class on Monday. I spent the rest of the day doing basically nothing, which was good because I felt much more rested on Monday.

Monday, February 4th
For the first day of class, Japanese classes for new students were cancelled. Unfortunately, I had heard that Japanese classes were cancelled for ALL students. Can we say oops? So I took advantage of this false knowledge, trusting it was true, and slept through the morning in the hopes that the rest would help. That would be an oops in my book.

So I went to my afternoon classes and found out about my mistake (oops). I attended Issues of Contemporary Japan and Visual Anthropology and both appear like they are going to be good. The Issues class has no exams (only papers) and the Visual Anthro class requires a second blog to be updated every Wednesday. This blog will be much easier to do than the one I try and keep for you guys because this blog has assigned topics and is purely intellectual (meaning I don’t have to write what’s been going on in my life). It’s like writing a paper but instead of doing all the editing and making it sound all good, you do more a stream of consciousness. I like this. I will give you the link to the second blog when I have it created.

Monday I just had time to check my email and write two replies. I didn’t even make it to facebook, which made me really sad.

Tuesday, February 5th
On Tuesday, I went to my speaking class, apologized for my mistake, and then played taboo in Japanese. I had lunch where I realized that it was Mardi Gras and that Wednesday would be Ash Wednesday. Which means that it was my last day to have carbonated drinks until Easter. So, naturally, I bought more than enough cola to last me the day and drank all of it (because that’s what you’re supposed to do, you know). I then went to Peace, Development, and Democratization, which, of course, is going to be a fantastic class because it’s taught by Dr. Paul Scott and it’s not just about Japan but all of Asia. This class also has an essay and a large group project at the end. Ruth and I are probably going to do Burma.

Wednesday, February 6th
Not much to say about Wednesday. Went to three classes in a row, scarfed down a lunch, and then went to a fourth class. I dislike Wednesday's schedule. Am considering dropping my Japanese Reading and Writing. Though I like the class, it's the only one I potentially can drop and I need to drop at least one of my classes for my sanity. Last night my assignments amounted to creating that second blog, study for a vocab quiz, complete kanji work sheet, take notes on lesson 1 for level 4, prepare for review test in speaking, prepare for review test in reading and writing and do all of that before 11. I managed to get the vocab quiz and kanji worksheet done. I have too much homework.

The good news is that I no longer have to suffer the cold while I do homework. For the rest of the winter, the host family has been graceous enough to give me both the electric mat and a small heater. This heater is not like my heating pad. Whereas the heating pad does nothing in particular, the heater does wonders when you set it on high. After running it on high for 30 minutes, I usually have to turn it to low to keep from burning up. It is a very nice heater indeed, but I have sworn not to use it while I'm out or while I'm sleeping, so it's the last thing I turn off at night and the first thing I turn on when I return from class.

Thursday, February 7th
Today was only slightly better than yesterday because instead of having three classes back to back, I only had two. Still, I feel overwhelmed by my two Japanese classes because I'm doing twice the work in both classes as I was last semester. This is not cool. And so after class I went and had lunch and am now typing away in the McDonalds on campus because they have wireless in this place. I will soon be going home to study though, unfortunately. I am once again reminded how I really don't like the Japanese work ethic. Sure, it's great for companies, but if this is just a small taste of it that I'm getting, then if I worked as hard as some Japanese do, I'd work myself to death. Stress=not fun.