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.