well, tokyo is pretty great. i wish i could bring back milk coffee to the states. there's far too much that's happened in the past month and too little space, so i'll just say that we've finished our japan study group orientation, moved in with host families, and have started classes at waseda university.
classes include: japanese level 3, comparative cultural studies (in which we watch godzilla movies), japanese diary: blogging about your life (ironic, i know, considering i'm such a terrible blogger here), and environmental politics and policies (which i am technically not in yet because the registration system here is RIDICULOUS). they lied when they said classes were easy here. that environmental class is gonna kick my ass, no joke, and i get the same amount of homework in it that i did back at earlham. most classes are an hour and a half long and meet twice a week, but japanese class is THREE HOURS LONG. and we have class on saturdays (though luckily that one is only an hour and a half) gah. i will never compain about earlham class length again. happily, i have thursdays completely off, and am thus using my free time to chill, actually update my blog, and write letters.
host family is great! both parents are principals of the preschool next door (from which i can currently hear kids singing), and my older sister miki (21) is a teacher there (as well as my older brother masaki (30) who lives with his wife maya and has two ADORABLE KIDS, yuuma and kouya, who are now my host niece and nephew).
my okaasan (mom) makes me delicious breakfasts (today was onigiri and melon) and drives me to the train station when i have 9 am class or when it's raining. my otousan (dad) is a cool guy, and he's always playing with our two dogs, bob marley and arare and helping me understand whatever is happening on tv.
on a normal day, my commute takes about an hour and a half. that's about 15 minutes of walking from house to station, then an hour of train rides/transfers, then another 15 minutes from station to school building. i prefer to take the slower local train so i dont have to deal with the ridiculous crush of commuters during rush hour. first time i saw it, i literally stopped in my tracks. it's kind of terrifying being pushed a million ways at once and squished beyond all comprehension. GAMBARU.
other than that, i love the trains. i can hop on any time and head anywhere between my house and school for free, which includes takadanobaba (the college hangout spot because it's close) and ikebukuro (great shopping yo), and hang out with friends. i hang out mainly with the normal earlham boos (maddie, broguen, and allie), and we've made some really awesome friends from the whole group, including lucy (my hotel roomie <3), karen, jessie, naomi, hannah, liz, rachael, cassie, etc. there are tons more and they're all really fun, but we haven't had many chances to chill together yet. since we were all so busy during orientation, our hanging out consists of shopping, purikura, and eating loads of tasty food (CREPES). next weekend we're having a girl's night out: drinking and dancing!
it's been really fun catching up with old TSA friends~ i've seen ayako and tomoki the most, and reunion dinner was nice. it's a little weird seeing some, like shiggy and oicchan after all this time -- i'm just not sure how to interact with them anymore, ya know? others i didn't know as well, but i really want to because they're just the sweetest (ACCHAN)~
aaaand boys are boys. there's a reason i decided not to date yo. but it sure is nice being surrounded by hot asians, let me tell you. mhmm.
i'm still feeling my way around this whole tokyo thing, and i think once i feel settled, i'll be able to get out more and explore all the places (without getting ridic lost like my lovely roomie, lucy~ hahaha) i've heard so much about: the parks and temples and flea markets, etc :D
japanese tv is crazy as always. rwj continues. postcards are being written/sent. my hair is even worse in this humidity. karuizawa trip in a few weeks. host nephew's first birthday is this weekend, and i'll be meeting an old student my parents hosted.
and that's all for now~ except for pictures, of course:
lucy, kamakura ocean, and me being all artsy
friends at the beach~
tasty noms :D
purikura with ayako <3
waseda's okuma auditorium
i hope this works...*fingers crossed*
ReplyDeleteI love the pictures, especially artsy lucy! (and the specific call out, i am the best roomie, aren't i? hehe)
UPDATE MORE! I like stalking you.