Week 2

The second week of classes was a bit crazy, if only because I had a lot of work to get through. So hence my entry is late this time around.

Japanese Elements had us "finish"our lessons on Hiragana and begin the second of the three Japanese alphabets in Katakana, which is usually used for foreign words that the Japanese introduce into their language. I somehow managed to do well on the last of the Hiragana tests, only messing up writing a few characters and completely blanking out on another. I also bombed a vocabulary quiz because of my poor character writing. The good news is that I can read Hiragana pretty well. Katakana is a bit harder for me because a lot of characters look similar. But I already took the first quiz for Katakana and I think I did well. I'll find out soon. A lot of homework has been assigned for the class though, which makes it quite difficult. Or at least time consuming.

Japan in a Changing World Order has been interesting and for the most part I enjoy the course. The teacher does seem to look at me to "answer" things which usually involves me just guessing or as I say "taking a stab" at the question. We have been assigned to "debates" in class in which we will...well debate about an issue. I am working with my one of dorm-mates, Brandon, arguing that the Japanese should have a national referendum on whether or not they should have nuclear energy. Interesting topic, but writing an 8 page paper on it is not that enjoyable.

Japanese Culture has been picking up and the teacher is pretty engaging but memorizing the map of Japan has not been fun. I barely got a decent grade on the first one and after that we have to memorize all the districts and prefectures for every other map quiz. Studying for this usually involves cramming on the weekends. They will get easier over time. Even the teacher says so.

Japanese Art has become possibly the most tedious class, primarily because of the structure of the classroom. We do have museum field trips. Those might be fun. Not much to say here otherwise. Nothing really happened in the class.

Other than that, I did take a trip around Tokyo a bit on Saturday. The name of the places I went to escape me at the time, but I am remembering the name Ikebukuro or something. Yeah, I can't spell. On the bright side, I finally actually played some arcade games at the local arcade and spent about 1000 yen on games. That is a bit rich for my blood but it was totally worth it. The United States rarely has arcades anymore, so I need to enjoy it while I can.