A New Day Dawns

Konichiwa minna-san!
So a few days have passed since my last post and I figured I'd update you all on the happenings around here. So far things have been mucho busy with choosing classes and such, the Japanese system can be very strenuous at times. The banking session may have been the scariest thing I've ever gone through, everything must be translated from your passport to your banking account, including uppercase and lowercase letters, with absolutely no differences. Like this was scarier than taking a final, kids would say, "oh no I messed up" only to have their application torn up in front of them, forcing them to start over. As for classes, I had an awful number, but still managed to get the two lecture classes I wanted. I'll be taking a class on Japanese Cinema from 1949 - 1987 (which features my favorite Japanese movie ikiru) and a class on how sexuality creates pleasure and identities. They both seem very interesting and I'm looking forward to starting them.



The food has been pretty amazing so far. I'm a big fan of Donburi, which is a meat of sorts with extra vegetables served over rice. It is delicious and very filling. I also had Beef Udon at this mom and pop restaurant right near our dormitory. Not only was the food great, but the hostess/chef asked me where I got my hair the way it is, and I told her I got it like this in America, and then called it pretty. Naturally, that made my day. I must mention that on this picture to the left, there is a meal of yakisoba I ate, with a very interesting drink. You see, I went on a tour of our town Hirakata, and our Japanese student tour guides took us to a grocery store. Feeling adventurous, I asked our tour guide what was the weirdest drink in the entire place, to which he replied the drink you see in the photo. Turns out this drink is a Fanta brand of Grape Jelly soda, that is there is soda partially in there, but there is also jelly. I know it sounds awful, but trust me when I say it was AWESOME. I've already bought two more since then, and I want to bring them back to America with me haha. Anyway, figured that would be a good, crazy story you'd all enjoy.

Hmmmm let's see what else is going on? The people here are great, but you can definitely tell who has been here already fora semester and who's new. All my friends here (minus my friend from Tufts) are new kids, and while the kids who have already been here aren't cold or anything, they don't actively introduce themselves. This leaves the new kids in a panic to make friends before classes by introducing themselves to every single person on the street (or at least I'm guilty of that) so that they have a core to hang out with. I have made a nice core of friends though, my closest friends being from Alabama, Indiana, and New Jersey, which I just find awesome. It's a little weird because our home stay friends leave on Sunday, but I think things won't be too bad once we all get phones. I also saw Ayuna again today! We could only meet for a little while because I forgot I had another mandatory meeting for school. I think my Japanese is improving when we chat, but I have to stick to either informal or formal speech, since for some reason I switch a lot with her. Enclosed is a better picture of the two of us that we took today. Finally, I think I'm going to have dinner with her and her mother sometime soon, so that should be exciting and helpful haha.

OK so that's it for this time. I'm going to Kyoto tomorrow (along with some Karaoke debauchery later) so hopefully I'll have another cool post for this weekend. Like last time, please leave a comment or drop a line, I love hearing from people back home!

P.S. 先生、コーメントを書いてくれてありがとうございました！来週日本語を書きたいです。タフツ大学はいいといいですね！