Hey, guys! What's up? Hope everything's swell for you all.
Wow! As of tomorrow, it's going to be my first full week of classes. I've officially taken all of my classes at least once [I was originally taking 16, taking a break from my usual 18, but haha! Back to 18 now. Oops.], and they all seem pretty promising.
Last Thursday, I had my initial Japanese core class, which concentrates on things such as grammar, kanji, and vocabulary. This semester from that class only, I'm supposed to learn 15o new kanji. I'm pretty excited, to be honest. I'm so ready to be fluent in Japanese now that it's almost unbearable. I also have decided to take a class that is quite unique to Oberlin, called "Tutorial" in it, I can concentrate on studying and learning whatever it is I choose. I have pretty much decided to concentrate on my weakest point, speaking, but I would also like to study and work on more of my vocabulary and lexicon, as well.
I also found this magazine in my Japanese class, featuring Jang Keun Suk [right], a fellow whom my best friend is positively obsessed with.
This man is everywhere around here. Not a bad thing, he's quite attractive, but.
Gah.
Everywhere.
Friday marked my two hours straight of my core Japanese, followed by a four hour break, and then finally Japanese Literature. The two-hour span is tedious if one is quite sleepy and they are only going through introductions, but it could possibly prove to be interesting. Apparently, there are to be native speakers coming into the classroom to help us speak, and we'll do things like cooking and small field trips and such. That sounds like it will be fun, doesn't it? After we finally managed to get through that class, a few friends of mine and I went over to Fuchinobe to explore and have a bit of of an adventure before our final classes.
Only after we watched a band play some music for a while first, though. It's pretty neat; apparently little student concerts are pretty normal here.
It's a really nice concept, to let students do something like that regularly.
We primarily visited a lot of convenient stores for one of my friends, who had previously found an energy drink with Gundam characters and has henceforth been in constant pursuit of them. But we also went to places like the 100 yen shop, which has proven to save me quite a bit of money over time, as I can find things like spatulas and plates of reasonably good quality for only a little over a dollar. It's really nice.
Granted, the quality of English is...
Rather poor.
But incredibly charming.
Saturday was cold and rainy. I don't mind the rain, but when it's cold, too, I tend to dislike such weather, so I stayed home and got absolutely nothing but my homework and several naps accomplished.
It was beautiful.
Sunday was a different story, though. Saturday evening, a friend messaged me on Facebook and invited me to tag along with her and a couple other people to go see Yokohama. I agreed and asked when and where I should meet them, and thus began to eagerly look forward to the trip. As a bonus, the fare from Machida to Yokohama is only 34o yen, which, for a 3o-45 minute trip, really isn't that bad, comparatively speaking. To get from Fuchinobe to Machida, for instance, is 15o, and that trip is less than 1o minutes.
Once I met my friends at the station, I re-charged my Suica card, which, with the Pasmo card, are the two cards for most rail lines in Japan, and we were off. Once we arrived in Yokohama, we met up with one other girl, a native Japanese girl, and began our adventure.
First stop: Chinatown
What a fun day trip! The only other Chinatown I've ever been to was the one in New York, and I've come to realise that they seem to usually be entire day trips by themselves. It was crowded and bustling and full of shops and food and people.
As well as one of the creepiest Santa Clauses I've ever seen.
The first shop that we walked in to was the first shop they had in Chinatown proper, and it was, of course, jam-packed with panda paraphernalia. The difference between this stereotype and what appears to be American stereotype is that, rather than focus on the elegant nature and pretty art that can involve pandas, Japan has focused on the cute-aspect of pandas. Not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, it was just interesting. Honestly, it wasn't until we were a couple of blocks into Chinatown that I even started noticing what I would assume to stereotypically be inside the stores.
Here's one of the shops. It looked different and interesting. I didn't go in, but I thought I should at least take a photo.
The entrance to this store involved walking inside the panda's mouth. Pandas everywhere, much like Jang Keun Suk.
At this moment, I would honestly consider describing Japan as "Pandas and Jang Keun Suk."
But I'm also very sleepy right now, so that may be clouding my judgement somewhat.
We of course went into the panda store, where there was, you guessed it: more panda... things. But once you walked past that part of the store and actually began to look around, more things appeared. For instance, there were phone decoration stickers and charms and clothes and some foods and other things of that nature. I bought a sticker, but I also bought a charm at a later store, so I'll upload the photo of my phone further down. It looks awesome, though. I'm so pleased.
In and amongst all the shops and hullabaloo, though, there were some genuinely pretty, somewhat cultural-seeming items. We found a really nice looking park-area with a pretty, Chinese-styled open building... thing in it. I've forgotten the word, but it starts with a 'g' and is not 'garbonzo,' 'gorganzola,' or 'Gardevoir.'
There was also this really nice temple.
We had lunch at a restaurant there, and we sat and talked for a while, and afterwards looked around for a little while longer before deciding to go back to the real Yokohama and exploring the train-station area [there is a TON to look at there]. The four of us settled on going to Bay Quarter and looking around there, and it was there that I found my happy place that will allow me to forever live in Tokyo.
There is a little mall [well, I use the term 'little' very loosely] there, and two stories in it, the 5th and 6th floor, are comprised of strictly sewing and art materials. It was as though I'd died and gone to heaven. So nice to know at least one place where I can find these things.
Someone had tucked a Yu-Gi-Oh! card on the sign that led us to Bay Quarter. I had to take a photo of it...
but I ultimately decided to put it back where it was found, so that when the next person to understand came by, s/he could also be amused.
Bay Quarter itself. Pretty nice, huh?
After exploring there, we decided to go our separate ways and head back home. I had to go grocery shopping, though, so a couple of friends decided to go along with me. Grocery shopping is pretty mundane work, though, so all I can really say about that is that I managed to find a few things on discount, and that was lovely. Otherwise, it was completely average. I just needed to come up with some kind of minimum stock so that I could begin to figure out what I need from now on. So, I need to go back, really, and get what I'm missing, but... I'll do that later. Maybe tomorrow or Friday during my massive amount of free time.
Monday was only one class, so that was really nice. I can't really recall what I did, though. I just remember that it seems like it was fun..? I did something. And it was enjoyable.
I remember walking home, and along the way, my friend walking with me and I discovered this little gem:
Beautiful, isn't it?
Yesterday I had a long day. I had my Japanese class, then Literature and Kanji, which was lastly followed by Multilingual Interactions, which I managed to win a place in through the lottery. That class is why I have 18 credits now instead of 16, and I'm really excited about being able to take it.
Yesterday was also another curry night, except somehow, it had gone from just six people to about twenty. It was a ridiculous explosion of people, so we kept it to the lounge room, rather than moving to my room. I'm quite grateful for it.
Today was my second long day; it seems like Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be hard, but I think I'll be fine. First, it was Japanese class, and then afterwards, two classes-long worth of Japanese Society. That one seems really promising [there are only four or five of us in there!], so I'm really excited for it and my other classes. After classes, I came back to the dorm and ate dinner with a friend, who decided she wanted to cook and asked if I wanted to work on my homework with her.
Then I came back here and began to write this.
And now it's after midnight. My goodness. I really need to get some rest here in a bit.
OH! My phone! I forgot!
Well, one of the shops was a Korean-Pop Group shop [A k-pop store in Chinatown in Japan. It's like... Most of the world in one place. Wow.], and so I also bought myself a little phone charm for my favourite group.
I now have the best phone ever.
I haven't really found any new money-saving tips just yet, except for obvious things like to pay attention for thrift shops and sales at grocery stores. Usually, too, vegetable stands are a good place to look for fruits and vegetables, I've noticed. They're pretty commonplace in Fuchinobe along the way home from school, and I noticed that a lot of the prices were better than the stuff at the grocery store. Also, I have to re-emphasize: make friends. They feed you for free from time to time. Of course, one is inclined to return the favour, but regardless. Money saving.
But. I really must go to bed now, so until next week, take care.
-RD
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