Welcome, Yet Distant

Today we registered for classes based on our lottery numbers. I drew 367 out of 400+ something, so I got to go at a later time, thus more sleep. When I got to the CIE building people were whining about their lottery numbers and worrying and just generally being annoying about it. When I got there, only a few classes were full. I got all of mine anyway: Negotiation, Intercultural Communication, Japan China Relations, Spoken Japanese, and Written / Reading Japanese. I don't know what levels of Japanese I'm in yet.

I had lunch in the McDonald's with Joe and two other guys from our dorm, Zack and Sam. It was the only option on campus for food. I tried the spicy chicken sandwich with fries and Qoo. The chicken had a slightly different consistency but everything else was the same. The way things were done was different though, maybe due to the limited space that it shares with Seattle's Best and the tables. You get a tray, go down the line, past where they give you the food, and there's a small menu where you can either point or just ask for what you want. The cashier takes your money and gives you your receipt and a number. Sometimes she would then go outside of the McDonalds, around you, and go behind you and hand the person at the food dispersal area your order, then walk back around. It seemed inconvenient and odd. I had to help Joe and someone else for when their numbers were called since neither knew Japanese.

On the way back to the dorm, Joe and I tried a new road that we thought might be a straight line to our dorm instead of the longer route we've taken, so we explored. We came upon beautiful Japanese houses and gorgeous rice fields which are in the link on my last post. It's a quicker route that put us literally at our dorm too. Back at the dorm I had free time until 3:00. Our Okaa-san told us that they changed Induction to 2:30 and that we needed to dress up and leave now. I figured out halfway there that it was most likely a ploy to get us there on time and it was a good thing she did that.

Induction was okay. The Prez gave a speech, then the US and Austrailian Consulate Generals, an American student, then a Japanese student, then my Japan China Relations Professor who is very intense and in your face. I think he'll be fun, interesting, challenging, and at times frustrating or annoying. I'm looking forward to his class.

The food afterwards was okay, but it was crowded in the cafeteria. I met the sole girl from Brazil when her high-heels got stuck in a rain-grate. She was nice and reprimanded me for staying in a dorm with the other Americans, and I'm kind of wondering if I should have homestayed, even though they asked everyone who was if they wanted to get out since it was getting hard to place people due to there being too many who wanted homestays... But anyway... I think her name was Laisha or something like that; I butchered it horribly but it sounded pretty. I was handed some tako-yaki, or grilled octopus in dough, which I find horrible but all of you would probably like it. I ate one and discreetly tossed the rest, feeling bad. However, the oolong-tea and the giant grapes which tasted like wine were excellent.

I say that she's the only Brazillian since 80% of the people here are American, which is unfortunate. It's so nice hanging out with people from different cultures, and it's so easy for Americans to group together, or have them go to you...

I walked back to the dorm alone without anything to really do. Joe was going to go hang out with his speaking partner and another guy and his and shoot off fireworks or something of the sort. It made me feel kind of down that mine won't email or contact me. If she was traveling I would hope she would say, but maybe she doesn't know English... I really want to make Japanese friends, but how? The really sociable ones who are in the dorm (maybe 2-3 of them) already have tons of friends due to being the tour-guides and whatnot. It'll be hard finding someone to befriend...

So I decided to wander out to Makino Station to see if I could stumble upon any sociable Japanese... It's over a mile on foot I would guess there. At some point I decided to cross the stream to see what was on the other side, and I came upon a beautiful Buddhist temple. A woman was there to pray and left, and I said konbanwa to her.



I went back across the bridge and then in passing the park I saw a lot of school kids playing games there, probably High School. One group was playing some kind of singing game that they did loudly and I could hear everything fine but not understand much; it looked like fun. On the way back, the cheerleaders or dance club were practicing some dance routine and it was really cute.

Once I made it to the main road I asked a traffic cop if there was a movie theater nearby since I was curious, but he told me I should try Hirakata. Oh well. I walked about and found nothing interesting so I did the arcade. Some other Gaijin were going in just as I was, unfortunately. Usually that's the case. I played some shooting game and a guy named Will joined me and we died and parted ways. Then a Japanese girl came up to talk to me! ... Only to say "Harro," giggle and go back to her friends. So it goes.

Not to be discouraged a I went to go play Taiko no Tetsujin which is a game based off of Japanese festival drums. I think it's in America by now. I accidentally put in two coins thinking the "how to play" section was the "insert more money" despite it only saying 100 yen. I don't know why I thought this. So I ended up grabbing player 2's drumstick and played both for three songs and made a good show of it.

I hobbled back towards the Seminar House and had to wait for a train to pass, and I was impressed by the speed it passed with. I've never seen a train move that fast in America, mostly since we don't use trains and the rails are so decrepit that they move too slow. Being hit by one of these would be pretty easy, but a mess to clean up...

I saw other Gaijin on the way back who were all heading to Karaoke to drink and be noisy, which I wouldn't have too much fun at. I'll try it if it's with some cool Japanese people, but not so much if they're just fellow Gaijin just trying to get drunk. Notice the theme of wanting to hang around Japanese people? I like hanging out with Joe a lot, but it would be nice if I could talk with him in Japanese. My Canadian roomie is keen on exploring too, but he doesn't know any Japanese, although I expect him to blow through it once it gets into class.

So I just hobbled back to the dorm with tired feet and that's about it. Tomorrow there's nothing to do besides a meeting at 9:30 so I might go to Hirakata to catch some random Japanese movie. I hope it's cheap, I'll be sure to bring my new Kansai ID. I'm looking forward to the Kyoto tour on Friday so I can learn the way there and more about the train system so I can explore on my own. Having 5 classes will hinder exploration time, but we'll see how it goes. I can always drop one. It's not like these count towards anything other than maybe a resume, and I figure I'll learn things either way.

Well, enough of that. Goodnight!