Studying and Laying Low

Nothing has really been going on lately, to be honest.

In Negotiation we had our Hospital vs Citizenry negotiation... Right from the start it was a disaster as the leader of the citizens was so hostile and unreasonable... But eventually things cooled down and the citizens got absolutely everything they wanted. This would not happen in real life, as in our mock negotiation neither side had real numbers to go by, such as budgets, income, population numbers, etc... So the hospital would naturally give in since they had no real reason not to. No money or other real worries to get in the way of the decision, unlike in the Commons exercise we are doing where grades are "on the line" (I think he's making it up to get us to care). Either way, it was interesting.

Also on Friday I got back and ran into Jesse and Joe, who were headed to Hirakata to see a travel agent about a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo for the Tokyo Video Game Show. I was originally going to do that but my Dad scheduled his trip here during it, and it would be rude to go to that. I tried to help them with the tickets at the agency but I was only half-listening... It seemed that they might have said that it was too close to the date to book the tickets, so they had no luck. Anyway, we also picked up James and Tiffany, two other people from our dorm who came here as a couple, apparently... Both studying Japanese at their home university. They're both really nice, but sometimes it's annoying to see people being lovey-dovey when your own other-half is on the other side of the world.

Anyway, after the agent's we went to look for a place to eat... We picked a small restaraunt and split into two groups, Jesse and I, and the Joe, Tiffany, and James... Joe decided to be the third wheel, heheh. The waitress used quite a bit of keigo, a more polite way of speaking Japanese that changes most of the verbs and has certain set phrases; I was a little confused at times. I tried to say that I only rememberd the bit of the name of the thing that looked tasty in the window, but that went nowhere quick. I just picked some udon (a thick noodle) set that came with a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) rice bowl, and a bottle of beer (for 500 yen... why?). This was the first time I had ordered real udon noodles, and they were delicious. So was the pork with egg ricebowl, and whatever the two smaller dishes of vegetables that I added to the udon. The beer was good as well and complemented the noodles very well, but the beer alone doubled the price of the meal.

Having eaten we went to Mr. Donuts (misutaa dou) and I helped Joe get a donut card so he can rack up points for various donut-related merchandise. I'm on the fence for this as it's about 120-130 yen per donut, but I do want a mug or a donut-animal (perhaps the donut-headed lion). We then went to the arcade, then the bookstore, where I bought another Detective Conan for 105 yen (manga is cheaper than toilet paper!). I was suddenly really tired, so I decided to head back since they were planning on karaoke or something else at some entertainment center. I think alcohol makes me sleepy; well, of course it's a depressant, but I just want a good nap after drinking a good bit of it. I slept wonderfully though.

And today I mostly just studied kanji. About 130 or so for Monday's test, then three or so grammar points. I have to review the grammar for speaking too, though. I never use it in what little Japanese conversation I have so I forget it or mix it up frequently.

Not having much Japanese conversation is troubling me, but Yukina and I are going to be meeting twice a week for an hour or so to help eachother in our languages, so that might help. I was thinking on joining a club before I got here, but it's hard to get into them as I've heard, plus your Japanese needs to be good unless it's the band or something... That and their meetings are sometimes during my later classes. Oh well. The only one I would have joined was the ballroom dancing one for swing dancing, but I'm really not that enthusiastic of a dancer anyway.

I don't really want to go to clubs (as in "clubbing") as I don't do that kind of thing anyway, plus it's too expensive. My roomie, Matt has been going to small music houses / cafes in Kyoto but the entrance fees and any kind of food or drink is pricey too... Too loud to talk anyway.

I can't really just grab a Japanese person on campus either to just talk too, haha. Ah well. Doing the INFES (whatever that stands for) culture expo would have been fun too, where each country has a booth and shares things about their culture... Only there are 250+ Americans here.

I realized early though that I shouldn't feel bad for not being able to connect with other Japanese in society here, since, well, it isn't easy for Japanese either. So many are lonely and don't even know who lives in the apartment down the hall. Social networking isn't as good as it was in the past either, and the local news emphasizes it with the recent arsons in a movie dive and a karaoke place. I've been thinking about looking for coffee shops, but the coffee is overpriced and people probably just go there to be left alone and read anyway... seating real-estate is valuable too. We'll judge it better after trying it anyway.

Anyway, I have to get back to my kanji. Tomorrow my Dad gets here and I have to get some work out of the way and really familiarize myself with the new grammar since I'll be trying to do things with him this week. Tuesday I have the whole day off after 10:00, so I plan on showing him around Kyoto, I think. I'm not sure what, yet though. Maybe Ginkakuji and Nazenji, and the Heian Jingu shrine that I somehow missed on both of my trips. Maybe Fushimi Inari too.