It Begins!

Today marks the actual first day of KCJS: we’ve finally begun classes! I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to make it into the C-class (the second class from the top!) I guess the test went better than I expected! Fukai-sensei went over the course guidelines with us, and then dove right in to the reading portion of the class. We lost almost no time in getting the class underway. An hour or so later, my class was sent to lunch, shell-shocked and overwhelmed by the insane amounts of Japanese thrown at us in the past hour or so. So much homework to look forward to!

After a brief lunch in the café, we found that we had an overabundance of time to kill before the next class began. I took this opportunity to download a Japanese dictionary on my iPad. You might think that this shouldn’t have taken an hour and a half, but you would be wrong. I had to locate the Wi-Fi spots, then navigate the treacherous proxy settings of the university. I ended up running to the Tech Center, where I had one of the computer lab people set up the Wi-Fi for me. This included changing my network log-in password, since I ended up forgetting what it was, and then getting locked out. But I got my dictionary in the end!

We then had the first class of Hirano-sensei’s Japanese Politics and History course (that’s not actually what it’s called, but I’m too lazy to go look up the real name). I was very, very impressed. Although slightly idealistic, I was drawn in to Hirano-sensei’s view of history and his objectives in teaching the class. I think I will really enjoy his lectures (I better, since I shelled out way too much money for the textbooks for his class.)

Having finished lessons for the day, I hung out with some fellow KCJS students, as well as a Japanese student from Kyoto University. We decided to run to a 100-yen shop to pick up school supplies. It took some doing to find everything we needed, but it worked out in the end. With a new binder and other miscellaneous goods on hand, I boarded the train to head home…only to find, while making the transfer at Takeda, that it was pouring! Not even the gentle kind of rain, more of the cats-and-dogs kind. Really, thunder and lightning and all that jazz. Fun stuff.

 

Luckily, my host dad came by with the car to pick me up, and we drove on over to the Yamaha store, where I dropped 20,000 yen (like $250) on my nice, new keyboard. It will be arriving tomorrow – fun stuff! Guess I should clean my room to make some space for it, huh? I'll be practicing every day from now on - I can't wait to see how my piano skills improve!

Oh, and I got to try some homemade Umeshu with dinner tonight – that’s plum wine, for the uninitiated. Good stuff, good stuff. Maybe not so good before doing homework, but a small glass didn’t really affect me much (plus, drinking buffs my Japanese skills, somehow). 

So that was that. A day in the life, I suppose. Before I sign off though, I encountered something interesting today – the cultural gap between American and Japanese conceptions of a “friend”. Keep in mind I’m generalizing here, but I think that for the most part, this is true. I consider anyone I meet and get along well with to be a friend. Not necessarily a good friend, not from the start, but a friend. That relationship can grow into being a closer friend, or I could find that I don’t really like that person and assign them to the acquaintance category. I’m guessing that a lot of you readers are a lot like me in this regard. But to a Japanese person, calling someone you just met a friend is making a huge leap of commitment. Someone you just met can only be considered an acquaintance (shiriai). In time, that could become friendship, but that takes time before the will to commit to that relationship is made. Again, generalizing here. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but it certainly is different. And it may surprise Japanese people when you say to them “I’m so glad I was able to make a friend on my first day of classes.” Because we’re viewing the same situation from different perspectives, we all assign our own labels to our interpersonal relationships. 

...and that's all for today! I got all deep and thoughtful there in the end, huh? Well, I’ll keep writing as the story unfolds. Maybe I should throw in more cultural tidbits? What do you think?