Today in the morning I learned what classes I got, and I got exactly the ones I requested, which is a relief, but I still don’t know what level of japanese I ended up in... probably something embarrassingly low. I’m really worried about that, I did very poorly on that test... oh well. We’ll see about that tomorrow. Also, Erich, the knife released “Tomorrow, in a Year” in its entirety this morning and I bought it with real money (!) but was a little bit disappointed by the lack of any track as good as “The colouring of pigeons.” There’s some other decent stuff on there, though. Anyway.
The main “event” today was an optional tour of kyoto. I thought all the students were going to go together in one enormous knot, and was dismayed to see how many students turned up, thinking we were going to be one of those sledgehammer tour groups that’s far far too big... but no! They had a pretty smart system set up - groups of three or four foreign students would get together with a group of japanese students who would show them around... So my roommates and I (and a girl who tapped me on the shoulder and asked to join us in a very quiet voice, more on her later) hooked up with two Japanese girls, one of whom had... tusks, I guess you would call them. For the most technologically advanced nation on earth (I’ve heard it called that) they sure use a light light touch when it comes to dentistry. But she was nice! They were both nice.
We walked to the station, did self introductions in Japanese... they are both studying German, and were kind of freaked out when I told them, oh, german? he’s german! and I didn’t hear them use any, I think. Where was I? Oh, we bought a ticket and they explained a few details of the railway map I hadn’t figured out before. They decided to take us to Kiyomizu temple, which is apparently quite famous (I think I saw a picture of it in my history class). The route took us to a shinto shrine after we got off the train, and up a hill through a touristy (but charming) series of little crooked streets with lots of shops with sweets and other kinds of souvenirs... the temple was near the top of the hill. It was kind of... chaotic, in a way, it was clear it wasn’t all built at once with one plan in mind: the gate faces one way and is off to the die, the temple faces another, there’s a large pagoda at another angle... the architecture was really interesting, lots of old dark wood - they didn’t use any nails, I hear. There was a place near the entrance where there were several metal rods going beneath the floor - the poles had weights attached to the bottom, under the floor, and people wold try to lift them (for good lick, or so your dreams would come true or something.) There was a small one (for girls) a medium one (for... other people) and a huge one which I didn’t see anybody manage to pull up at all, when I was watching. They never stop selling you things inside the shine, lots of booths for charms with various purposes - conception, I saw, safety, happiness (which was a little square bell, all the others were in cloth envelopes) health... and lots of others.
After the shrine we walked back into the downtownish area and had okonomiyaki, which is a local dish like a thick pancake that you cook on the table in front of you. I got the leek one, lots of leeks, and also little cubes of something chewy that I asked the two girls about... I think they were... something to do with beef. I saw beef nerves on the menu, but that had different characters. Anyway, remember that girl who joined us? Spoke no japanese, and the only thing I really remember her saying was does it have milk in it, which she said at least five times. They had to ask for a fork for her... it was a little sad. Really strong cheekbones, I kept thinking of her as
the vampire.
We did one round of purikura, which is like a photo booth but more ridiculous. The one we did... automatically gave everyone makeup. Everyone looked like a girl. It was quite noticeable. Anyway, one AM. More updates later.
Today in the morning I learned what classes I got, and I got exactly the ones I requested, which is a relief, but I still don’t know what level of japanese I ended up in... probably something embarrassingly low. I’m really worried about that, I did very poorly on that test... oh well. We’ll see about that tomorrow. Also, Erich, the knife released “Tomorrow, in a Year” in its entirety this morning and I bought it with real money (!) but was a little bit disappointed by the lack of any track as good as “The colouring of pigeons.” There’s some other decent stuff on there, though. Anyway.
The main “event” today was an optional tour of kyoto. I thought all the students were going to go together in one enormous knot, and was dismayed to see how many students turned up, thinking we were going to be one of those sledgehammer tour groups that’s far far too big... but no! They had a pretty smart system set up - groups of three or four foreign students would get together with a group of japanese students who would show them around... So my roommates and I (and a girl who tapped me on the shoulder and asked to join us in a very quiet voice, more on her later) hooked up with two Japanese girls, one of whom had... tusks, I guess you would call them. For the most technologically advanced nation on earth (I’ve heard it called that) they sure use a light light touch when it comes to dentistry. But she was nice! They were both nice.
We walked to the station, did self introductions in Japanese... they are both studying German, and were kind of freaked out when I told them, oh, german? he’s german! and I didn’t hear them use any, I think. Where was I? Oh, we bought a ticket and they explained a few details of the railway map I hadn’t figured out before. They decided to take us to Kiyomizu temple, which is apparently quite famous (I think I saw a picture of it in my history class). The route took us to a shinto shrine after we got off the train, and up a hill through a touristy (but charming) series of little crooked streets with lots of shops with sweets and other kinds of souvenirs... the temple was near the top of the hill. It was kind of... chaotic, in a way, it was clear it wasn’t all built at once with one plan in mind: the gate faces one way and is off to the die, the temple faces another, there’s a large pagoda at another angle... the architecture was really interesting, lots of old dark wood - they didn’t use any nails, I hear. There was a place near the entrance where there were several metal rods going beneath the floor - the poles had weights attached to the bottom, under the floor, and people wold try to lift them (for good lick, or so your dreams would come true or something.) There was a small one (for girls) a medium one (for... other people) and a huge one which I didn’t see anybody manage to pull up at all, when I was watching. They never stop selling you things inside the shine, lots of booths for charms with various purposes - conception, I saw, safety, happiness (which was a little square bell, all the others were in cloth envelopes) health... and lots of others.
After the shrine we walked back into the downtownish area and had okonomiyaki, which is a local dish like a thick pancake that you cook on the table in front of you. I got the leek one, lots of leeks, and also little cubes of something chewy that I asked the two girls about... I think they were... something to do with beef. I saw beef nerves on the menu, but that had different characters. Anyway, remember that girl who joined us? Spoke no japanese, and the only thing I really remember her saying was does it have milk in it, which she said at least five times. They had to ask for a fork for her... it was a little sad. Really strong cheekbones, I kept thinking of her as the vampire.
We did one round of purikura, which is like a photo booth but more ridiculous. The one we did... automatically gave everyone makeup. Everyone looked like a girl. It was quite noticeable. Anyway, one AM. More updates later.
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