Kyoto and Classes

4/9 - 4/12

Well on Sunday, indeed we went to look at the flowers. Monday I had my first class, yes only one, and it was my Japanese language class. The are only two people in it and boy are we going to get good. The reason that there is only two of us is because we chose to take a less "popular" track that focuses on various other aspects of Japan instead of the actual language itself. I ended up placing into Level 2C and that works out just fine because there are only 3 levels (the next which I will take next semester). The classes are about an hour and a half long and on Mondays and Fridays I only have the Japanese language class in the morning. Yeah I know, I'm lucky but the other three days are pretty killer. Though I don't have to go to school early, it's kind of taking classes at night. Though they don't end late, it just feels really wierd to be in the classroom when it's late and it feels strange walking home when it's dark. This means that I don't get to eat until around 8 or so at night but I'm slowly adjusting to those terrible days. So yes, as for the other classes, I'm taking basically Economic classes with a few exceptions. I am taking 3 Economic/Business classes in addition to Japanese Art, Japanese Society, Korean Culture, and Japanese Modern Novels in Translation. For those of you who are wondering, my classes are all in English (except the Japanese Language one of course). I am not yet at a high enough level to understand the complicated words they use in upper division classes and I cannot understand the professors who speak a mile a minute so I get to have my classes in English. Maybe in a few years, I would be able to take these courses but for now, that's pretty much impossible. So this week has just been class, nothing interesting to comment on because it was only the introduction to these classes. That means that the teachers only went over their syllabus and well... I have no energy to tell you what they told me. I am already up to my neck in homework, but if I am diligent, it shouldn't be that big of a problem. Before I got most of my homework though, I made time out of my day on Monday to visit Kyoto. The reason I rushed over there was because the Sakura are supposed to all fall off very soon. Especially because of all the rain that has been falling in the past couple of days, the lifespan of these precious flowers had been shortened even more. So through rain and cold, hail and snow (well, not the last two), I ventured over to Kyoto with Dawn. It took about an hour to get there from my host family's house and we had to transfer lines a couple of times. Wow, if Dawn hadn't have been there... well.. let's just not think about where I probably would have ended up; maybe half way to Tokyo? The train system isn't really hard, I just for some reason always pick the wrong trains to take. I have YET to take the wrong train, because people have been kind enough to tell me the right ones but SOON I tell you, I will take the wrong one... I know it's coming :( But yea, Kyoto was gorgeous. Despite being miserable because of the rain it was quite an enjoyable experience. I had lunch at this little hole in the wall shop and orded a warm bowl of "gyuudon." (Beef bowl with rice). Anyways, it was nice to get to see the Sakura and I feel that my trip will be like these small and fragile flowers: Beautiful and yet over before one realizes it. Time has been just flying and though it's been only a week and a half, it has seemed like only a day or two. I'm sure that is not the case for those of you who are in America but I would love to hear about what is going on over there as well. This blog is not just a one way form of communication so please, please don't hesitate to post a comment or send me an email.. I will respond, I promise so until the next time we talk, I hope everything goes as well with you as it has been for me. - Bryan

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