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Published: October 15th 2007
The dorm!
Where I live! My window/balcony is the top most left. The balcony is smaller because it's just for one person.Greetings and Hello!
So, I haven't really done anything unusual these last few days, but I figured that since my sleepiness is temporarily misplaced I would tell you about just regular everyday life. Fun, eh?
My day starts around 6am when my alarm goes off. This produces various results, depending on the day. Normally I hit the snooze until 6:20 when I drag myself out of bed. Some days it’s with many curse words and barely opened eyes. Some days I get more than five hours of sleep. You know, whatever. The problem is, around 9pm is when I get my second wind, so while I'm really tired before hand, afterwards I literally can't sleep. We'll get there later, I suppose. Anyway, I get up, I brush my teeth (my bedroom has its own sink. Quite convenient) do all the usual stuff, and around 6:40 I head down for breakfast.
Breakfast is supposed to start at 7. But I leave at 6:55. Luckily, they're normally early and their clock is fast. Because of that, I normally have time to gulp down a bowl of rice (or slice of toast, fat toast, depending on the day) and if something
The Bed
Where it used to be, I moved it today next to the window/door. else looks edible (trust me, that is important) then I'll eat it, too. My problem is I'm not the biggest fan of soup, and they serve a lot of it in the morning. Some mornings they serve eggs. I like Japanese style eggs so those are good days. Fish is problematic because it tends to have bones (hone) and those are evil throat killers. Rawr! A battle Insues. I might get injured, but by all means I eat the fish. Or avoid it entirely. Again, some days I don't move well.
Anyway, then it's out the door. We have a twenty minute walk to the station. They lied and said it was twelve. Seriously, I know the Japanese walk fast, but even they can't turn it into twelve minutes. Not without some jogging going on. If we're running late we can make it in fifteen if we catch the right lights. Over all, though, I don't mind the walking. It wakes me up and gets the blood pumping. What I mind is the 45 minute subway (chikatetsu) ride, of which, on a good day, at least half of which I'm standing. Last week I had my first instance of
Bed/TV
The new spots for my room! It gives me more space that I need to buy something to fill. It's more spacious than a single at UPS not getting a seat for the entire ride. My feet hurt. By then it was over an hour of standing. From the subway we rush to the Train (densha) and we MIGHT make the 8:05 train. If we go really fast get towards the front of the crowd, and don't show up a minute late. Today we made it because the train was a minute late. The next one is only at 8:10, but the five minutes extra is kinda gratifying. Sometimes we're really late, or there's a back up of trains, and we have to wait till like 8:15, which I don't like as much. Normally, though, public transportation is punctual. Anyway, the train ride is approx. 10-15 minutes (depending on if we get the local or the rapid) and then we arrive at Shin-Urayasu eki. (eki=station). Which technically isn't in Tokyo at all. It's in Chiba.
I feel so proud of myself. When I first showed up people would say things like "Ginza" "chiba" "asakusa" "ikebukuro" and I'd be like, "It's all Tokyo, right?" Now I know what's going on. Yay!
Ten minutes of walking to the school, and we get there around 8:30. Yay! That
My Desk
Ah, behold the glory of its clutter! gives me time to chat with my friend Halley, then go upstairs. I'm normally the first in the class room. (This is common for me, even in America). I go over the vocab from the day before, check my homework, and generally sit and wait. Maybe I study my extra vocab or flip through the book or make my desk look pretty. You know, whatever.
Then there is the three hours of Japanese class. Urg. Don't get me wrong. I love class. I love Japanese. I love learning. And you know, I learn enough, it's really good practice, but seriously, there is a reason I wanted to be in the next lesson. For one thing, I've been studying the book. The grammar in there, I don't know it all. It's nice LEARNING NEW GRAMMER!!!! I learn lots of words, practice lots of old grammar, I'm getting a very solid foundation, but they could move two or three times as fast and I'd still find it really easy. Maybe if the class was conversation oriented I'd have to work harder, I have a hard time talking in Japanese, even harder time listening to it. But this constant drill based review...
The "Kitchen"
The kitchen is really just a sink with a heating pad I don't know how to work. And cubboards. And a mini fridge. But it's very narrow there so you can't see it well there are times I just tune out. More often I start studying on my own. Seriously, I'm thinking that if I'm not actually going to be learning anything I'm going to pull out my level two flashcards. Problem with that is that if the teacher calls on me, I'm like "Huh?" And then I have to have someone explain to me what's going on. Because of this the teachers often think I'm a little slow. I don't mind so much. I do well on the homework, and I'm doing twice as much homework as everyone else, and I don't mind. I like the extra work. Yes, this is strange. I blame it on the fact that I don't have a job here. It's like someone gave me 20 hours a week that I needed to fill, and studying is the easiest way to do it.
Anywho, after class is lunch. Sometimes I go by myself, sometimes with friends. I'm getting along better with people now that I'm not worrying about hanging out with them. I just keep myself busy and see who I naturally end up with. There are three places that you can probably go. The closest is
The closest
Not really important, but spacious, yes? the conbini (convenience store) which is right across the street. The second closest is prolly seven minutes away, it's the department store on the other side of the school. The food court there kinda sucks, thouh, but it has a McDonalds, which is important for my bad days when I need American food to sulk over. The third is back to the train station. The food court there is generous, plus there are some fast food restaurants, a reasonable pizza place, and an ice cream shop. You can also get some bento (lunch box) for 250 yen. Which is less than $2.50 for a decent sized meal. The quality's not great, but for the price no one's gonna complain.
After lunch a few things can happen. Tuesday/Thursday it's back to school for classes. Politics and History. I'm enjoying both. Not only are they easy (95% on both papers! Woot!) but I think they're fun (most people would say boring) and 'm learning a lot. I really didn't know much about Japan before, and now I'm beginning to understand it quite a bit better. I's FUN. Tomorrow we're going to the Diet Building (which is like the capital), and I'm
Mitsuhashi Sensei
Lady to the left is the infamous Mitsuhashi sensei not sure how that is going to go. I know a lot of kids are grumbling (I mean, going to the capital isn't really fun) but I like going new places. Even if they're kinda dull sometimes. I like to be able to say I've been there, and have the pictures to prove it.
Monday/Friday I don't have class in the afternoon. I was going to take economics, but I'm going though this withdraw phase which is mildly complicated (not really) so I've stopped going. Instead I use Monday and Friday to study extra Japanese. These last two Fridays I've stayed in the IES office to do the extra homework I was given, and start reading the dialogues from the text. Monday (Today) I made up some flash cards for the first two lessons (I don't expect to learn all the words, because they're freaking hard, but I want to get an idea). I'm not studying the kanji at all, but I bought a new notebook to start writing grammar pattern in so that I can practice them. Also, I bought a notebook to start keeping a journal in so that I can practice using the new grammar and
Kinoshita Sensei!
My favorite of the teachers! He rocks vocab in context. I think that's going to be a Wednesday and Weekend thing.
Wednesdays I don't have school. I use this time to do fun things like sleep. Lots and lots of sleep. After sleep I get lunch, and then I play on the computer, listen to music, maybe clean, and lots of studying! Okay, maybe not lots, but I do all the reading for history, and that's quite a bit. Plus I do my Japanese homework, but that tends to be REALLY simple. It takes half an hour at most, and that's only if I have to look up kanji. Anyway it's kinda a lazy, leisurely day. Like a weekend. A very nice, relaxing weekend.
My weekends don't tend to be relaxing. Well, maybe a little. Friday I do my homework. Why? Well, because I have nothing better to do. I don't really have anyone to go out with. I want to go out with Caitlyn and her friends, but I haven't been able to yet. Maria doesn't go out. She's more conservative then she claims to be. So I just kinda get things together. Saturday is my adventure day. I choose a place and go.
Kids in class
Just some friends writing stuff up on the board. It's the time when the teachers tell us how bad our grammer/katakana is ^_^ This week it was Shibuya. This is supposedly a younger people shopping district. Fun fun. Kinda. I didn't know where to go, and the clothing store I explored was an eight floor building of size M clothing. Which, in America would be like S or SS. AKA: doesn't fit me. The clothes were freaking awesome, though. It's what American fashion wishes it was. I swear, hot topic needs to take a trip to Japan and see what true cool is. I want to go to harajuku because that's where you buy the punk stuff. If I go on a Sunday (which I want to) you can hang out on this bridge and see all the punk kids dressed up outrageously. I hope to take pictures with some. A bit off topic, but yes. Anywho, Sundays are study days, cleaning days, laundry days. The dryers in Japan suck. Something about using less energy cause it's expensive/conserving is good. So everyone hangs things. I have yet to invest in nifty hanging things (not hangers, better than hangers, I have eight hangers) so my clothes end up draped everywhere. It takes about a day for them to dry. Moral being: Don't wash all
Dorm moher!
Its such a funky picture. That's because I tricked her! Mwahahahaha. your jeans at the same time.
Um, most evenings are about the same. Dinner is at 6:30, by then I'm usually starving so I go down five minutes early. Most of the time Maria and or Caitlyn show up around the same time and we hang out for 5-15 minutes and just chill and eat. A lot of the dorm girls are there, but now-a-days I'm so tired by then I don't want to talk Japanese. I've either just gotten home from class or spent hours studying (I feel so Japanese when I say that) so the idea of forcing my brain to indicate awkward conversation is just tiresome. I'm very friendly with the other girls, though. Mostly I'm shy. Apparently, though, we're cool. Maria overheard them saying that. Being American has its perks.
Around the dorm we have two people who look after us. The dorm manager "Ryochou" and the dorm mother (don't remember how you say that one). They're very nice, and we're kind of a novelty for them. They're so sweet. They always help us with what we're eating, and the dorm mom talks to us about what we've been up to. If I go
Classmates at Lunch
This is the cafeteria near the station. Hello friends! somewhere new she wants me to tell her what I do, and she'll help me with my Japanese some. Her English isn't very good, but it's good enough that when I don't know how to say a time expression (which I have a lot of trouble with) she normally understands what I say.
After dinner, I finish my homework, spend quite a bit of time goofing around online, then go take a shower. We have an ofuro (literally "bath room") which is a big room with a bunch of showers and a bath. It's like a locker room shower, kinda. Prolly cleaner. but it's communal, so I get to wash in front of all of the very skinny pretty Japanese girls. Lucky for me I've had four year of water sports and it's not too awkward being naked around other girls. I'm getting pretty okay with it. It inspired interesting conversation with the Japanese girls, though. For instance, I have two tattoos that you can't see unless I lift my shirt up some. They all know about them now, and when the first girl saw them she was like "Wow!" Apparently they're not as common here. Not surprising.
Before I go to bed there are a couple of things I normally do. Most importantly, I check to make sure my alarm is, in fact, on. Then I load up my bag for the next day, because if I wait until morning I WILL forget something. I also at least plan out what I want to wear the next day. It makes it easier in the morning. I also normally leave everything a big mess, papers scattered everywhere. Because I am lazy. On a good night I'll do some exercises (ie crunches, pushups, squats). Just to feel productive. ^_^ Then I go to sleep.
Did I say sleep? Well, then I lie in bed with the lights off. Sleep is negotiable. A lot of the time I don't fall asleep till after midnight. Tonight I'll prolly just pass out, but it'll be around 11. In America I'm used to going to sleep around one, so this is a little strange for me. Over all I like it, though. I feel I've settled into a routine. I at least have the answers to my questions, so I don't need to stress over what's going to happen, I just need to do my best at what I'm allotted and see how it turns out in the end.
Oh, and after a month and a half without music (I didn't transfer it from my old laptop) I broke down and spent $50 on iTunes. It was worth it. Now I want to buy an I-pod. But it's so expensive! Ah! But think, having music on he train! How nice would that be! The question is do I want a big one (yes) or the smaller cheaper one (boo!). I think another trip to Akihabara is in order. (That's the electronic/anime/adult material district). Maybe an upcoming Saturday?
Ohh! Last thing! I'm going to visit my host family! For sureness! The weekend after this one! They bought/sent me the tickets! They're the nicest people. I'm so excited. I've been telling EVERYONE. Because I'm a dork. But yes, it shall be a very fun trip. And then right after I get back, as a group, IES is going to Nagano! No, I don't know where that is, but it will most definitely be great. Ah, this month is going to rock. If I can make it past my history midterm and write that Politics paper. Minor details.
Have a good night, everyone, it's bed time for me! Good wishes to America! Japan is a happy place indeed.
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David Corey
non-member comment
Ack!
I really need to not have macs in front of me in calculus class... >>;; I got to the point where you said not to wash all your jeans at once xDDDDD Hope you didn't learn that the hard way! XDDDD I can see it now... Lynda with no pants! 83 Have fun going shopping in all the cool places... and don't forget take pictures of the crazy ppl and of your view from the balcony... I must see the view! It might become my background... xDDD