This morning, we had our second instructor Yamaguchi-sensei. I still didn’t understand anything, and in fact think it was even worse on me.

At lunchtime when I met my Conversation Partner Taka, I ran into Ikushima-sensei and told her I was still having a tough go of it, and I was granted a reprieve! I’ve demoted myself back to the second-level class where I can review, re-learn and improve at a pace closer to where I am in the grand scheme of things. Whew!

In the afternoon, we had a group activity to go make Japanese Okashi, or sweets. It was really a lot of fun—like playing with edible Play-doh. The little box we each received had 2 sample pieces and the materials to make two more. Listening to the explanations in Japanese—and generally understanding them—was really interesting. I’m obviously not going to win any prizes for my efforts, but I think they turned out pretty well. The ones made by the professionals are really beautiful, and they turn out 1 piece every 2-3 minutes. But they’ve also had at least 5 years of training.

After dinner, I was able to study finally and feel like I was accomplishing something. Maybe some of it will be “easy”, but I’m not here to set any records for academic achievement or anything. I’m already much happier.