Well, there is nothing special to report today, other than I got the best grade so far on last Friday’s test. But, that’s a “forced perspective” good grade—I’m still a big, fat idiot…

It’s hard to believe that this was the first day of our final week—the time has just flown by and while it seems like I’ve been here forever, it also seems like I just arrived. That’s the interesting thing about time—it may move along at a steady pace, but we humans interpret it differently based on our environment. We’ve had so much to do and have been so busy, that time has just zoomed.

We worked on our speeches by practicing with the CPs and teachers to work on the pronunciation and pauses. It really helped too—I can get a better sense of the rhythm of speaking Japanese. All these things, little by little, build on top of one another and in another 5 or 6 years I should be speaking this language like I know what I’m doing…

The other big task for me this week will be to pack and ship home various books, things I’ve bought and stuff I don’t want to carry with me. I’ll report on that as the story develops.

Once again, it’s Sunday and I had to fend for myself for dinner. I spent the first half of the day doing laundry, computer work and trying to figure out how to ship home several packages this next week of stuff I’ve bought and don’t want to lug around myself (not to mention that I haven’t got room anyway). After walking around through the usual spots looking for package shipping supplies (I was not successful), I wanted to have a nice meal. Since I was downtown near the Hankyu Department Store, I thought I’d give the 8th floor “Mosaic Dining” a try.

I found a wonderful restaurant with an excellent view and really good food. I had a set meal which was seven courses, almost all of them cold since it’s summertime. I don’t know if it officially qualifies as Kaiseki Ryori (the famous traditional-style cooking), but it sure was delicious and elegant. You can see my Tempura course (it was number four) above, and check out the photo album in my Photos section. It was really nice sitting there, relaxing and savoring each specially-prepared bite. It was quite peaceful since I ate a bit early, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

It was then back home for the night. Once I post this, I have to study, do my homework and practice up a little on my speech that I’ll be giving on Wednesday. The “semester” is almost over—I can’t believe it…

Alia, Heather, Junko and I took a day trip to Osaka today to see what was there. We’d planned on seeing the one major touristy site, Osaka Castle, then spend the rest of the time just walking around and, of course…shopping! The weather was clear and sunny when we got there, but got grayer and more overcast as the day went on—and the humidity was absolutely appalling!

Anyway, one of my favorite things about travel, as I’ve said before, is arriving in a completely new city and figuring out where to go and how to get around. There was no shortage of that when we stepped off the train at Osaka station! It opened into this huge underground shopping arcade that was absolutely jam-packed with people. But once we’d wandered around for a bit, we figured out how to get on the Osaka loop line and made our way to Osaka-jo Koen station (Osaka Castle Park).

Osaka Castle was really awesome, and the first Castle I’ve been to since coming to Japan. Although it’s a concrete reconstruction built in 1931, it was still beautiful and impressive. The view at the top was great, too. The inside is a museum with lots of interesting artifacts and information on the life and times of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Lord of the castle and important Japanese historical figure. What was really awesome was a display of modern-day Samurai sword blades (Katana)—the workmanship and beauty was absolutely amazing (and, unfortunately, photos were not allowed). Check out the new Photo Album on the photos page for more.

Junko has a friend living in Osaka with whom she was going to spend the night, so we traveled to the Namba station and found a place for lunch. Afterwards, we sort of split up and did shopping an spent time on our own. One of my big goals was a visit to the Kato Model Railroad shop, where I stocked up (a bit…) on Japanese-prototype models which are both expensive and hard to find back home. I tried not to go overboard, but armed with the thought that I was spending much less here in person that I would be if I were ordering from the USA made me end up walking out with quite a bagful.

My own last stop was the famous Umeda Sky Building. It’s a really cool looking twin tower building near the station with a rooftop garden suspended between the two office towers. Unfortunately, by the time I got there I was loaded down with shopping and there wasn’t enough time to go to the top before meeting the others back at the station.

But it was a fun trip; we took the train home at around 7:30. It was also my first indication of what a really crowded Japanese city is like—if Osaka was bad, I’ll bet Tokyo is going to be quite an adventure!

I felt a bit better about today’s last written test—I at least seemed to be able to give better answers. I just hope that I didn’t completely succumb to my usual tendency for making stupid mistakes. Oh well—it’s all over and done with now.

Immediately following the test, Leslie gave her oral presentation since she’s going back home tomorrow. We followed that with writing out our wishes and poems for Tanabata, a summer festival in Japan. Part of the festivities is hanging your wishes on a bamboo branch so that they will come true. There was a big party at the I-house, but unfortunately we spent too much time at dinner and missed most of it. I kind of wish I’d stayed here…

Tomorrow Junko, Heather, Alia and I will be going to Osaka for some sightseeing and shopping. It should make for a full day!

Today’s assignment was a visit to the Sumire Kindergarten to play with the kids. We’ve been working on this since the first week, and it was time to finally show our stuff. The kindergarten itself is run by the University, and we did three separate “performances”: for the 2 & 3 year olds and again for the 4 year olds, we did the “Hokey Pokey”—first in Japanese, then in English. For the 5 year olds, we did “Simon Says” in Japanese and English. It was all a lot of fun—but really exhausting too. It’s also humbling to be in a room full of little kids that could speak way better than I could. (Check out the new photo album of the event on the Photos page.)

I really thought the whole kindergarten experience was very interesting. All the kids were very well behaved, did everything together as a group and were constantly being shown the right way to do things by their teachers. It was amazing that they were already learning English—even the 3 year olds. They were all really quick with the English words we used in the games and songs and I was extremely impressed.

It was also interesting, because each child wears the same uniform, has the same “inside shoes”, and so forth. When we ate lunch with them (I got to eat with a class of 4 year olds), they all pulled out their little lunch boxes and ate everything—dutifully showing their teacher the empty container when they’d finished. They then each went to rinse out their boxes, came back to the table and put their chopsticks and spoons away and wrapped everything up, then laid down for a rest. Then came time for everyone to go out to the sinks to wash hands, faces and brush their teeth. It was all very well choreographed and each child did it all perfectly.

I mean, this was seeing what many of us think about the Japanese people in action: a very regimented, group-based society working together in harmony. Some of us were a bit taken aback because it seemed like every minute the kids were being told what to do, in the same way and at the same time—with a hint of military precision. But then, that’s what you need if you value the group and harmony (the Wa). It was certainly unlike any kindergarten I could think of in the states. In America, there’s absolutely no way you could do this—we value individualism at the expense of everything else.

As for me, I thought it was pretty great. Children being taught how to behave, how to function and how to cooperate. I mean, the last thing we do in America is teach our children how to behave in school—that would bring on lawsuits and “deny someone their rights”. No, it’s far more important to let kids run wild, not pay attention in class, spell words however they feel like spelling, divide into groups that work against each other, whatever. Kind of sad, I think…

Anyway, that’s the end of the philosophical rant. Afterwards, we were free to go our separate ways, so I of course went shopping again. This time I bought more books (DUH—what else…) and visited a hobby shop where I stocked up on some interesting Neon Genesis Evangelion goodies (that’s an anime I like, for those of you unaware…). Now I’ve been using this journal entry as an excuse to not start studying for the last written exam tomorrow. <Sigh>. But then it’ll soon be all over. I guess in the end a month isn’t that long…

[First of all, apologies—I created my page and then forgot to paste the real entry over the lorem ipsum filler text! Baka da yo!]

We had class in the morning, and I felt like I was actually understanding the particular topic of the day for a change. Understanding seems to be going okay, it’s the actually speaking and remembering that’s not so good. I know that someday it’ll all “click” and I’ll begin recognizing the grammar more and more and be able to actually use it when conversing. In the meantime, I’ll do the best I can…

Last week I thought that I was going to meet Yasu at the Sweet Pepper cafe for lunch, but when I went there he didn’t show up. No problem—I spoke with some of the other CPs and we had a good time. Later I found out that he was running around looking for me, so I guess I must’ve screwed up the meeting place. I’ll have to apologize for my stupidity…

In the afternoon, we had a tea ceremony with the Tea Ceremony Club. It was different from the Sencha-type ceremony we did back home, and much more the “traditional” type we think of in America. I apparently got pretty good marks on my tea-whipping technique for a rank amateur! It was very interesting and a lot of fun.

Then it was back to the dorms to attempt to study, but I’m really tired and will probably go to bed early. Tomorrow’s the much-anticipated Kindergarten visit!

Today was a better day. Maybe it’s because today was Independence Day, although here it’s not even a blip on the radar.

Anyway, it was a bit slow going in the morning, and although we skipped 2 chapters (with the apparently difficult to learn honorifics), there was still a new chapter with 60 or 70 new words including 25-30 new verbs—ouch! At least today I’d remembered my wallet and was able to buy lunch.

That’s when it started getting good. For the first time, I was able to converse fairly well for the entire lunch hour with Keiko and Emi. I think they even got a kick out of some of the things I said that I thought were humorous (I wouldn’t go so far as to call them actual jokes). In the afternoon, we did a lot of reading, including kanji, and I was understanding everything. We talked about different places in Japan like Hiroshima and Arashiyama, and I was able to make up questions and everything. It was pretty cool.

I then had to finish my speech for next week. I cut two large paragraphs, because there’s just not going to be enough time (and why should I stress about learning those two extra paragraphs anyway?) and we did some practice for our Kindergarten visit. The evening was spent putting the finishing touches on the speech—and studying, of course.