Monday morning came, and I had a sore throat just to get things started. Next, I realized just as I was about to walk up the big hill to the university that I had left my wallet in my room. Next, I received my “test results of doom” back in class—and I suck, just as I predicted. My score was the same as my birth year—an auspicious omen, I think. Not a very good way to start the week…

So at lunchtime, I only had a drink from 100 yen I borrowed from Yasu (my CP). He was supposed to come on the Lake Biwa trip too, but couldn’t for personal reasons. I told him he should have come anyway—it would have been a great way to forget his troubles, as I’d managed to forget about my “test results of doom” during the whole time.

Afternoon class we watched Yan-san videos, studied Kanji (YAY! Something I don’t suck at…) and then began the arduous process of writing our speeches for next week. That was less than fruitful for me, since I hadn’t even built my outline or written it in English first. I ended up doing that tonight after I got home, ate some instant Ramen, ate a LOT at dinner and did my 6 pages of homework.

Oh yeah: akirametai means “I want to give up”. But, I’ll keep hanging in there, because it can’t get any worse for me academically!

So, as you can probably tell, I actually wrote the last 3 entries after returning on Sunday, being incommunicado and all. Be sure to look at the new Photo Album on the albums page for lots and lots of pictures.

In the morning we had a lovely breakfast and then it poured down rain. It was a miracle it didn’t happen last night while we were doing our cookout—in the photo above, the patio area that looks like a small pond is where we were all standing! After a few minutes of that, and another hour or so, the sun made an all-too-brief appearance (just enough to snap the photo, pretty much). We spent the rest of the morning playing card games and Uno, before having our final delicious lunch at the center.

It was then back to Kyoto. I made a brief, but not particularly productive, stop in town to do some shopping (didn’t buy anything, ergo not productive…) and am back in the dorms catching up and doing laundry. I’ll begin nailing down my post-Kyoto itinerary a bit better, and begin thinking about some end-of-trip logistics like shipping books and other stuff home that I don’t want to carry.

Oh yeah—and there are still two more weeks of classes, where I will no doubt learn tons and tons of new and useful stuff that my brain won’t be able to assimilate fast enough. There’s a Tea Ceremony and the kindergarten visit this week, then everything goes into preparing my oral presentation (YIKES!) for the finals. Leslie (who is going home early) has to cram all that into this week since she’s going home next Saturday. I don’t envy her one bit.

Saturday morning I didn’t have to get up too early, thankfully, but did need to get a few things done and pack for our 11:00 AM departure to Lake Biwa. It was sort of like our “Spring Break” or mid-semester vacation, and was spent overnight at a beautiful conference and lodge facility owned and operated by the University. We stayed in charming wood cabins and had a great barbecue (first time I’ve ever used chopsticks to grill on a barbecue in my life…). Everybody basically hung out, played various games and watched Pirates of the Caribbean in the evening. It was a really nice, relaxing time.

Of course, it rained but at least not during the outdoor cooking portion of the evening. We also had an interesting treat: we toasted marshmallows (also using chopsticks, which actually makes a lot of sense). In the non-socializing time, I had a chance to just kick back, listen to some music and plan out what I want to do post-program. I think I’ll start off with Hiroshima, Himeji Castle and maybe Sekigahara the weekend after we finish, come back to Kyoto for the Gion festival on Monday the 17th, then finally depart for Tokyo and my pre-booked apartment on the 18th. This of course means my week-long rail pass will run out before I leave Tokyo on the 24th, but I think I can pay the one-way to Narita on my own.

It’s hard to believe it’s already half finished! And I haven’t even mailed any postcards yet…

Busy day in the morning as usual, and then the dreaded written test in the afternoon. AND, I had reason to dread…

I don’t think I did very well. If I did, it was probably an accident. Things are coming so fast at me now, that when I took a look at the test sheet, everything just drained right out of my brain and into one big, black bucket. It took me forever to try and fish out the answers and write them down intelligently. It was really kind of scary for me.

So to put that all behind us and get out for a bit of fun, we all decided to go downtown to a “Beer Garden”. It was on the roof of the Takashimaya Department Store, and is sort of a one-price-eat-and-drink-all-you-can sort of thing. It ended up being breezy and cool and quite pleasant. Since I don’t drink, that wasn’t a draw, but there was plenty of food to chow down on and glass after glass of interesting sodas. I won’t mention here anything about the state of my classmates at the end of the evening, but I can vouch that a good time was had by all.

After the place closed around 10:00 PM, everyone else wanted to go to another English-style pub for a while; after leading them all there, I made my own way back to the dorms by an interesting multi-train route I’d never taken before. Just being able to figure it out and get from “A” to “B” made me feel quite proud of myself.

Today’s big task for class came in the afternoon where we had to go out and do interviews of five random KSU students as research for our oral final presentations. It was scary!

But before that, it was work, work, work. Usually Thursdays are slightly easier, since we have tests on Friday, so it wasn’t quite as tough as usual, though I can’t help feel that I’m not picking things up as fast as I should be nor am I retaining and remembering as much as I need to. But then, you’re probably getting tired of hearing that—I’m certainly getting tired of saying it (and feeling it)…

The photo above is of my twice-weekly lunchtime CP Keiko (on the right) and her friend Emi who also usually comes with her. I still feel like an idiot trying to make conversation, but it’s getting better. We talked about a variety of things including Disneyland (Emi had “Minnie-chan” and “Donarudo Dukku” charms on her cell phone), hobbies and the speech contest. They’re both great and very patient with me and my awkward babbling.

In the afternoon we did another rehearsal for our Kindergarten visit next week, and got some good feedback. I’ve rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed, but not enough apparently—I still fudged a couple of things. It’s gonna be fine, though, and Paul-san gave us some tactics to use in talking with the little kids and good advice (keep it simple—words to live by).

And then came the interviews. My presentation topic is on the study of Foreign Languages, so my interview had questions like are you studying a foreign language, which one, why, how many times a week do you speak it, etc. One of our classroom CPs, Asako-san, went with me to lend moral support and help out if necessary. It was kind of funny: the first 4 people I interviewed all happened to be studying Indonesian—I’d inadvertently run into the Indonesian Language club! Since we only did 5 interviews, it sort of skewed my research, but it’s OK. I managed to get through them pretty well, and understood most everything in the replies the students gave me. We then talked a little about other things like me being from California, studying English, etc. So in the end it wasn’t too bad, though certainly raised my stress and anxiety levels.

We had free time after that, so Eric, Kevin, Heather and I went into town to the big Junkudo bookstore to do some shopping. They were interested in dictionaries and the White Rabbit Kanji cards, and I bought a 5-volume set of Japanese History books for kids—all in manga format. I had also wanted to look for 501 Japanese Verbs, but it completely slipped my mind and I’ll have to go back. We returned for dinner and to study for the test tomorrow. I hope I do better than I did on my first test!

Morning class was just as jam-packed as usual with more and more stuff to learn. More grammar, more vocabulary, more kanji—more, More, MORE! It seems that I barely get my new set of flash cards ready when I’ve suddenly got to add 20-30 more…

The afternoon, though, was kind of special. We got to watch the 4th Annual Sagittarius English Speech contest—and even participate as “celebrity judges”. I was very impressed with the quality of the speeches and the topics presented. It was nice knowing that really, no matter who we are and where we live, we’re all concerned about the same things: the environment, overwork, doing your best, not losing touch with real people in our digital, mechanical times. The abilities of the contestants ranged widely, but everyone did a good job. My CP Yasu (in the red shirt), took home one of the Third Place prizes, and certainly deserved it. Without a doubt, his was the best organized speech. The young lady who won the contest (Minori Watanabe, back row on the far right) had studied in Canada for a year and spoke very well and gave a very memorable speech. She was also the recipient of our special prize, a pair of movie tickets to see Mission Impossible MI:3, which is playing here now.

Now, I only wish my Japanese were half as good as everyone else’s English! After the contest, there was a very nice reception with plenty of food. It was a lot of fun, and I was (of course) elected to be our spokesperson and present the award. Good news there was that since it was an English speech contest, I spoke in English (whew!).

By the time I got back to the dorms, I was so tired I could think of nothing but sleep. I tried to study a bit, but I’m going to bed early (it’s 8:30)…

Class was the same today—learning Japanese by the “fire hose method”. My head literally did explode after the first half of the day, and I ended up bailing on Keiko-san (my lunchtime CP) to return to the dorms, take some Tylenol and rest up a bit. I’m fine, though, and returned for the afternoon class where we studied kanji (yay!) and prepared our student interviews that will become research for our final oral presentation. I’m doing mine on studying foreign languages, and I have to interview 5+ Japanese students, ask them if they’re studying a foreign language, which one, how often they speak it, etc. I think it should turn out to be interesting.

After class at 4:30, we went and had an hour of Japanese calligraphy with the Shodou club. I’ve always wanted to give it a try, and it was really interesting and meditative. There’s also a lot more to it than meets the eye, and I’d obviously have to study for years and years if I ever wanted to be very good. The character for “Time” above, turned out OK, but my other effort was less impressive—Kabuki. I’d told Kishi-sensei I wanted to try something difficult, and so she made me give it a go. I’m too embarrassed to upload the photo though!

Dinner was fine, and now I’m catching up on my web postings and will then hit the books and try to remember at least a portion of what I supposedly learned today. I’ll have a visitor at 10:30 tonight—a young lady ran into me at lunchtime and wanted me to check her English speech for tomorrow’s contest and see if it’s OK.