Today was a lovely short day from the standpoint of classroom time. Of course, we had a rather difficult set of grammar points to tackle—and 4 pages of homework.

The afternoon was spent enjoying a tea ceremony. New for me compared with two years ago was that they gave each of us a Yukata, or summer kimono to wear and keep. This was exciting because I was planning on buying one this time anyway. Now I just need to buy Geta (wooden clogs/sandals to wear with it).

I always enjoy the tea ceremony. It was a bit hectic with more than a dozen of us, but enjoyable just the same. It’s very meditative and the formality of the movements and steps are actually quite relaxing. Of course, sitting on your knees in Seiza position for an hour and a half is pretty tough when you’re old with bad knees like me. I really want to learn how to perform the tea ceremony properly someday so I can use the implements I’ve collected over the years. I’ll have to find a Sensei when I get back home—I heard there’s one in the San Fernando Valley.

We managed to get done a bit earlier than usual which was fine with me as it made it easier to get down to Shijo and do some shopping. I bought a couple of grade school books at Junkudo (they’re just my speed, actually) and then the Tomytec Shrine model I saw at the hobby shop. It’s N-scale so will look great with my trains and even with my 10 mm Samurai army (if I ever paint it).

So at least there were some interesting things that happened today. Dinner was the usual and I’m writing this during a homework break. Tomorrow should have a bit of excitement since we have to go out and do our interviews for research on our presentations. Always a fun time…

Just another school day.

We’ve spent 2 days now going over a rather difficult subject, the various verbs for giving and receiving (morau, kureru and ageru もらう、くれる、あげる). It’s something that I could probably study for months and still not get exactly right. I do understand it a bit better now than I ever have, which is a good sign that repeating the middle level class wasn’t a bad idea.

Lunchtime was spent chatting with my CPs (Conversation Partners) about a wide variety of subjects. I feel kind of embarrassed in one way, because I speak at such a rudimentary and probably uninteresting level; on the other hand, I’ve been able to converse on a wide variety of topics (today we talked about Italian cooking, sites to see in Kyoto and Ryohei’s presentation on New Zealand from yesterday). I may not be the most interesting person to listen to in Japanese, but I’m giving it a try.

Today’s weather was beautifully clear and sunny—which also meant hot. But, mercifully, it wasn’t humid so it turned out pretty well. I’ve come home, eaten dinner, finished my homework and thought I’d catch up on journal entries.

Sorry it was relatively boring…

Some days there just isn’t anything to write about—which is kind of frightening because it means that my life here is as ordinary as my life at home is…

But really, there’s not much to say: I went to class, spent the evening finishing up the last of my makeup homework from the first week and did some studying. While I find that I understand things better in general, it still isn’t any easier to study or remember things.

I will say one thing, though: the weather was really nice today. It was not humid at all and was actually cool all day. In fact, walking over to breakfast this morning it could almost have passed as chilly. Very odd…

So not a lot happened today.

I didn’t really have any specific plans for today other than visiting the new Bic Camera store at Kyoto station. It was pretty awesome, and reminded me of Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara, but only about 1/2-2/3 the size. After checking things out and since I was already at the station I decided on an impulse to go to Osaka to the Yodobashi Camera store there.

Now that’s the stuff! They had a big hobby section where I ended up buying a couple of model train items, looked at a lot of computer, electronic and other gadgetry and had a very nice Tonkatsu lunch/dinner in one of the 8th floor restaurants. That was about it for Osaka for this time, but I may come back. I priced the DVDs (which are outrageously expensive here) so I could compare them with Amazon (where they are a bit cheaper). I definitely want to get the new Evangelion movie and maybe some more of the Ookiku Furikabutte DVDs (though maybe not since FUNimation is going to be releasing it).

I came home, bought a couple onigiri rice balls for dinner at the convenience store and have been doing laundry, computer work and trying to catch up on my homework. If I were more motivated, I would have probably done a podcast (I’ve been too lazy for that!). Oh well, maybe I’ll get one done this week in the evening.

Even though I’ve only been here slightly more than a week, it feels like a lot longer. This is pretty good—it seems like I’ve always lived here. Of course, if I actually had been living here I’d speak Japanese better than I do, but it’s coming back…

Today we took a day trip to Nara. It actually wasn’t on the itinerary for this year (it was marked “optional”), but since everyone wanted to go after all Paul-san pulled it all together.

It’s such a fascinating city. As Japan’s first capital and stronghold of the Fujiwara family, it’s filled with temples, shrines, history, and of course the great buddha. Unfortunately, the weather was kind of lousy and it rained most of the day. We once again ate a wonderful meal at the same restaurant as two years ago, though we didn’t get to eat upstairs in the tatami room.

After lunch was when we visited most of the big sites, but it seems like the size of our group and who knows what else conspired to make the going really, r-e-a-l-l-y S–L–O–W, which was a bit exasperating. After seeing only a fraction of what I remembered from before, the bulk of the group decided to head back to Kyoto, with only a few of us hearty souls hanging on to visit Kasuga Taisha shrine (a thing I particularly wanted to do). It ended up dwindling down to Kishi-sensei, Ikushima-sensei, Theo and I for the trip back. The sensei invited us to go out for Okonomiyaki with them, and they ended up paying (which was way above the call of duty). It was, of course, delicious—so delicious, in fact, that I didn’t take enough photos of the event!

After a quick side trip to a department store to look at Yukata for Theo’s mother, the sensei went on their way and Theo and I made our way back to the dorms via the hobby shop.

Today we had a new instructor (to me, anyway), Taniyama-sensei. She helped work us through the rest of the current chapter and practice some more grammar in the morning before letting us go with a mere 3 pages of homework for the weekend. Of course, I still have about 8 pages to catch up on from the first few days of the class.

My conversation partner Ryohei didn’t show up at lunchtime, but that was OK since I needed to study for the test. This I did while sitting on a bench outside on what turned out to be a beautiful day weather-wise. I later found out that he was at a hospital and they kept him longer than he thought—he’s fine and I couldn’t exactly determine the reason for his visit, but oh well.

Then the written exam. It wasn’t as scary as I remembered from last time and in fact I think I did pretty well. Of course, afterwards you start thinking about it and I realized that I blew a couple of things including getting one of the Kanji wrong that I’m supposed to know (for “Sora” 空). That of course makes you feel like an idiot.

After the test we first had a meeting to plan out what we would be dong for the Kindergarten visit and Ikushima-sensei had me lead the discussion and take notes in English—it was like herding cats, but we finally decided on what to do and who would be doing it. The group working with the 89 3-year old kids will be doing “Eentsy-weentsy Spider”, the 99 4-year olds will get both English and Japanese renditions of “Old McDonald Had A Farm”, and the 99 5-year olds will get the tried and true “Simon Says”. It should be a good time, though I’d be happy to take a pass.

It turns out that last night was—inexplicably—one of my monthly sleepless nights, so I did this all on about 3 hours’ sleep. I’m pretty dead to the world tonight, so after having Curry for dinner and writing this journal entry, I’m probably going to call it a night. Tomorrow is our day trip to Nara, and I have to decide if Sunday I want to do some Kyoto sightseeing or if I want to go to Osaka.

That is, if I have enough energy…

So, first day of the second-level class—and it was Onozaki-sensei! He had a double-take when he saw me since he’d taught me in the other class. We reviewed a couple of things that are a bit difficult (the concept of giving/receiving words もらう、くれる、あげる) which can be a bit difficult to understand and always confused me. But Onozaki-sensei’s explanation was very good and I think I’m getting it. There were a couple other grammatical things that I’d forgotten—so I think what I’ve done by going “backwards” was the right choice.

In the afternoon, it was off to Nishiki Market to interview the vendors, explore and fill in our worksheets. It certainly was a lot easier this time than 2 years ago when I was so clueless. I ended up buying some Bancha roasted barley tea. After we finished and handed in our assignments, we all went our separate ways and I visited the manga and hobby shop, picking up my missing Tsubasa volume and some little collectors models of Japanese castles (I got a couple of good ones, too). I’ve got a lot of studying to do tonight, because even though I’ve only sat through half a day of the class, I still have to take the test tomorrow! One of the topics is a rather confusing verb conjugation from too. Luckily, I think I’ve got all the Kanji down.

So things will be looking up from now on—yay!