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.

Today was yet another jam-packed day of learning Japanese. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage it—I’m already forgetting the things I learned already, it’s just coming so fast. I’m learning that I may be pretty good at kanji, but I don’t know near enough about everything else. It seems I’m having a devil of a time remembering how to simply conjugate verbs. Throw into that a few dozen new vocabulary words and 4-6 important grammatical constructs every day, and my head is about to explode (atama ga bakuhatsu).

We “rested” in the afternoon by watching—and participating—with the Shorinji Kenpo club. It was the first time that I ever did any sort of martial art anything, and it was pretty fun. I can see why people do it, and maybe I will go back and see about the Amgen Karate club—my knee held up okay, though I didn’t do anything to strenuous.

After that, it was back to the dorms, dinner and…studying…

[BTW, I was so busy, I’m actually writing this on Tuesday…]

As if a day-long trip through Nara yesterday wasn’t enough, I thought I’d take another short day trip, this time to Kurama. It’s a favorite spot up in the mountains and only about 20 minutes away by the little electric train you can catch about 5 minutes’ walk from the dorms.

WOW! You’ll have to look at my photo album to see the scope of the hike, but it was pretty impressive. After getting off the train in Kurama, we walked first to Kurama-dera; Alia took the cable car shortcut up the mountain, but I walked it. I’m glad I did, too, since I was able to see numerous shrines and other sights. I even videotaped a group of pilgrims chanting at one of them which was very cool.

At the top was the temple itself, and after a bit of rest and quick look though the nearby museum (where I left a small message written in my best possible Japanese in the guest book), it was over the hill and down into the valley at Kibune. The trek wasn’t all that far distance wise (around 1-2 miles altogether), but the vertical change was well over 1,000 feet. It was raining very gently all day long, so everything was damp, misty and fresh smelling. Seeing the mist and low clouds in the trees really makes you understand where the inspiration comes from for so many pieces of Japanese art. You also can’t help but feel a reverence for everything around you and a great appreciation for the natural world and its greenness.

In Kibune, the different Ryokan (traditional inns) all have platforms built out over the river where people can come and eat dinner when it’s hot in the summer. Needless to say, they weren’t serving on such a rainy day—it must be a nice experience, though. We hiked down the winding road and took the same train back.

In the evening, we met Kishi-sensei and her two friends in town and had Okonomiyaki for dinner. Now this is something that I’ve always wanted to try ever since seeing U-chan cooking it in Ranma 1/2. It’s sort of like Japan’s answer to pizza—although it’s almost more like an omelet or a pancake. You basically order off the menu, they whip it up and bring it to your table which has a convenient hot grill in the center. You can get all sorts of interesting and tasty ingredients put in—meat, seafood, noodles, vegetables, you name it. You then whack off a piece and eat it with your choice of sauces and mayonnaise. It’s really delicious, and I’ve got to try and find an okonomiyaki-ya back home if I can.

We had some ice cream while waiting for the bus back to campus and then…

Studying (and laundry). Sorry I didn’t get either a vidcast or podcast done, but I’ll try really hard during the week so stay tuned.

BTW—extra credit for anime fans: did you know that Mt. Kurama where I went today is one of two protecting mountains in North Kyoto (the other being Mt. Hiei). Two of the main characters in Yu Yu Hakusho, were of course named after these mountains…