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!

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.

My lunchtime conversation partners Taka And Ryohei are both great. I actually had some fun talking both Korean and French with Ryohei—he’s got a French class right now. For lunch we went to a rather nice cafeteria on campus frequented mostly by the staff and teachers and I had some delicious cold Soba noodles. I’m trying, however, to keep my lunches to a bare minimum both for the sake of my waistline and my pocketbook. Still, it was really nice.

The weather was surprisingly cool today, with the occasional breeze, minimal humidity and no rain. Seems very different from last time, though I suppose July was when it really got bad. I’m sure it’ll catch up to us then.

In the evening, I attempted to study, but I think it’s a lost cause. I sat with Kishi-sensei and we did my homework, but what good is that? I still don’t feel like I’m learning anything. I guess that means I don’t really have anything positive to say about classes yet, which is a shame.

I’m doomed.

I could probably just leave it at that, but perhaps I should elaborate…

So, I was really nervous, but excited, about starting the top level class. I should have been adequately put off by looking through the textbook, but I figured I should give it a go. Onozaki Sensei seems to be a great teacher—but he talks so fast and the discussion and level was coming out way over my head. By the end of the morning—the second break, actually—I figured that I’m just not ready for this.

I’ve asked to go back and repeat the level two class because I know I’m not going to be happy or productive as things are now. There’s just too much I’ve forgotten and I’m not up for stress right now. It wasn’t like I did stellar work two years ago anyway, and there’s so much I need to review and learn again in the Genki 2 textbook.

Paul-san said to give it a try through the end of the day and see how it went—I still felt the same way. The pace and level was relentless, and I didn’t feel like I learned anything but rather that I was just barely hanging on by my fingernails. That’s not what I wanted to get out of my time here. In one way, I feel like I’m wimping out, but hey, it’s my money. I’d rather reinforce what I know and learn it more perfectly than be freaked out for 4 weeks.

At the end of the afternoon, it was time for the around-the-room round-robin with all the conversation partners. It was kind of fun, and somehow it seems like all of the Japanese CPs this year are studying Indonesian! As usual, I had a very hard time remembering anyone’s name (hey, I can’t even do it in English), but I tried really hard. BTW, my regular lunchtime CPs Ryohei and Taka are both great. Unlike the long, silent lunchtimes two years ago, I actually felt like I could have a conversation. Of course, I’ve probably run out of everything I can converse about and still have 3 1/2 weeks left…

So anyway, we’ll see what happens next. I’m wondering whether I should spend time doing the Level 3 homework tonight or pull out my Genki 2 book and study chapter 1 again…

My big plan for today was to return to a place that was really special to me from my last visit, Mt. Kurama. I happened to meet up with Kat and the last two students who just arrived yesterday, Calvin and Zack and they decided to come along too.

It’s such an incredible place. There are tons of steps and a long way to walk to get over the mountain, but it’s such a great chance to meditate, have some exercise and get out into nature. Everything was just as beautiful and felt just as spiritual as before and I think it’s a great place to unwind and mentally step back into Japan.

We walked all the way over the mountain to Kibune again where we thought about sitting at one of the atmospheric restaurants built right on the little river where it’s nice and cool—until we saw the prices. Then it was back down the mountain again…

Of course, it’s the rainy season and it rained on us all day—not hard enough for you to want to bother getting your umbrella out, but hard enough to get you soaking wet. It also meant lots of mud, and I had to go back to the dorm to change clothes. Calvin, Zack and I then went on a very abbreviated walking tour to the Gion (with me playing guide since they both missed yesterday’s walking tour). I even managed to take them to the Kaiten-sushi conveyor belt sushi restaurant so they could pig out (and they did too—12 and 13 plates each for them to my paltry 7).

On the way back home walking down Shijo, we ran into another student, Theo, who accompanied us back to Kitaoji where we made a quick shopping trip through Vivre for essentials. Back on the Number 3 bus and then I turned in for the night. School starts tomorrow, so these pleasant days of adventure are over, at least until the weekends.

It was kind of weird—it all seemed so normal, like something I do every day. I’m glad I haven’t lost the familiarity with the place from two years ago.