The Past Two Weeks

So the past two weeks have not been especially interesting, since school officially started up. Mostly I’ve been just going to classes, eating, and staying up late studying Japanese with my international and local friends. We do go out some Saturday’s though, for food or to explore, so I will focus on a bit of school talk and weekend stuff~

School Update

So my classes are mostly really nice. I like my literature classes, albeit one more than the other. My East Asian Literature class is fun and is run similarly to my English classes back home. My Kodai to Gendai (other Literature class) is a bit more like a history class and the professor seems to have us teach each other through power point presentations, more than teaching herself. Basically, at the end of each week she has been handing out slips to each student with a name or word on it & with no other info and our job is to do research and present at the next class. Not too hard, but also she hasn’t done that much herself 👀 still, I like the professor as a person and she gives nice recommendations on places to visit in the area. My Ceramics class is neat, though the language barrier between the professor and the class (since all but one of us is in lvl 1 Japanese) is a bit challenging at times, and so he has to try to lead by example on stuff. Anyway, I want to get better at wedging clay since I botch it lol. I feel like I am getting quite the upper body workout from that class, though. Wedging/kneading clay is harder than it looks 💪🏼. Lastly is my Japanese class and skills. The class has been pretty simple so far, since we have been focusing on the alphabets and I knew those coming in. However, the vocab is new to me, so it has been really nice that my international friends and I, as well as some of local Japanese students from our dorm units, have been studying in the dorm lounge together almost nightly after we eat dinner in big groups in one of our kitchens. I feel like I’m improving fast! I will try to write the very simplified starting self-introduction in Japanese:

はじめまして! 私はヘイリーです。アメリカ人です。だいがくせいです、よねんせいです、せんこはえいごです。どぞよろしく！In Romanji= Hajimemashite! Watashi wa Hairi desu. America-Jin desu. Daigakusee desu, yo nensee desu, senko wa eego desu. Dozo yoroshiku! In English= Nice to meet you! My name is Haillie. I am an American. I am a college student, a fourth year, and an English major. Pleasure to meet you!

September in Order

So for stuff outside of classes, since this month has been mostly filled with just taking classes and doing hw, I am going to just put up pics and videos with descriptions and dates.

September 6th

Akea’s birthday was September 2nd, but it was the first day of classes so we waited until the 6th to celebrate. We got some food at a nearby restaurant (meat kebabs, potato salad, that sort of stuff) and then went for karaoke~

September 7th

We went back to Kyoto and visited Fushimi Inari shrine. Very awesome, but it was soooo hot and humid we couldn’t get very far before having to go home. It is a shrine where you hike up to the top of a mountain I think. It was about 104 degrees with humidity. I didn’t get any pics, though one crappy video. Please look up the shrine and look at pictures!

A cute pic on a bridge in Kyoto on the way to the shrine

September 9th

I got super freaking sick on Monday. I was fine and suddenly I felt nauseous in my Kodai to Gendai class and I ended up with my face over a toilet in the school building on the further campus from home. My friend Mary rode her bike over with an RA on the back and got me, after alerting the caretakers that I was sick. They wheeled me (just bc I was feeling kinda weak) to one of the school board members’ cars and he very kindly drove me to the dorm where one of the caretakers brought me to my room. My RA made me dinner but I couldn’t eat it. Food was not an option for over 24 hours 😭. It was a tough two days but by Wednesday I was all better. I really appreciate Mary, I think after that I’ve felt like I’m closest with her, though everyone is great and I don’t have real favorites. We figured out that it must have been food poisoning, since I was buying discount food, since nobody i was near caught it from me. Phew

September 10th

This was a class day so not much to say , though I stayed in as I was still not able to operate at full capacity. We had a snack party in my dorm unit (actually, in unit 54, my unit is 55, but a lot of us eat together in the 54 kitchen). I didn’t eat snacks, but I was there for the fun :3 ps I had to make up the 3 hour block of Ceramics I missed the 10th, on Friday. Friday was a packed mess.

September 11th

Not much happened besides classes, but Celine and I studied in a cafe that we discovered on the campus next to the dorms. I got a hotdog bread roll~

September 12th

After classes about 12 of us (I think 13 is about all of the main crew) went for yakiniku, or grilled meat, for dinner. It was good, I hadn’t had meat much since I got here & still only really have it maybe once or twice a week. I got Calbi beef.

September 13th

This was John’s birthday (the kid I flew out with from my school). He invited me to go with some of his friends to karaoke. He is now legal to drink alchohol in Japan but got melon soda and sang Hakuna Matata. I appreciate that 🤣 I like when ppl around me choose not to drink, so I don’t have to be the sober friend all the time 💪🏼. I sang Supercalifragilistic (from Mary poppins)

September 15th

The Nara trip~ so about 7-9 of us decided to make a trip to Nara Park to feed the deer. It was like catskill gamefarm, but the deer are wild and are protected creatures/animals of the shrines and temples nearby. They are a bit aggressive tho, one of my friends, Maxine, got bitten on the butt when she didn’t relinquish a cracker 👀 they are so used to the area that they know how to cross the street at crosswalks! Every store in the area sells deer souvenirs. Deer are so loved in Nara that they sell popular little chocolates that look like well…. 😂.

This past Sunday

I got into the Open Campus event as a staff member. 15 international students were hired (I didn’t know that we would be paid, but I got ¥5,170 (about $51). It was an event to show high schoolers and families interested in the university around the campus. We were the only 15 international students to be on campus for the event, and gave tours to those who wanted them. The りゆうがくせい tour!~ (international student tour). We were kind of a show-off tactic, but it was fun. The tours were in English, and we all had Japanese students giving translations too. They sent us pictures after the event, which they said they’ll use for PR which we were fine with 👍🏼 I look strange bc I’m wearing a skirt I bought here, but I didn’t do laundry so there we go lol

Tuesday

I had McDonalds for dinner After classes ended. I felt like I needed it. Like 6 of us did. Also, Celine and Maxine got their hair dyed (Shelby, Raven, and Akea did it for them).

Thursday

A few classmates invited me to go for some pizza near the college, so I got that for dinner after classes. I got finished early since I had a paper to work on, but it was tasty.

Friday

13 of us went into Korea Town in Osaka to get Korean food for dinner. It was super good and Mary translated the Korean for us and gave recommendations. I got sweet chili fried chicken with a veggie appetizer and rice. We also were given free Kimchi.