Day 16-21: The Classes Abroad Begin!

Apologies for the lateness of this blog. I will admit I got caught up in classes and different things this week so I haven’t been able to update. But I’m here now to talk about my first week of classes! Before I get too into that I feel I should explain some key things that are different about the school system in Japan. First off is the classes schedule is a lot different. Most classes only meet once a week for a 90 minute session. They also don’t get credit for classes based on hours but instead use credits, and can most students take upwards of twenty credits a semester. As a foreign exchange student however I had a max of 16 credits or so (which is what I’m taking because I love school and I’m a nerd). Another key difference is that for foreign exchange students the first week of classes doesn’t really count, it’s a trail period to test classes so if you take a class and find yourself hating it you’re not stuck in it. With all the logistics out of the way let’s get started! Now I might have mentioned in a previous blog but there’s two ways to get to school: a twenty minutes bus ride or a fourth minute walk. I am a stubborn cheap person so I decided to forgo paying bus fare everyday  and swore to always walk to and from school. So I’m that first day of school I faced the chilly rainy morning and walked entirely uphill to MGU. I was definitely sucking air once I got to school but you know it will probably be good for me I’m the long run. The first class I had was International Law on the fifth floor which I just loved climbing up. Still I got to class plenty early and was ready to start officially start my classes. As I waited three Japanese students also came into the class and before I knew it the bell rang (they really do have a bell system it’s pretty pleasant). There was no sign of our teacher and from the looks of the other students I could tell it wasn’t normal for a teacher to be late like this. After a few minutes of anxiously waiting and checking to see if the first class was canceled (spoiler it wasn’t) the professor finally arrived. After a brief introduction he said and I quote “International Law is the most useless form of law you can learn in the domain of law, shall we get started?” No syllabus day for me he just start lecturing about sources of law and showing use the website we’d be using. He was a pretty funny professor in the end though, and I could tell as all political professor do he’d be a rambler. After he covered all he wanted he released us for lunch. The Japanese students I was sharing the class with were really nice (there names were Kai, Mitomi, and Takaaki) and asked if I wanted to join then for lunch. After some deliberation we decided to save some money and walk to the closest convenience store. On our way back with our goodies I was talking with Takaaki with suddenly he turned looked at me and said “You have some Sakura in your hair” and proceeded to politely remove the blossom that had fallen into my hair. All I could think of  how I was literally in Japan in the beauty of the Sakura trees experiencing the most romantic thing in my life though. We then proceeded to eat lunch together and get to know each other. (Don’t get your hopes up everyone he doesn’t seem every interested now-Future Sage). After our lunch I parted ways to go to my Japanese Minority Groups and Issues Class. It was taught by a professor from Britain who was really interesting and taught me that much like ogres Japanese population is like an onion (this was in fact in my lecture no joke). After this I was officially done with my first day of classes. With the rest of the day I relaxed and tried my best to mentally prepare for the next day we’re I would face my first Japanese class, and interview for a Volunteer TA position on campus. To be ready for both I decided to try and look my best and decided somehow that walking to school with heels on was a good idea. I now have blisters to prove it wasn’t. On the bright side though my first Japanese class went extremely well. My professor is very kind and has great balance of pushing us to learn more Japanese while also helping us at the most basic level. While I’m mostly doing reviews right now she makes sure to take the time to teach me some new words here and there to keep it interesting. She also would sometimes look to me to introduce new ideas to the others that she knew I had Studies. Overall although I know the Japanese classes will be a lot of work I’m really excited to vastly improve my Japanese this semester. After Japanese class I had Politics and Society in Japan. This is also going to be a really interesting class for me with lots of reading and new topics. The lecture is mainly focused on the Japanese idea of Shimin (known as “Japanese citizen” but it has a much deeper meaning to it than that) and how it came to influence Post War Japan. After this class I had lunch with my buddies again and they showed me the wonder of the curry served at MISH. I’m going to be honest I think I might cry a little when I have to go back to the US style of lunches. We also talked about possible travel plans for us to go places in the future. After lunch I hurried to my interview which turned out to be more of a briefing than an actual interview. I was the only one dressed formally so I guess I was the only one who thought it was actually going to be an interview. Still I got the position and I can’t wait to get started with helping Japanese students improve their English. I then went to Daiso (the Japan equivalent of the Dollar Store) and did my Japanese homework which was to buy a two ring binder and index cards for にひやあく. (200 yen). The next day I only had two Japanese classes in the morning and not much else happen so I won’t go too much detail on that day. Thursday was my busiest day I started classes at 9:15 and ended at 4:55. I started with two Practical Japanese classes (not my usual Japanese class) where I improved my conversational Japanese and finally learned how to say some colors in Japanese. After those two classes I had lunch and then went to my Japanese Minority Class (this is one of the classes that meets twice a week) and learned about the Ainu people. What I never knew is that there are two minority groups in Japan that are actually originally from the mainland island (this like the Native Americans, the Ainu and their southern counterparts the Ryukyuns were forced out of the mainland sometime early in Japan’s history). The Ainu were very interesting to learn about but considering how long this blog alread is I’m going to just say if you want to learn more feel free to ask! Last but not least I had Japanese History 5 which in a surprising plot twist actually wasn’t really History. It was apparently listed wrong (happened a lot surpassingly) and is actually Japanese Literature through Translation. The Professor for this class explained that we would be learning a bit about history but through the lens of poetry created at the time. I was honestly just happy to take the Literature class I didn’t think I’d get to take. Last but not not least Friday I only had one class (Japanese whoooo!) where I practiced asking my numbers and important questions for shopping (like How much is this? = いくるいですか). After class I went back to the dorm and attempted to start all the homework I had already been give and to research for my trip to Disney this Sunday! Saturday was an uneventful day were I did laundry and got lost in a book (putting off my homework whoops...). That’s really it for this blog I’m sorry it’s so long I didn’t feel like splitting up the days. The next blog I post will be about my trip to Disney so stay tuned for that! (Also I didn’t really take these pictures this week but I didn’t take any pictures really because of classes so here’s Mt. Fuiji from my campus and me I front of the first gate to Meiji Shrine)