Osaka (again) and School ^^

OK desu! So we left off with us all getting back from the trip to Mount Koya. We were dropped off in Osaka around five. So we decided since we were there we might as well go out and enjoy the city a bit. Since we had just gotten home from a trip, we still had all our baggage with us so we paid for lockers so we wouldn't have to take it all around with us. There are lockers in every train station, it seems. It’s really convenient. We paid ¥300 per person for the whole day so pretty good deal.

We met up with our Japanese friend Hitomi-chan who also brought a friend and we wandered around in a group of about eight or so. We were going to shop (which we seem to be doing a lot…) but we ended up just drifting over towards a nomihodai place. It was different from the one we went to last one (which a few of us were kind of disappointed about since the last one was so good!) but it’s good to go to different places. The drinks were somewhat stronger and not quite as tasty but they were still good.  The place gave us a room to ourselves, which gave us license to become the typical loud, annoying foreigners. =P I felt sorry for the people on either side of us. XD

A few members of our group wanted to eat ramen afterwards but most of us were full (we had all shared plates of food that our Japanese friends ordered) so we went to do purikura! For those who’ve never heard before, purikura is basically like a photo booth but it’s really bright, great quality, and you can add symbols and write on all the pictures afterwards. It also tends to make your eyes appear bigger, anime-style. Observe:

Our trip kind of petered out after that. Most of our group went home to catch buses and such. I stayed with Hitomi for a bit to have some girl chat in McDonalds though. =P

This week I spontaneously tried out the Karate club with my friend and I actually really like it! They were much more accepting than Kenpo seemed to be. We were planning to sit out but they insisted we join in and they seemed really enthusiastic. They have a definite Sensei, which adds a good sense of authority to it. He has a voice just like you’d think a Japanese martial artist would have, it’s awesome. :D They have concrete forms and techniques as well, which makes me happy. They do one point sparring for about a half hour but it doesn’t consume the lesson the way Kenpo’s sparring did. There are even two girls (out of ten, that’s not bad!).

I also met with the Aikido club today. They sounded very nice and accepting as well so I’m thinking of trying Aikido maybe once a week, and Karate two times per week. It’s good to get exposure to all different types of martial arts so I’ll see how it goes. Both clubs meet the same five days a week, three hours a day, in the same building and they said they don’t mind if you only turn up a few times a week. The gym they’re located in is actually pretty far from campus so we take school coach to get there. The one night we went it rained profusely though so we all got completely soaked! びちょびちょ！ Beecho Beecho! (Soaked)

Getting back to less exciting things, class is going well so far. We have Japanese for 2-3 periods during the morning, lunch, and then afternoon classes. I’ve switched into International Education (which is actually extremely interesting and the teacher is simply inspiring) so I’m taking that, Linguistics, and the Joint Seminar. Yesterday in Japanese class we actually watched “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi” (Spirited Away)! We got a question sheet that had various word translations on it from the movie so that’s really neat to have! It made my day to watch that during class. *G*

I’ve signed up for eikaiwa teaching (English tutoring) that pays about 20 dollars an hour. But I’ve only been assigned one hour a week so it won’t turn out to too much. ^^” It’ll still be good to get some experience in teaching English to Japanese students if I ever want to do JET though. I want to help my host mom out with her students as well but I just haven’t been home due to club so hopefully I’ll get another chance!

Yesterday after class, my friend Jess and I were helping Hitomi with her English homework. It was seriously difficult for someone who’s not a native speaker! She’s reading “Tuesdays with Morrie” which is a pretty advanced English book. She had to read five or six chapters from it and translate all the words she didn't know. So there we were, translating like 15 pages worth of words using three denshi jishos (electronic dictionaries- a must have for Japan, even for Japanese people) and 4-6 people and after an hour and a half, we still weren’t done! We decided to give up for the day and Jess and I went shopping around Nishinomiya Gardens. We actually managed to find some cheap clothes so I bought a shirt and a scarf after much debate.

Jess ended up coming over my house for the evening so when we got home we chatted with my host mom for a bit and then had an AMAZING dinner of tempura, potatoes, rice, and fried chicken of some sort. SO good! We had such a good time with my host family. I’m lucky they’re so great!! It’s like living my American life, just in Japan. That’s how comfortable I feel with them. That night, Jess and I really meant to study because we had a chapter test the next day but we only really studied for about 10 minutes and then got off topic. =P But thankfully, the test wasn’t TOO difficult so hopefully I did alright. I’m sure I still managed to screw some parts up though. Wasn’t feeling overly strong about it so, we’ll see.

I think I’m finally all caught up so, それではまた次回！

Word of the day: 傘　“kasa” or umbrella. A necessary item for Japan no matter what the weather!