Friday, October 24, 2003
Finding a Fit
10/24/03
It's been a while since I've updated. I need to get into the habit of doing this more often.
Anyway, this week I've been going to both the level 3 and the level 4 Japanese classes, to see which ones fit better. I think I'll take Kanji 3, Reading 3, Speaking 3, Listening 4, Writing 4, and Grammar 4. I'm also still thinking about taking Kanji 2, but I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to, and even if I am the section that would fit my schedule would be the one for Chinese and Korean speakers (who already know the characters and just need to learn the Japanese pronunciations and vocabulary).
On Monday I noticed a Seiyu store that was directly on the route I take back to the Int. House, so I think I'll do all my shopping there. I can pick up stuff whenever I'm on my way back from campus, which is more convenient than making trips to the other one I found and is cheaper than the places that are closer to the Int. house.
Tuesday was pretty boring. I just went to classes. I did catch the end of Juni Kokki when I got back, but since I've only seen the first few episodes and this was episode 29 I didn't really understand what was going on. They showed about 4 different scenes that were happening in 4 different parts of the world, and I didn't recognize any of the characters.
Wednesday I walked to school. I went a new route that I'd heard about. It's got a lot more traffic, but less hills. Some people ride their bicycles this route, but I think I'd rather deal with the hills (which could be good for my health) instead of dealing with traffic (which could be bad for my health). It took me about 30 min. to walk, but I walked at a fairly quick pace.
At lunch on Tuesday I'd spent more than 500¥ so they gave me a ticket for a "chance game" that would take place today. I'd forgotten about it until I went to get something to eat. I ended up buying yaki soba at a booth they had set up outside (it cost 250¥), and then stood in line for the "chance game." It consisted of giving the guy your ticket and then drawing a slip of paper out of the box. If there was a number on it you got the prize that corresponded with the number, and if there wasn't a number on it you got nothing. I ended up drawing number 16, for which I won a suit carrying case. I have no idea what to do with it, since I don't think I'll ever use it to carry a suit and it's not very useful for carrying anything else. When I got it it was wrapped in plastic, and I kept it that way since it was raining most of the day. Somewhere throughout the day the plastic slipped off without me noticing, since by the start of my last class it was no longer wrapped in plastic. I hope I don't get in trouble for littering.
In the afternoon I looked for textbooks (I looked at the books for both levels to see which textbook I thought fit my level better). While I was at the co-op, I bought a pair of headphones, since my previous ones had broken earlier this week. This time I made a point of buying some that fold up nicely, so that I won't break the earpiece off again. Unfortunately, the co-op didn't have any that had a volume control on the cord. I'm going to miss that feature now that I've spent the last year or two using that instead of the volume control on my computer (or iPod).
After my Kanji class that evening I went to the bus stop, where I waited with about 30 other people to catch the bus downtown. It took about 5 minutes to get everyone off the bus when we reached the station, and the poor driver had to say thank you to each and every person who got off. I'm surprised the bus drivers don't get horse.
I caught the 6:29 train south, and got off at the second stop (South Sendai). It took about 10 min. to get there, and a whole bunch of people got off there. I was able to find the Sunks (a convenience store chain here) where I was meeting Alana, the girl who'd told me about the house full of free stuff. She found me there, and introduced me to her boss Michiko (who is the daughter of the woman who'd owned the house). We waited for a guy named Nick there, and then all headed over to the house. Most of the stuff there was old, used, rusted, dusty, etc. but I got a few things for my kitchen, and most importantly, I got a futon. Now I don't have to pay 15,000¥ to rent one for the year. Nick took a whole bunch of stuff, since he just moved here and his apartment had nothing. The previous owners had even taken the fan that was above the kitchen (and the Japanese don't usually take than).
The plan had been for me to carry my futon back with me on the train and then the bus, but it was so big that Michiko (who's car we used to get to the house) decided to drive me back to the Int. House. She didn't know how to get there and I didn't really know where we were, but it was all OK because she's got a big, modern Japanese car. The car had an LCD touch screen display. Behind the display (it flips down) there is a place for you to insert a CD, MD, or audio tape. The CD player not only plays audio CDs, it also can be used to run software. She put in a GPS CD and entered my address. It pulled up a map of the city with our route highlighted and our car on it. It updated the map as we drove, and every time we approached a turn we had to take a voice would tell us that the turn was such and such meters away and that we needed to turn in such and such a direction. It gave the direction to turn again when we reached the intersection. The whole thing was really amazing!
We made it to the Int. House, and I thanked them for the stuff and for the ride. I'd have had a lot of trouble carrying that futon. It's quite large. I then got to explain to the other guys in my hall that I got it from looting a dead lady's house :)
Thursday was another day full of classes. The only things of note are that they changed our desk chairs, and that John is eagerly awaiting the release of the Naruto PS2 game. I've promised to play it with him when he gets it, since no one else around seems to be a big Naruto fan. As for the desk chairs, we used to have fairly normal chairs, but now we have chairs with adjustable height and with wheels. I haven't decided for sure yet, but I think I preferred the old chair. This one moves around too much, and has a smaller seating area which makes it inconvenient to put things on.
Today is Friday. I was supposed to do some homework for my writing class and hand it in today, but the bookstore was out of the books for this class. I put in an order for the book on Wed. Hopefully I'll get it before the weekend so that I don't have to try to track down someone else who's got the book. The prof. did say that it'd be OK to turn the homework in on Mondays if we needed to as long as only a few people do, since she wants to grade and hand it back in class on Tuesdays.
This morning I found out that Mitsu, Lane, and a few other guys have headed to Tokyo for the weekend (Lane has no Monday or Friday classes). They're staying with a friend of Lane's, and will be attending some sort of car show. I'd like to visit Tokyo sometime.
Random thoughts about Japan:
- Japan seems to be very advanced in some aspects, and quite behind on others. Take the bathrooms, for example. All of the ones I've been in have toilets with heated seats, and most have had automatic faucets. However, none of them have any hot water at all, many don't have soap, and almost none have a way of drying your hands.
- If a store has only one flavor of ice cream it's almost always Banana. There are quite a few banana flavored products here; much more than I've seen in the US. Too bad I'm not very fond of bananas.
- The farther away I shop, the lower the prices are. At the university co-op, all of the prices are fairly low (they are always less than the prices printed on the package). At Daiei, the prices are a bit higher, but still fairly low. At Saiyu, the prices are good. Around the Int. House, the prices are high.
- The lime Ginger-ale was Special Edition. I haven't been able to find it anywhere else, and the people I've asked about it hadn't heard of it. I'm going to try to go back to Daiei to get some more if they still have it.
- I'm told that credit cards work differently in Japan. Evidently here it's the store, and not Visa (or whatever company your card is from) that gives you credit. Only after you pay your bill to Visa does Visa give the store the money. In the US Visa gives the store the money when they report the purchase. This explains why so few places here accept credit cards. Only big places can afford to wait for you to pay your credit card bill before they get the money.
It's been a while since I've updated. I need to get into the habit of doing this more often.
Anyway, this week I've been going to both the level 3 and the level 4 Japanese classes, to see which ones fit better. I think I'll take Kanji 3, Reading 3, Speaking 3, Listening 4, Writing 4, and Grammar 4. I'm also still thinking about taking Kanji 2, but I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to, and even if I am the section that would fit my schedule would be the one for Chinese and Korean speakers (who already know the characters and just need to learn the Japanese pronunciations and vocabulary).
On Monday I noticed a Seiyu store that was directly on the route I take back to the Int. House, so I think I'll do all my shopping there. I can pick up stuff whenever I'm on my way back from campus, which is more convenient than making trips to the other one I found and is cheaper than the places that are closer to the Int. house.
Tuesday was pretty boring. I just went to classes. I did catch the end of Juni Kokki when I got back, but since I've only seen the first few episodes and this was episode 29 I didn't really understand what was going on. They showed about 4 different scenes that were happening in 4 different parts of the world, and I didn't recognize any of the characters.
Wednesday I walked to school. I went a new route that I'd heard about. It's got a lot more traffic, but less hills. Some people ride their bicycles this route, but I think I'd rather deal with the hills (which could be good for my health) instead of dealing with traffic (which could be bad for my health). It took me about 30 min. to walk, but I walked at a fairly quick pace.
At lunch on Tuesday I'd spent more than 500¥ so they gave me a ticket for a "chance game" that would take place today. I'd forgotten about it until I went to get something to eat. I ended up buying yaki soba at a booth they had set up outside (it cost 250¥), and then stood in line for the "chance game." It consisted of giving the guy your ticket and then drawing a slip of paper out of the box. If there was a number on it you got the prize that corresponded with the number, and if there wasn't a number on it you got nothing. I ended up drawing number 16, for which I won a suit carrying case. I have no idea what to do with it, since I don't think I'll ever use it to carry a suit and it's not very useful for carrying anything else. When I got it it was wrapped in plastic, and I kept it that way since it was raining most of the day. Somewhere throughout the day the plastic slipped off without me noticing, since by the start of my last class it was no longer wrapped in plastic. I hope I don't get in trouble for littering.
In the afternoon I looked for textbooks (I looked at the books for both levels to see which textbook I thought fit my level better). While I was at the co-op, I bought a pair of headphones, since my previous ones had broken earlier this week. This time I made a point of buying some that fold up nicely, so that I won't break the earpiece off again. Unfortunately, the co-op didn't have any that had a volume control on the cord. I'm going to miss that feature now that I've spent the last year or two using that instead of the volume control on my computer (or iPod).
After my Kanji class that evening I went to the bus stop, where I waited with about 30 other people to catch the bus downtown. It took about 5 minutes to get everyone off the bus when we reached the station, and the poor driver had to say thank you to each and every person who got off. I'm surprised the bus drivers don't get horse.
I caught the 6:29 train south, and got off at the second stop (South Sendai). It took about 10 min. to get there, and a whole bunch of people got off there. I was able to find the Sunks (a convenience store chain here) where I was meeting Alana, the girl who'd told me about the house full of free stuff. She found me there, and introduced me to her boss Michiko (who is the daughter of the woman who'd owned the house). We waited for a guy named Nick there, and then all headed over to the house. Most of the stuff there was old, used, rusted, dusty, etc. but I got a few things for my kitchen, and most importantly, I got a futon. Now I don't have to pay 15,000¥ to rent one for the year. Nick took a whole bunch of stuff, since he just moved here and his apartment had nothing. The previous owners had even taken the fan that was above the kitchen (and the Japanese don't usually take than).
The plan had been for me to carry my futon back with me on the train and then the bus, but it was so big that Michiko (who's car we used to get to the house) decided to drive me back to the Int. House. She didn't know how to get there and I didn't really know where we were, but it was all OK because she's got a big, modern Japanese car. The car had an LCD touch screen display. Behind the display (it flips down) there is a place for you to insert a CD, MD, or audio tape. The CD player not only plays audio CDs, it also can be used to run software. She put in a GPS CD and entered my address. It pulled up a map of the city with our route highlighted and our car on it. It updated the map as we drove, and every time we approached a turn we had to take a voice would tell us that the turn was such and such meters away and that we needed to turn in such and such a direction. It gave the direction to turn again when we reached the intersection. The whole thing was really amazing!
We made it to the Int. House, and I thanked them for the stuff and for the ride. I'd have had a lot of trouble carrying that futon. It's quite large. I then got to explain to the other guys in my hall that I got it from looting a dead lady's house :)
Thursday was another day full of classes. The only things of note are that they changed our desk chairs, and that John is eagerly awaiting the release of the Naruto PS2 game. I've promised to play it with him when he gets it, since no one else around seems to be a big Naruto fan. As for the desk chairs, we used to have fairly normal chairs, but now we have chairs with adjustable height and with wheels. I haven't decided for sure yet, but I think I preferred the old chair. This one moves around too much, and has a smaller seating area which makes it inconvenient to put things on.
Today is Friday. I was supposed to do some homework for my writing class and hand it in today, but the bookstore was out of the books for this class. I put in an order for the book on Wed. Hopefully I'll get it before the weekend so that I don't have to try to track down someone else who's got the book. The prof. did say that it'd be OK to turn the homework in on Mondays if we needed to as long as only a few people do, since she wants to grade and hand it back in class on Tuesdays.
This morning I found out that Mitsu, Lane, and a few other guys have headed to Tokyo for the weekend (Lane has no Monday or Friday classes). They're staying with a friend of Lane's, and will be attending some sort of car show. I'd like to visit Tokyo sometime.
Random thoughts about Japan:
- Japan seems to be very advanced in some aspects, and quite behind on others. Take the bathrooms, for example. All of the ones I've been in have toilets with heated seats, and most have had automatic faucets. However, none of them have any hot water at all, many don't have soap, and almost none have a way of drying your hands.
- If a store has only one flavor of ice cream it's almost always Banana. There are quite a few banana flavored products here; much more than I've seen in the US. Too bad I'm not very fond of bananas.
- The farther away I shop, the lower the prices are. At the university co-op, all of the prices are fairly low (they are always less than the prices printed on the package). At Daiei, the prices are a bit higher, but still fairly low. At Saiyu, the prices are good. Around the Int. House, the prices are high.
- The lime Ginger-ale was Special Edition. I haven't been able to find it anywhere else, and the people I've asked about it hadn't heard of it. I'm going to try to go back to Daiei to get some more if they still have it.
- I'm told that credit cards work differently in Japan. Evidently here it's the store, and not Visa (or whatever company your card is from) that gives you credit. Only after you pay your bill to Visa does Visa give the store the money. In the US Visa gives the store the money when they report the purchase. This explains why so few places here accept credit cards. Only big places can afford to wait for you to pay your credit card bill before they get the money.
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