First Day of School!

Kyou no Nihongo no Kotoba (今日の日本語の言葉): kantan (簡単) - easy

This word has been brought to you by my personal views on the class I'm in

Today was an early day! I woke up at 5:30 and did the usual morning stuff: reading, checking email, FB, etc. Then as the rest of the house started to wake up, I got ready for school, ate breakfast, and took a shower. I had more curry rice for breakfast, which was amazing as always. This is totally gonna be the food of my house when I have time to cook.

Ayuka's outfit for the day. I nearly died over how cute this was.

After breakfast, I went to visit a nearby shrine briefly (in order to know how to get there on foot, since this time Yoshiko-san gave me a ride), since there's gonna be a festival there tomorrow, and I'm totally gonna go after school! But since I'll be coming directly from school, I'll need to know how to get there on my own.

Then I got to Akihabara, one of the stations close to my school, at 10:00, and I wasn't due to meet anyone until 11:30, so... I of course went window shopping! And I guess I had the intention of actually shopping too, if something caught my eye. I went into the nine story shopping complex (mostly electronics) called Yodobashi Akiba and browsed to my heart's content, starting with the book store!

At the book store, I found the manga section (a whopping seven shelves, double sided), and immediately started searching for manga that I knew. I want to be able to read manga by the end of my time here, so I might as well start now, ne? I saw Emma, which is one of my favorites (though I hate to say that I've never gotten around to finishing it yet) and a few others. I stumbled upon the BL section, which was a hidden gem, but I couldn't find anything that caught my eye (Japanese manga spines are usually the same looking across a publisher, and thus can only be distinguished by their name, rather than their look, which makes it hard when you can't really read). So I moved on.

I found a plethora of cute things, including a book light that looks a little like No Face from Spirited Away, who is pictured below for your viewing purposes:

I've also discovered that the Japanese really love Disney, and they have the best stationery section ever! There are two isles of just pens (and when I say isles, I mean isles; as you can see below, the Japanese don't kid around when it comes to their stationery). Their planners are adorable, and they have so much decorative tape and page markers and cute things that I spent an hour in just the book store.

I then wandered onto the game level, a floor below, and found that they not only still had PS2 games, but that they had a whole isle of them. Pictured below is only a small part of that isle. It's rare in America to be able to find a game store that still has this that isn't seedy and creepy and vaguely dark and somewhat smelling of rancid cigarettes.

And then, much to my surprise, they even have a little section of PS games. You definitely seldom see this anywhere in America. This section for PS is bigger than almost any section for PS2 games I've ever been able to find in America. Why are they so quick to forget the great things of old, huh? PSH.

They refrigerate film... I guess I've seen some people do that
personally, but never in a store... 

I walked down to the beauty floor and was attacked by hair items. Honestly, there is one and a half isles of hair curlers. JUST hair curlers. The Japanese are so crazy about beauty sometimes, it amazes me (just like that store for just socks I saw yesterday at Harajuku).

They also have tons of nail polish, and, much to my glee, more stationery. The Japanese have cute down to an art form, and I'm just wondering why no one else latches on to this cuteness thing whatsoever. It's not like it's trademarked, America. If you're so into lucrative things, then jump on to this thing, because sales taxes from hair products and cute things are probably where the government makes the majority of its money, honestly.

One last thing about stationery, and then I swear I'll shut up about it. Their pens are really cool. You know those thick ones that hold multiple colors of ink and you can click down which one you want? Well they have empty ones with cool designs on them, and then a plethora of inks of every color imaginable from which you can pick to make your own unique pen! Cool stuff right there.

All right. I lied. One more thing about pens. I've found erasable ones. Yeah, that's cool. I've heard about erasable pens before in America (though none I've found have been able to erase as well as these Pentel ones), so what's so awesome? Well, there are erasable felt tip markers. Ain't that a cool thing? And also erasable highlighters. That got me hooked. I'm definitely gonna get a set, but I need to find the best price first, ne?

Even their reinforcers are adorable! 

Before school, I met up with Ian and Julien for lunch. I had a croque monsieur from Vie de France bakery. Then I accompanied the guys to an Indian place in the food court to eat some curry! Ian got a ridiculously large naan, the likes of which I've never before seen in my life. Like, woah.

Then after lunch, we headed to school. The teachers had told me to expect level 2 or 3 as a class, but I'm alas in level 1. It's not bad, since it's nice to review the basics, but, as I feared, it's SO SLOW. The skill difference between each level is insane, though, so I don't think I'd survive in level 2 (they're practically fluent in daily life kanji, and have started into the lesser known ones). When I talked to a teacher, they said that I was proficient enough in grammar to be in level 3, but kanji wise, it might be best to stay in level 1. So I decided I would. Plus, they're nicer people (lots of Thai people, who can remind me of the old days when I used to live there).

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that it isn't slow. I already finished the homework for the next two weeks. I was hoping that homework would get me working again, but it's so easy that I have nothing to do. And I'm bored in class. I can tell a few others are too. The problem is that they seem to teach us as if we live in America, and they don't seem to factor in the fact that we learn so much just from our daily lives outside of school that this class should be moving far faster than usual, ne?

Anyways, when school ended, I went to the stationery store nearby to get a folder for homework, and then hopped on the train. On the way home, I was listening to Truth by Arashi when I happened to look up at the advertisement in front of me, and lo and behold. There's Arashi posing for a Kirin ad. How great a coincidence is that? Plus this brought back so many memories of Mori no Ike (my one month Japanese camp in Minnesota), especially of Hinata-sensei and her crazy antics (she was the one who got me hooked on Arashi in the first place). Man I miss that place. (Which is why I'm hoping to go work there the summer after freshman year. It should be fun, ne?)

While I was walking home, I couldn't believe just how dark it was! It was only 5:30 or so, and it was so dark outside already. And it's not even winter yet! I can't wait to see how short the days can get when it actually is winter, though.

5:30 at night. Can you believe it? 

My cute little homework folder.

For dinner, I had pasta with tuna, with a side of mashed potatoes. Definitely not Japanese, but anything that Yoshiko-san cooks is bound to be delicious. And I'm sure most of you have spied the cayenne pepper hiding in the background. I've told this family just how spicy I like to eat things. Ryosuke has tried to imitate me, although I've discouraged him as much as I could with scary tales of ulcers and stuff, and even the slightest shake of that stuff onto his pasta made him unable to eat more of it. I hope he doesn't pull that stunt again, now that he's tried it and realizes that he can't stand it.

Lastly, pictured below is my first Japanese manga undertaking! It's volume one of Hana Yori Dango, which means Boys Over Flowers. I've never even read the Japanese one, and have never finished the anime, so this is my chance to read something that's sort of new, but is familiar enough to me that I know I will enjoy if if I can actually get through it. It's tough though, since most of the kanji isn't written with hiragana on the side, which means that I need to know the kanji itself in order to get by. That might sound hard, but this is all kanji that Ryosuke knows (that's how I read now; we read together, and occasionally I'd ask him what a word means or how I should say this kanji, and in return, I help him with his English homework—it's really tough explaining what the word "quite" means (as in "this is quite hard"); props to English teachers).

With that, I bid you all a good night! Tomorrow is bound to be full of more adventures! There's my morning bento search to look forward to, and then the matsuri (festival) at the Honmonji Temple after school! 

Much love,
Maggie

Entrance Ceremony!

Kyou no Nihongo no Kotoba (今日の日本語の言葉): koshou (コショウ) - black pepper

This word was brought to you by my need for spicy things today at lunch!

Breakfast was an interesting affair this morning. I woke up at six and realized that I had forgotten to write my blog! I hope this doesn't happen again. I'm determined to keep up with it every day, since I want this blog for my own future memory records as well. So nevertheless, I wrote the blog post this morning in a rush (thus, sorry for its shortness and lack of detail), and then ran down for breakfast.

Breakfast consisted of bread, ham, yogurt, condiments, salad, and best of all, kaki. Kaki is the fruit picture above, which is a Japanese persimmon. I don't think I've ever had American persimmons to compare it with, and thus I don't know how to describe it to you. The best I can say it that it tasted like a pear. But a Vietnamese pear. Which I guess doesn't help some of you either. It's a certain type of watery sweetness.

Anyways, the rest of breakfast was a bit weird. I had toast and ham like a regular person, but how Ryosuke eats it is that he puts his ham and lettuce on buttered bread, covers it in mayo, and then adds some jam. I tried it that way, and it actually tastes pretty good! I'd definitely have that again (and as I'm writing this, I'm reminded of breakfast, because Yoshiko-san is currently baking bread, which makes the whole house smell like a bakery. YUM!).

Another thing I found interesting was the peanut butter, which can be seen in further detail below. It looks shiny, and kind of tastes like what I imagine peanut butter might taste like if it was a Nutella-like item. It has that texture and vaguely hazelnut taste, despite being peanuts. And it tastes a lot sweeter, and has a consistency a bit more like jam as well. It tastes better to me than American peanut butter though.

After breakfast, I left the house at 7:40 and went to school, not wanting to be late for the ceremony (it started at 10:00). I just wanted ample time just in case I got lost, though I ended up not needing it when I got to school at 8:40. Luckily, I had my kindle and my latest installment of Horatio Hornblower to hold me over (I'm rereading Midshipman Hornblower, the first in the series; it's so different from the show!). 

On the way, however, I got squished on the train! I got pushed in! Yatta! IT HAPPENED! And as much as I think it's cool that I finally experienced this on the Asakusa line (since I'm at the end of the line, and going into the city is uber crowded), it was really difficult to breathe. I've worn a tight corset before, and I totally would pick that over this any day. I was leaning against a handrail near the door, and thus was bent backwards over it a little, making my lower back hurt quite a bit. You have to breathe short breaths, since there's no space to expand much further. I am not exaggerating. If you ask someone else who's been on a pushed in train, they will tell you the same. It's a bit freaky.

View from Gotanda station. 

The conductor guy who pushes people onto trains! 

The train after it clears out. 

A little peace of daytime Akihabara 

Can you tell how crowded it is? 

Opening ceremony was fun. We played some trivia, discovered that we could see Tokyo Sky Tree from the school building, and introduced ourselves to each other. We got a tour of the classrooms and then took a group picture. That's about it. I met a few new people, and am very excited to start class on Thursday!

We went to lunch at an Italian/Japanese place, and I ate tonkatsu while others ate pasta. On our way back to the station, I saw a couple maids advertising maid cafes, and I managed to get a shot of this one. They are very out there when it comes to advertising. I also saw the Gundam Cafe, which I didn't enter, but sounds very interesting. Luckily, it's near school, so I'm sure to go there sometime soon.

I then made my way back to Nishi-Magome, which is my stop for home, and took a nice picture of the sunset on my main road. On the way back, I also noticed that crossing signs are very well dressed men. The have suits and hats and everything! They're so much more posh and polite than those naked American crossing signs...

For dinner, we just had leftovers, which is some porridge, fried pork, salad, sweet potatoes (which look like regular American purple potatoes), and a radishes. We also had freshly baked bread infused with sweet cream, so it was absolutely delicious!

I want to leave a parting image of a new umbrella I bought, which is so utterly adorable. It's got dark and light blue hues, with light green circles and highlights, and then it has white kitties all over! It's very, very cute, and it was pretty cheap.

I LOVE JAPAN! Tomorrow, I think I'll head to Harajuku, since I have the day off. I'll probably go with Julien (and maybe Ian) to get some kara-age for lunch (if you don't know what it is, hopefully you'll get pictures tomorrow; it's really good fried chicken with rice). I just learned how to say this in Japanese, so here goes nothing! Watashi ha mokuyoubi ni gakkou ni ikukoto wo tanoshimi ni shiteimasu! 私は木曜日に学校に行くことを楽しみにしています!  I'm looking forward to school on Thursday!

XOXO,

Maggie