It’s really been a while since I last attended a class. I finished up my last semester at my home school in December of 2007 and have since been working and now traveling before settling in for my spring semester which starts tomorrow. I’ve made some choices about what I want to take for classes, including some really interesting sounding culture and business classes.
I’ll give you the breakdown on what I’ll be taking:
- Basic Japanese (you already know this one) - Four times a week I’ll be in Japanese language classes.
- Japanese Culture Viewing Through Rice - The main appeal of this class is the several field trips to sake breweries and plantations and the lack of a final exam of any kind (excepting a presentation at the end of the semester).
- Japanese War Literature - Given by Hannah Sawada, a New Zealand ex-pat, the class will be focusing on literature written around and after WWII and how the Japanese have come to view war, especially WWII.
- Japanese Music: Concepts and Issues - This class will be mainly on contemporary Japanese music, including rock, gruupu-sansu, pop and electronic.
- Traditional Japanese Sports - An introduction to the basics of Judo, Aikido and Kendo, all various forms of martial arts.
- Regional Art - A mixture of hands-on art and theory, this class will be exploring the local traditional arts, including Jomon pottery, indigo dyeing, lacquer-ware, embroidery and a special form of painting known as neputa e, which is used in the creation of the Neputa Festival floats.
- Organizational Behavior and Japanese Human Resource Management - A class mainly on how Japanese managers do their jobs in a business setting.
Phew, that’s quite a bit. The majority of those classes fall on Thursday, meaning I’ll be in class from 8:40 in the morning to 5:20 in the afternoon. I have to get to school early tomorrow before my first class (which actually isn’t until the afternoon) and make sure I have my paperwork all done correctly and reading for my professors’ hanko, or signature stamp.
This past weekend wasn’t quite as crazy as the last one, but I’ve still managed to have a good time. Yesterday evening I went out to a real sit-down Japanese restaurant for the first time, a ramen shop by the name of Nabe Ramen.
I went with Lim, Yeong and a New Zealand student named Joline. The place was pretty nice, on the other side of the big bridge near the international house. Lim had heard about it from his tutor and had been there once before. All of the tables inside were low to the floor, requiring the removal of shoes before going up into the tables. We took a seat near the back corner. I asked about what might be good, and I settled on tonkotsu, which is fried pork cutlets. They would be added to the top of my big bowl of ramen. Here’s a shot of what it looked like when it made it to the table:
Before the meal started, I got a shot of the girls in attendance:
During the course of the meal, I noticed that my two Korean friends were being very quiet, so I decided to break the silence by chatting with Joline. It wasn’t until later I learned that it is considered bad manners in Korea to speak while eating a meal like that. Quite the opposite of America! Yet another little difference learned between the east and west. We also got to talking about names and the kanji used in them. Lim managed to puzzle out a few kanji for me that would (closely) match my first name phonetically. They are 助, 世, and 夫, with the characters meaning save, world, and artisan. Artisan who saves the world! Pretty nice ring to that I think. Before leaving, I decided to get a shot of the building:
Today was mostly a solitary affair, with me heading out into town to check on somethings I needed for my room, including scissors, toilet cleaning supplies, a vacuum cleaner bag and some food for the days to come. I was reminded of the peaceful two days I had last weekend, just biking the street, taking in the sites, exploring the shops, people-watching. I got some interesting shots. Here is the ever-majestic Iwaki-san in the distance behind some buildings near downtown Hirosaki:
I shopped in Jappal mainly, at the their nice 100 yen shop on the upper floor. On my way out I noticed a promotional set up for Aflac, a workplace insurance company well-known in America for their silly commercials with the duck squawking, “AFLAC!” The Japanese version seemed a bit more subdued and a whole lot more white:
With cherry blossom just around the corner here in northern Japan, some of the sakura seem to be getting a little impatient. I spied this tree on my way back home from my day of shopping and biking:
For this evening, I’m going to relax and try to get to bed at a decent hour. Due to recent comments by one Joseph Tame, I decided to download an audio book by Haruki Murakami, specially Norweigan Wood. I’m going to delve into that one right after I finish this up. Wish me luck tomorrow on the first day!
YokohamaBogi Says:
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