"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
- Mark Twain
I’ve kept busy the past couple weekends, doing one sort of party or another. Not to say that the weekday stuff isn’t great, too. It’s hard to believe, but we’re more than half-way through this semester! Starting pretty soon, I’m going to have to start worrying about finals and presentations. Well, I’ll go over some of the highlights of the past weeks.
I just got back from a rock show with Takako, whom I believe I mentioned earlier on my post about hanami. After seeing Yasu’s band last week, I just knew I had to go out and see them again. Takako had a great time as well. It was actually her first time seeing a concert like that!
I’ve been having another great week in Japan. This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I attended hanami on three separate occasions at Hirosaki park. Situated in the northeastern portion of Hirosaki, the park is home to about 2600 cherry trees, which all have spectacularly blossomed. I’ve been told that over the course of “Golden Week” (which happens next week), about 2 million people will pass through Hirosaki park. I will now do as many other gaijin already have and cover my blog here with photos of pink trees.
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.
This one isn’t going to have a day associated with it because I haven’t been able to keep up with writing about everyday. The main reason for this (if you follow my Twitter then you know) is that my MacBook’s hard drive crapped out on me on Monday. However, everything is good and back up and running. So this will be a quick post to get everyone back up to speed on what’s been happening the last couple of days or so.
It’s been a couple days since I’ve been able to sit down and write a blog post. Being as such, I’m going to make this a quick one (I hope). My first weekend in Japan was one of two worlds: solitary exploration and raucous socializing.
I woke up a couple minutes before my alarm clock was to go off at 7 A.M.. This night went much better thanks to the working heater over in the corner. Today was the day of the Japanese Language Placement Test, the evaluation that would determine what level of Japanese language class I would take. I wasn’t too nervous, since there really wasn’t anything to be nervous about - it served only to place me in a class appropriate to my skill. I did the usual morning routine of showering and teeth brushing, grabbed my things and went out the door.
The second day has come and gone. I sit here in my room tonight, unpacking my things (finally) and getting ready to sleep, in preparation for the Japanese Language Placement Test tomorrow. Due to the incredibly long length of my last post and the need for me to get to bed on time, this will be a much more abbreviated entry.
*** WARNING: EPICLY LONG POST AHEAD ***
Here I was thinking that yesterday was as good as it could get. Today was an absolutely packed first day in Japan. Where do I even begin? I suppose that there is but one place to begin, and that place is the beginning.
There’s my spending money for the first couple months! I got the call earlier today from the bank that my yen had come in. It was convenient, also, that my brother Will called up about getting picked up at school at the same time. Two birds, one stone! That is 91,000円 even, worth $1000. It’s the amount that Hirosaki recommended for students when first arriving in country. My first expenses upon arriving in Japan will be taking the subways around in Tokyo to catch my flight up to Aomori and then staying in a hotel the night I arrive. Hopefully I can get by with the money I’ve saved for the trip, and maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll get some donations from my parents, too. :P
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