30 March 2009

My first day of Japanese language class was this morning. I walked to the classroom with four of my classmates since we were all a bit unsure of the exact location of the building. It took 20 minutes to walk there, and we were perfectly on-time. The name of our Japanese language professor is Watenabi Sensei, and he is a very cute old man. He was Don’s language professor when he lived in Japan, so Watenabi Sensei came out of retirement to teach his student’s students. It is pretty cool, and the class goes by very quickly. We received two workbooks from him, and we are learning a lot in a short period of time. We are only in Kyoto for four more weeks, so we have a total of twelve Japanese language classes. It doesn’t really seem like a lot when I stop to think about it, but I hope I have enough time to learn a descent amount of Japanese. On the walk back from class, I stopped by Nakau and bought the medium bowl of tanuki for 290 yen. I still enjoy it just as much as when I first got here, and Nakau still has the cheapest prices I have found thus far in my travels. It is in a very convenient location as well, so I have a feeling many of us will continue to go there quite frequently for cheap meals.
At 2:30pm, we met in the hotel lounge with Don for our first session of our Arch 480 class. We each presented our PowerPoint on a different aspect of Japan’s culture and shared stories about the new foods we have tried. The heater is always on in the lounge, so the presentations seemed to go on forever since the room was so hot! All of us seem to complain that our hotel rooms are too hot or too cold. Mine is too cold, but I’d rather have it be that way instead of too hot. After class, I borrowed Norio’s phone to call my Uncle Masaru. He was very happy to hear from me, especially since he thought I had acquired my own cell phone, but he was disappointed when I told him I was only borrowing Norio’s. He was familiar with the name Kobayashi-san, so I’m assuming my Grandma had mentioned Norio’s name to him many times. Anyways, it was a good thing Norio was close by since Uncle Masaru didn’t understand that I needed him to refax me the contact information he had sent me earlier. Norio resultantly explained it to him in Japanese, so I received the fax later that night.
In the evening, a group of five of us went out in search of something sweet to eat. We ended up getting crepes, which were absolutely delicious. Mine cost 650yen, and it had custard, peaches, strawberries, bananas, and whip cream in it. Yummy! If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d probably eat it way more often. The rest of the time was spent wandering around department stores and the shopping arcade. I still can’t believe how easily I can find my way around, especially since I haven’t even been here for a week! Something funny happened tonight though. The group of us was waiting around until it was 7pm to look for discounted bento boxes in the department stores. The first one we went to had discount sale stickers on them, and they had really low numbers on them, so we all filled our shopping baskets with food. When we went to checkout however, we realized that the amount was merely deducted from the original cost, and it was not the sale price of the item itself. The food therefore was not any cheaper than food we can get at convenience stores. It was very embarrassing, and we had to carry all of our goods back to the refrigerator section and put them back. It was quite the scene, and I’m pretty sure all of the Japanese people were confused. Now we know though, so I guess we learned something very valuable tonight.
For dinner, we found a small place in a basement that served semi-American food and yakitori. I ordered two yakitori and a side of tofu for a total cost of 250 yen. My friend Derick ordered French fries and a chicken pizza, and the pizza was very interesting. The fries were normal, but the pizza had the thinnest crust ever. It was equivalent to a crispy and thin pita chip, and it didn’t have tomato sauce on it. It was just a super cheesy pizza with chicken and green onion. I’m not sure I could eat an entire personal pizza like that, but it was something tasty and different to try. The rest of the night was spent on the massage chairs as usual. A Japanese lady was totally passed out on one of them, and she was snoring super loud. We were all laughing, and this probably went on for a good 45 minutes. It was awkward when she finally woke-up, since there was no one there when she first sat down to use them, but it was very hilarious at the same time. It was an amusing way to end the night. Tomorrow we travel to Ise to see some very historic sites, so I am very excited.