So, if you can’t tell from the extensive updates, I finally had internet yesterday! Of course, I didn’t have time to take out the notes-to-self or add in the pictures of my room, so I’ll hopefully get a chance to do that sometime today! Any other mistakes you notice, send them my way!
Yesterday after the first morning of class, we headed over to Shijo station from which we walked to Oppa, which is an enormous shopping district. The stores go on for a long while, curving off to the right out of sight. More streets still spring from the main shopping avenue—free of cars. There appears to be a lot of fashion there. I don’t just mean being sold. Everywhere you look there’s another amazingly dressed young lady with impeccable hair and perfect make-up. Large groups of school kids, mostly middle school and some high school, thumb through clothing whilst chatting with their friends. Starry-eyed foreigners such as myself wander in and out of stores displaying impossible to wear heels and hair extensions. In most of the stores you will hear the usual いらっしゃいませ！（ welcome!) but sometimes the clerks are too cool to say such a thing to a foreigner or sometimes not to anyone at all! Walking in to one particular store by the name of Spinns, Jenna and I knew it was for us. Upon entering they played a track of a Japanese man yelling in random English to the Star Wars theme. Immediately following was The Beasite Boys. Of course, it also helped that an impossibly adorable young woman greeted us upon entering. Anyway, we danced like the gaijin…lunatics that we are despite the odd looks we received from the other shoppers. Totally. Worth. It. I ended up purchasing a skirt and dress (which makes me look pregnant sans belt) for $25. Japan is expensive, but not if you look in the right places!
My host mother handed me more lovely gifts today! Three handkerchiefs from Takashimaya. Everything she has given me has been so amazing! I don’t know how I can ever properly thank her in the end. My room is wonderful, she does my laundry and folds it every day, she vacuumed my room today, she makes every meal for me when I am home, and she in addition gives me beautiful gifts. I think the three ice cream bars I brought home today for dessert might not quite say “thank you” enough!
We are still reviewing for our placement exams, which begin on Thursday with an interview and then the written test on Friday. The schedule is a little unclear for the next few weeks. After a few weeks of sit down language instruction, we move on to other useful instruction such as how to cook in Japanese or how to read a news paper. Today, however, I began my first English taught class. I will be taking the Doshisha Joint Seminar. This means that for the rest of September, my class will be just AKP students. Starting in October, however, we will be joined by a roughly equal number of Doshisha University students. I am looking forward to meeting them very much. This years seminar is on common knowledge in literature (and how it makes people who they are), mostly pertaining to children’s stories comparable between Japanese and American culture. Our professor has encouraged us to drop the ideas of there being two cultures (she believes the Japanese have “orientified” themselves which I believe, in part, is true); but how many Americans do you know have read anything by Natsume Soseki or The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter? I certainly hadn’t even heard of Soseki until taking a Modern Japanese Literature course in college. Of course, I cannot generalize, as I’m sure it is by far not the least well-known Japanese written novel in the United States. (My professors have certainly heard of it!) Anyway, we will be comparing literature including some of my absolute favorite children’s stories, authors, and fairytales. For example we will be comparing Aladdin and Doraemon—a children’s cartoon about a boy with a magic robot cat who can produce just about anything the boy can think of. Sound like anyone you know? (If you thought “genie”, you get a cookie. An internet cookie…which means you probably want to erase it soon, anyway.) Bad jokes aside, I really cannot wait to meet the Doshisha students!
My other class, which I begin today, is on the History of Kyoto. Being in Kyoto, I suspect we will be going on a significant number of field trips. As I am still about six-years-old at heart, I am enthralled! In addition, I have always been a little bit in love with history, though not enough to ever before really sit down and study it. I have a feeling, however, that in the case of studying Kyoto, I will devour it. I have always held a particular fascination (as, I suspect many people have) with the Heian period in Japanese history. The name “Heian” refers to the Kyoto back in the day when it was called Heian Kyo. At the time, Kyoto flourished considerably, chock full with nobles weeping on their sleeves; and taking considerable time to write about it (for which I am grateful). It was the capital of Japan then, which was only just beginning to twinkle with national consciousness.
Also, here is my crazy keitai:
If you thought “Oh, man…is that Kabuki Kitty?” Then, yes. IT IS. Kabuki Hello Kitty! Hurrah!
Tentative plans for the weekend: Nara, Osaka, Kyoto Art Festival. We’ll see what actually happens!
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