I took a placement test for Japanese this morning. It was terrible. I know I haven't formally studied Japanese in over a year, but still. The first part of the test was kanji writing and recognition, which left me with a feeling of doom. I think I left more than half of the sheet blank. I know the tests were supposed to get progressively harder, but I forgot even the most basic characters, such as the ones for "to study." The rest of the test was not much better. I felt even worse afterwards when I heard others saying, "oh my god, I can't believe I almost forgot *insert word here*," when I had absolutely no idea what the word even meant. The most frustrating part, however, was definitely seeing something that I'd learned in the past but had completely forgot. About a quarter of the blank ones were like that.
I guess the point of the placement test is to put one in their most comfortable Japanese setting, however, so at least I'll be learning at the level I really should be. And even though the higher classes will be learning more advanced stuff, that doesn't mean I can't study things like kanji on my own. Also, since I'm living in Japan, I'll get a ton more speaking practice than I'd ever get in any kind of class in America. That was a comforting thought, which made me freak out a tad less.
After the exam was a five-minute interview, which showed off my extremely shabby Japanese speaking ability. That's all I'll say about that.
Once the torture was over, however, a bunch of the students went to Nishiki Market, which is this famous street where there are a ton of little shops, mostly dedicated to food. At first I was a little shy about taking pictures, but after I realized that most of the shop owners didn't mind, I started using my camera more. I passed a couple fruit stands and then finally bought a fig for 200 yen, which, after taking the exchange rate into account, is very roughly $2.50. Fruits are EXPENSIVE!! But it was totally delicious and worth the money since I was craving fruit intensely. After walking around for a few hours, we returned to the hotel and then went to a dinner with the KCJS staff.
We had to stand through the entire dinner. It was one of those purpose-is-mingling dinners, and a lot of mingling did go on. Since everyone was talking though, it got super loud, and towards the end, I mostly stopped talking because I got tired of shouting. The food was delicious.
Yesterday I had a ton of fun! After sitting in the classroom listening to some extreme introductions and announcements, everyone split up into groups and were assigned two Japanese students who were going to take classes with us. My group of four American students got a girl and a boy, Maki and Masa, respectively, and they were really awesome. They took us on a tour of the campus and conversed with us in Japanese. I was really excited that I could understand what they were saying most of the time. Well, usually. Since Maki and Masa were both really understanding and explained stuff we didn't understand, I've gotten more used to actually trying to use my Japanese instead of being reserved and embarrassed about potential errors. I've spoken more Japanese in the past two days than probably my entire time studying Japanese in the States. I'm super pumped to how much my speaking (and listening and reading) will get better just by studying in Japan.
After we got back from our tours and did more school orientation stuff, we headed back to our hotel and then met up for dinner. All the students were assigned randomly to one of five groups, led by two or three Japanese students. I lucked out because I got the group with Maki and Masa again! We then ate at an okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki translates roughly into "fried thing that you like," and it was basically a pancake made out of cabbage, eggs, pork, and some other stuff. But of course since it's a thing that you like, you can ask the to put stuff in or take stuff out to suit your tastes. The whole thing is covered in some sweet sauce stuff and mayonnaise. Honestly, I can't say I'm a huge fan of it. Although I can definitely eat it without a problem--it's not bad by a long shot--I wouldn't go hunting for it if I wanted to eat something. I'm usually a fan of either crispy or chewy things(with the exception of tofu, which is good in any form), so the texture wasn't really to my liking. It's kind of soft and squishy.
After dinner, I requested that we find an arcade, so my entire group schlepped to the arcade to satisfy my request. But the arcade didn't have BlazBlue!!!! I was really shocked since the arcade had four or five floors of games, but none of them were BlazBlue. I felt really bad for making everyone walk there on a fruitless search. On the bright side, my homestay is in Osaka, which apparently has a ton of arcades, so I'll probably be able to find it there. Or at another arcade in Kyoto since I only checked one so far.
Speaking of homestay in Osaka, I found out that I have the farthest homestay from campus. I thought everyone had about an hour commute, but I found out that some of my peers can bike to school in less than twenty minutes. Even though my house is far, I really don't mind. I may have to wake up earlier than everyone else, but I get to see a lot more places on my way to school. And I'll get to experience Kyoto and Osaka, which have very different cultures. Also, since the school subsidizes transportation costs and pays us in cash (I found out that I live the farthest because I receive the most money...), if I can find some way to shorten my trip, such as skating instead of taking the bus to the train station, I can pocket the difference for my personal spending--such as arcade visits! I'm quite happy about that.
Yesterday I got a sheet explaining how to get from my house to school, which involves walking to the bus station, taking the bus to the train station, taking the train, transferring trains, transferring to the subway, and then walking to campus. Although it seemed like a lot of work, I just though, oh well, no point complaining because there's nothing I can do about it. The only frustrating thing is that since I have to keep changing, I can't just plop down and do some homework or something on the way to school. HOWEVER. Today I visited the housing director, and she said, "There are two ways to get from your house. The first is the way written on your sheet, and the second way is faster, easier, and cheaper." Those are all things I like. She then explained to me that I can actually just take one train all the way from my city to a station near the school and then walk ten minutes to school. AWESOME!! I can now do work on the train and have even more pocket money to go to the arcade with.
I currently believe that Japan is the best place on Earth.
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