More Stuffu!

こんにちわ！

Referring to the title, in Japan, there is only one consonant without a vowel after it (n). So 'stuff' would be pronounced 'stuffu'. Aaaanyway...

Sunday was spent recovering and studying. I had a test yesterday, and though I don't have it back, I did get a look at it partially graded after class when I had my once a week one-on-one required meeting with my sensei, Kojima-sensei. As far as I know I only got one or two wrong, which is pretty good for a big test like that. Today however, I believe we learned more than we have all of last week. Today was the start of, (dun dun dun) verbs.

Sounds innocuous right? Well not so my friend. There are apparently three kinds of verbs (vowel, consonant, and irregular) and though there are rules that tell which are which, there are of course exceptions (always exceptions, sigh). Each kind has a different postulate in a sentance, and there are all sorts of little bits that go between different words. You have to put 'ni' after a time, but not a general time like 'morning'. You have to put this after that and that after this, it's confusing so far. I'm slowly getting it, but today I have no idea why, I was just exhausted. I got enough sleep, but I just couldn't focus. That resulted in several times me just blanking out while trying to say something to a classmate, and looking like a space case. As such, I'm going to sleep earlier tonight. Maybe I'll be better tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow!!! I got a ticket to go see Harry Potter here! I don't know where the theatre is, I got the ticket with some friends, and we're going after class tomorrow. So exciting! Also, since it's so new, it'll be in English with Japanese subtitles so I'll be able to understand it still. Yay!

Ok, I needed to get that out. Back to the last couple of days. Today after class there was a voluntary lecture on archeology at ICU. Apparently, the land the campus is on has been inhabited for like, 300,000 years or something rediculous like that. According to the professor, he has found in his 15 years at ICU, 500,000 artifacts, meaning pottery pieces, arrowheads, knives, fire pits etc. It was a very interesting lecture. Afterwards, we headed out to one of the current dig sites on campus and dug up some stuff. Once again, pics on flickr maybe tomorrow.

As for small random things that have happened, tonight for dinner we went and got food from a 7-11 because Kuzuhara-san was too tired to cook. 7-11's are all over the place here, and though I haven't really been to one in the states, it seems that many people legitimately get quick food there to bring home at night. I generally don't do that at home, but maybe to most Americans that's not so strange. Also for dessert yesterday and today we had grapes. They were smaller and sweeter maybe? I don't know, just different. But good! The skins were really thick, so apparently you suck the insides out and leave the skin behind. It was fun, they kind of popped out. Also Kuzuhara-san brought home an 'apple pie' on Sunday. It was ok as pies go. I liked it though, anything to taste even remotly like something from home.

Other than all of that, I've been just weathering the heat (lol), and working on my Japanese. Oh! I officially signed up for the Mt. Fuji hike. Thats right, on August 2nd, I'm going to hike up Mt. Fuji at midnight so we can watch the sun rise from the top. Scary, neh? (Neh= Japanese expression as a sort of questioning sound, where one is looking for confirmation or just making it sound questioning). Thursday is Ghibli Museum! And then, who knows! Sometimes it's scary, especially at first, and it would be so easy to say "going to Harajuku all alone trying to meet people with no cell phone to call them is too hard, I'll just stay home" but I have been making an effort to not only say yes to any and all invitations on adventures, but also seek them out. When Charlene said she was going to see Harry Potter, I immediately asked if I could buya ticket and tag along. That was of course ok, and here I am, going to see Harry Potter probably in Shinjuku. Man. Alright, that's it for now.

さようなら！