Shrines and classes.

OK, so big things have happened these last couple of days. I’ll start with yesterday.

I woke up around 9, took a shower, and had a leisurely breakfast with the Kuzuharas. That afternoon, I was informed we were going to take a bike ride around so I said sure and took off. Unfortunately, I didn’t take my bag and camera, thinking that it would just be cumbersome. We ended up visiting a nearby semi-famous Buddhist shrine nearby. There were little vendors lining this pedestrian area, it was a bizarre mix of rural and urban all crowded together in a surprisingly comfortable fashion.

We got some soba noodles because apparently they are well known there. You would dip the noodles in this bizarre mix of soy sauce, wasabi, these little onion looking things, and mostly this weird mushy stuff that Yumiko didn’t know how to compare to American food. It was good, not great, but very filling, and I had to work hard to eat all of it because everyone was finishing theirs and I didn’t want to seem wasteful. We then toured around these fields with rice growing for show and all sorts of flowers that were unfortunately not blooming. Mom, you would have loved it. There was also a field with the plant that was used to create soba.

Next we got on our bikes and headed for the supermarket, or supa. It was a 10-15 minute ride, and much smaller than our supermarkets. There were a lot of fish on sale. We then took our 5 or so items back home and I collapsed in exhaustion. It was already evening. I went upstairs to recover, and later dinner was served and afterwards, Kuzuharasan helped me with my hiragana handwriting. I was really sleepy so I read my book (“The Japanese Way” a short info book Amber lent me with a lot of helpful tips about Japan) for a while until about 11pm.

This morning I woke up at 7:30 sharp, took a shower, packed my bag, at breakfast at 8:15, and left on my bike at 8:30. Class was at 9, and I wanted to have some time to find the bike parking, and my classroom. I ended up about 10 minutes early, and sat there chatting with the kids around me. It’s really interesting the different people who come for different reasons.

So we had class from 9 to 11:50 with two 10 minute breaks. It was long, but easy as we covered simple words and greetings. We have quizzes tomorrow on Hiragana, and a vocab. sheet we were told to memorize by tomorrow. We will apparently cover the entire little less than an inch textbook in 6 weeks. Ugh.

After there was a welcome lunch, where I socialized more, and at 2:30 there was a tour of the library, where I will probably be often to use the internet. 3:30 saw me on a campus tour, once again accompanied by a bunch of my new friends whom I am trying very hard to remember the names of. It’s working so far. I made my way home safely and easily, said to Kuzuharasan, “Tadaima” to which she responded “Okairinasai” and now I’m typing this post which I will post later.

(Pic of temporary cafeteria, usual one was under construction for the whole summer T.T)

Pics of the campus (it's a start anyway) left is of the road to the campus pointed towards the bus stop (not seen) and the right is of the campus ceremonial tea house. Yes, tea house. Next post I:ll try to remember a pic of my bike and the Kuzuharas house. It is very grey and rainy right now.