Day 2:

First full day in Japan. Woke up around 7:45am, first thing of the day was a breakfast to kinda introduce ourselves and to explain the (insanely complex) garbage system. This consists of sorting garbage into the correct bags and taking them out at the correct time on the correct day otherwise they will force you to commit harakiri if you put any plastics in the burnables bag!! After breakfast we had a general orientation to introduce all the teachers, tell us about life at JCMU, and just general “what not to do in Japan” stuff (this includes wearing your outside shoes inside, talking in English during class hours, and riding your bike without a helmet!) After a quick pizza lunch (Japanese pizza isn’t all that much different from US pizza, only smaller), we were broken into groups and assigned bicycles. Luckily I got there early so I got to pick out a fairly new looking bicycle, and a very stylish red helmet (I’ve been told that the locals sometimes refer to us as “those helmet wearing gaijin” because I’ve yet to see any Japanese people riding bicycles with helmets on).

At 2:15pm we all gathered together for a city-wide bike tour. It was about 90 degrees outside and I think the humidity was around 80%, but we went anyway. We rode by things like the post office, pharmacy, grocery store (2 of them), and finally ended up at a mall called AL Plaza, a 6-story next to the main train station in Hikone. We were given two hours to do some shopping, and then we would be met near a McDonalds so that someone could pick up all of our bags. Luckily AL Plaza had a “100 Yen Shop”, where we were all able to buy necessities like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc. After we got back to JCMU, I took a shower and began to prepare for the Japanese placement test that was going to be held the following morning.

Day 3:

At 9am this morning we had out Japanese placement test. It was one of the most difficult tests I have ever taken. It consisted of a grammar, reading and writing, and oral interview sections. There is no guessing on answers when it comes to a foreign language. I spent the rest of the morning in fear wondering if I was going to be placed down in 1st year again. Most people I talked to were feeling the same way. Around noon I went with my neighbor Stacy-san to a local ‘mall’ called Caines, which from the outside looks fairly small. Turns out the place is like a Home Depot and a Meijers with 3 restaurants and a McDonalds all under the same roof. I learned that the place had just opened this July. It took us a few hours to weave through all the aisles, especially in the grocery section where all the food was foreign and it took us about 5 minutes to decipher a label. After leaving Caines we returned to JCMU, where I spent most of the night emptying my suitcases and arranging my room. I also found out that I placed in 2nd year (yea!) as did most other people I knew. I don’t think anyone placed in a level lower than what they expected. Feeling jet-lagged, I went to bed around 10pm.

Day 4:

Today was a free day, and I began it by waking up around 5am. The morning was dedicated to continuing to unpack as well as to clean up our especially grimy and disgusting apartment. Somehow my roommate and I drew the shorts straws when it came to room assignments, because everything in here is dirty or broken. The bathroom shower curtain was covered with mold, the toilet seat is cracked straight down the middle, our refrigerator looks like it took a few hits to the top with an axe and then some sort of insect nested into the foam insulation (there is also a large burn spot on the top of it). We have a toaster oven, at least I think that’s what it is under the 20-years of caked on food stuffs, our rice cooker was filthy (and after two failed attempts at making rice we confirmed that it isn’t broken, it just takes over an hour to cook 2 cups of rice (wtf?!?)). The list goes on and on. Overwhelmed by it all, I took off to go visit Hikone castle from a bunch of others.

Hikone castle is about a 20 minute bike ride from JCMU. On the way there we stopped at a small shrine that looked like it had something to do with a cow. After wandering around for a bit, we started up again for Hikone castle. To get to the entrance you have to go around a fairly large sized moat. After we parked out bikes, we passed by a stand selling ice cream for 250yen. The woman who sold it to us started to chat with us (in Japanese) because she had lived in New York for a while. Most of us in the group (of 5) had no clue what she was saying, but a well placed nod and a hai seemed to work. Getting into the castle cost 500yen, and traversing many many many steep stone steps (to thwart invaders, I’d assume). The castle sits fairly high above the city of Hikone, so once to the top we were able to go to a lookout and see the entire city, JCMU, and Lake Biwa. Going inside of the castle was quite a trip because to get to every level you had to go up an almost vertical set of stairs, which has been updated with some metal fittings, however it was difficult because we were not allowed to wear shoes inside the castle. It turned out to be a pretty small castle from the inside, with only 4 different levels, and without any ornamentation or artwork left on the walls. I am not sure if it is the original castle, or if it was rebuilt anytime in recent history (which it most likely was).

While inside the castle it began to sprinkle only a little bit, but by the time we got out of the castle the dark clouds were starting to roll in. We decided that we didn’t mind getting a little bit wet, and found our bikes and rode over to the gardens. By the time we made it there, however, the rain was starting to come down pretty hard. With only one of us in the group with an umbrella, we decided we would come back to the gardens another day, and started our 20 minute trek back to JCMU. Before even leaving the castle grounds, the rain started coming down in buckets. We were all soaked by this time, and tried to make it home as soon as possible. I wasn’t too worried about getting myself wet, but I was carrying my camera and passport in my backpack, and I didn’t want anything to happen to them. By the time we got back to JCMU, we were wet straight through to our underwear, and we all tried to make it to our rooms without leaving too many puddles of water.

Since our first day of class is tomorrow we all had to get together to work on our homework and review for class. Luckily the first week of class is going to be a review session, so our brains shouldn’t be taxed too much.

Day 5:

Class starts today! Woke up around 7am (mostly from jet-lag but also from the need to study), and went to class at 8:50am. Spent most of the day going through the syllabus and other class materials, and towards the end of the 3 hours we started to review some things from first year Japanese. Nothing too hard, luckily. Class was done by 11:40am, and I went back to my room to (attempt) to make some lunch. I had bought some unagi at Al Plaza, and had some rice, so I thought that I would cook that up. Started the rice cooker at around noon, 10 minutes later its sitting there warm not doing anything. So I start to hit some different buttons, and I figure out that I had it on the warming setting before (all the buttons were in Japanese, naturally). So of the three buttons on the thing (warming function, clear, and cup amount) I finally figured out how to work in. So 20 minutes later I check on it, and the rice is still sitting there, slightly warm. I wait another 10 minutes. Now its starting to cook! So its approaching 12:45pm, I have a class at 1pm, and I check on the rice and it seems to be done, albeit a little wet. Microwave my unagi (in the microwave down the hall, since none of the rooms have any) and I start to munch on my rice and find…..its not even cooked! 45 minutes totally wasted. I eat my unagi and head out the door.

1pm is the start of my Japanese Business Perspectives class, a 3-hour once a week class. The book wasn’t in yet, so the teacher provided us with copies of the pages. We then sat for 3 hours (with 2 10-minute brakes) through some very basic business term definitions and general chatter from the teacher to us and between other students. So far I’m not sure if this class will be worth my time, however it is only once a week, and I do need the credits.

While it rained all day long, I was very frustrated with our kitchen situation and so I went out with Stacy-san (who lost her bike lock in the mad dash home from Hikone castle) back to Caines to do a bit of shopping. She got her bike lock, and I got a load of things for the kitchen, including a new pot with a lid (that has a handle!), some bowls and plates, and a new toaster over (only 1980yen)!! We also got a few groceries while we were there, including some ‘peanut creme’, spices like pepper and salt, and some pancake mix. Getting this all home proved to be a challenge, and after attempting to strap the toaster over box to the back of my bike a few times unsuccessfully, Stacy-san carried it back on her lap. When I got back, my roommate and I took the old (and totally grody) toaster over and shoved it onto the top shelf in the entryway where we can’t see it, and opened up the shiny, clean new one! Now we can cook things like toast, pizza, and french fries!! Sounds dumb but we’ve found it hard to cook anything, let alone American food, with our pathetic kitchen set up. We’ve been saying that it feels like we’re living in the stone age, and might as well just break out a campfire and some drum sticks. Stacy-san eventually came over with raisin bread, and we all had a fun time eating toast.