Day J7-J8

Alrighty, I'm gonna be backposting about the last two days here. Tomorrow deserves its own page tho, because unlike on day 8, I actually did something.
Anyways...
We got up early (for a Sunday) and went to Tokyo station to meet our T.A. from last year and a St. Olaf student who is studying abroad (Ueno-sensei and Sara Padula respectively).



We all went to Harajuku to do minor shopping and hang out. I got some souvenirs for people for a good price. We proceeded to have lunch at The Pause.



after lunch we had Crepes from a stand and dawdles a while before entering the subway and going to some sort of building that had a rather comprehensive arcade floor, which had every modern arcade game which I looked for (Melty Blod Actress Again, Fate/Unlimited Codes, as well as tha most recent installations of ALL the major series). The people in the Taiko club played a taiko game at the arcade, I don't think they fared as well as they had expected to. Folloeing that, we went our separate ways for Dinner and returned to the Dorms Uneventfully.

By the way, welcome to Harajuku.



Day J8, we had class and watched the movie おくりびと, it was published as Departures in the US. It was very enjoyable. Afterwards I went back to the dorm to heal my tiredness.

Day J6

As today was Saturday, there was no class and a group of us went to Akihabara again for a longer trip. It was productive and I was able to cross another person off the souvenir list. I have discovered that games are slightly cheaper in Japan and music is more expensive. We went in multiple shops (more like entire buildings devoted to shopping), one of which had FFXIII cosplayers as an advertisement for the game.




There was a store with another cool display idea, a life size Rei and slightly downscaled Unit 01.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then become learned.

Day J5 Continued

☢ CAUTION ☢ This post has nothing to do with Japan! ☢ CAUTION ☢

So, I was feeling tired at around 5 so I decided to take a nap. I slept for a while and then was awake, but I had no idea what time it was. I felt very well rested, so I assumed that it was near morning. But it was only ten-ish, so I wrote about it. I guess I took it too easy.
Soul silver is pretty cool. I'm using the Pokewalker to level my Bellsprout. It's a pretty clever invention.

Day J5

Today was a pretty low key day overall. We had class and did our second round of interviews, which were difficult because my teammate was sick today, so I had to go it alone. But I think it worked out very well overall. I feel like my Japanese is slowly improving, at least along the lines of the subject matter of the interview. I've been feeling somewhat tired and achy the past few days, so I just went back to the dorm to rest. If anything actually interesting happens I'll post it here, but until then, I'll be taking it easy.

Ed: Thank you, JR

Day J4

Greetings all.
In today's class we had a guest lecture from Professor Lennon, who will be teaching us next week while Professor Kucera is in China. It was an interesting lecture overall, but the best part was that she has a British accent. Whenever I spoke for about half an hour after the lecture, I had to try to not use that accent. Anywho, there was a nice view of the skyline from the classroom window and you could sorta see mount Fuji.



After class, we made a quick trip to Akihabara.



This was the first thing I saw when I left the station. There was a performer off to the side playing strangely fitting Peruvian music. Anyways, for the duration of the two or three short hours there, I was able to cross at least three people off my souvenir list, and do extreme shopping for myself, and I didn't even leave sight of the station door. I plan to return on Saturday and see all of the stuff that I didn't on my first trip.
I got semi-lost on the way back to the dorm. I took a train to Minami Funagashi instead of Higashi Funabashi and ended up using a good hour trying to go sbout a ten minute train ride away. I'll call it a learning experience.

Day J3

Hello all, I will start by informing Laura and other people who care that I am staying in the Dormy Higashi Funabashi, which is probably a different one from last year. Anyways....
Today, we did our interviews, in which groups of two or three of us sat down with a Japanese student and interviewed them. This proved to be very difficult, and gave me impetus to strive to better learn the language. Anyways, we learned some interesting things. For example, the guy said that his favorite type of movie is American movies, and according to the girl, Johnny Depp is somewhat popular in Japan. Here's a group photo we took after the fact.




After that was over at around 3:00 a bunch of us went to a store in Nishi Funabashi. It would be best described as a very cramped (in terms of displays and goods) version of Target. I did some shopping, the results of which are shown below.






On the way back, we passed a Pachinko parlor which, oddly enough, had a church in one of the floors above it.

Day J2

Today was a pretty low key day, except for the morning. The dorm manager's wife (Mama-san, as she is known) decided that we didn't know what time breakfast was, and woke us all up. The worst part about it was that I was asleep at the time, and my alarm was set to go off. She knocked at about the same time as it went off. Since it was the morning, I was very very confused. After breakfast (which was good), she launched us out of the door early, so we wouldn't be late. We ended up being about fifteen minutes early. We went to class and had lunch as usual. Then there was more class until about four-ish, after which we went off in groups into the city. The group in which I was went to a bookstore near Akihabara. I bought a nice Japanese pencil and very well priced manga and light novels, so I could practice my Japanese. Some people in the group were pretty tired from walking at that point, so we split into two groups and some of us went back to the dorms, including me. I had dinner and used the Japanese style bath, お風呂, for the first time. It was surprisingly relaxing and not as awkward as I was expecting. I then did some reading and proceeded to sleep until morning, when I realized I hadn't updated yesterday.