The Night Before the First Day of School

Sooooo….tonight’s the night before the first day of classes for the spring semester for international students at Kansai Gaidai.  Most Japanese students won’t be around since they just started their spring break between semesters just a couple days ago or so.  The only Japanese students who will be around are those who have decided to take afternoon lecture courses with us international students.  Kinda sucks…less break, you know?

Anyways, I’m sitting here at the kotatsu in my shack enjoying the warmth of my last school-free moments.  I’m a bit anxious, as usual, because I’m excited for school to start, but I’ve been a lzy bum all winter break long.  Thus, I’m also anxious because I haven’t studied much at all, and my Japanese is going down the drain, as is what’s prone to happen during any school break.  I did make one good productive choice and reviewed 2 out of the 6 lessons of kanji, but that’s about it.  No grammar.  No vocab.  No nothing…. (｡ŏ﹏ŏ)

This semester I will be in level 5 reading/writing (aka kanji class) and level 5 speaking (aka grammar and vocab class).  I’ve signed up to take two lecture courses: Monsters, Ghosts, and the Making of Modern Japan, which covers Japanese folktales and creatures of myth, and Intersection of Fantasy & Real Life in Modern Japanese Literature, which is a literature class in which we read the professor’s favorite obscure Japanese books translated into English.  Lengthy titles, right?  I actually didn’t get into the first class, and instead I’m in Survey of Japanese Art, a class in which an old professor lectures you to sleep while describing all the art since Japan existed.  I hope that maybe I can get into the Monsters class before the end of the week….we’ll see.  I’m on the waiting list, and I asked the head of the Japanese department back at my home institution to see if she could get me into the class via emailing the staff here at Kansai Gaidai.  We’ll see.  If not, I’m pretty happy with my class schedule because I’ll be done by no later than 3 pm every weekday.  ^__^

Right now, I am getting ready by pretending to review grammar and then picking out my outfit for tomorrow, the first day of school, which is also forecasted to be a cold and gloomy day.  Oh yeah~!  :P  Heh heh.

I’ll get back to recapping how Tokyo and Seoul went.  To tell you the truth, Tokyo was meh.  If you want to visit Japan, I really recommend the Osaka/Kyoto/Nara area.  It’s so much more cultural here in the Kansai region, and there’s so much more to see, both modern and historical.  Tokyo’s cool for like 2 days.  Then…it’s pretty much Times Square x50 and too expensive.  Thus, my Tokyo post will be kinda meh, and then I will write as much as I can about Seoul!  I loved Seoul, the good and the bad…except maybe the pollution, but, yeah, Seoul.  Awesome.