Week three

Monday 22

I actually managed to get up ok for the first day of school. I doubt it will continue as it is still summer but hey! 7:30 starts are never fun when you aren't used to them. I was really nervous on the day and we all headed off to school together. Minus Chantelle who headed off back to Sendai to visit her mum for the week. So Issie was very nervous as she didn't know anyone in J3.

J2 is actually quite big. It is about 20 students and our first teacher was really nice. Her name is Keiko Sensei. Keiko is her second name, but we have three teachers with the same surname so she asked us to call her Keiko instead. She's cute.

The first lesson was very easy though. Just going grammar from Minna no nihongo 1. Mind you, I also discovered just how fast at writing Coral and I are compared to others in the class. We plus Sorcha were ahead of the class and even got the homework done in the lesson. However the next class was listening. [Cue dramatic sound effects]. Listening is never something I have been good a. I can normally get a good gist of the idea of what someone is telling me but specifics are often lost on me. When the track was slow I could understand fine, but when it sped up I had difficulties. Just had to remind myself this is why I'm here and it's only the first week.

Then we had Business. For those not in the know, Issie, Coral and I have to take 3 classes of business related subjects in order to pass this semester. The problem being the business teachers all up and left on exchanges so ours opinions were limited. Multinational corporations wasn't even on the original list but is taught in English. So Coral and I went along. It was interesting. It's a small class with 6 of us and the teacher seems nice. We got reading for homework so we'' see how things go next week.

Tuesday 23

Tuesdays lessons went much like the first day. Except we had one more. Japanese culture. Which was basically a class teaching us about Pop culture etc. We spent the first lesson discussing the differences between robot designs in Korean, American and Japanese robots. Notably that Japanese and Korean robots were designed for homeuse. Pouring drinks and entertainment. While as America's robots were all military use. Slightly concerning but hey. We ended the lesson watching Astroboy. :D

Wednesday 24

On Wednesdays and Thursdays we have a different teacher. Shes nice. We did a lot more speaking in her class. Though I got lost a few times.

After class we went to the book store and brought the books. My purse is weeping over how much they were. Basically by the end of all this I will have spend about £200 on books alone :( so much money… Need to get a job out here.

In the afternoon we headed to the ECZ to chill. The ECZ is really fun. It's basically an English corner where Japanese people can go to speak English with native English speakers. It's also kinda where the international students can relax and make friends. I spent most of my first visit meeting new people and playing various games ^^. We also did a dance off, demonstrating just things as the cha-cha slide and Issie's lack of ability to do the running man. Not that I can either but Issie is hilarious while trying. Kamau, Coral and Liz could all do it but Issie and the Japanese guys couldn't.

So yep, lots and lots of fun times.

Thursday 25

Had lessons. Kanji was strange and I'm not sure how it will go. But our teacher for Kanji is really nice and fun. He's very energetic. After we went ECZ for lunch before spending afternoon hanging out with Ren and his friends playing video games and speaking a bit of Japanese.

So bit more information about that. During the welcome party, Coral was stalked (followed) around by two boys. Eventually they got the courage to actually talk to her (while I was talking to the girl who visited Coventry). They talked about anime and stuff and Coral mentioned liking Smash brothers. And so she was visited to this gaming circle thing where they talk English and play games. So of course I came along J

The boys were really nice and we spoke a mixture of Japanese and English. And played Smash brothers and Mario carts for a few hours. They wanted to go out afterwards but we had already arranged to walk home with Issie after her job so we couldn't. But we made plans for in a few weeks.

Friday 26

Friday started with us discovering we could go to a different business lesson so we could skip politics. But we were already up and ready so we decided to go check it out and it turned out to be a very good idea. We all really enjoyed it and decided to sign up for it anyway. We get to leanr some politics, history and also some international relations. IR is revelent to Business so we get the credits while I sort of miss learning about history.

So yep. Issie went off and had dinner with one of her LEPS while Coral and I met up with Hiroyuki and Yumi. Hiroyuki was one of the people we got introduced to at the Welcome party and the two of them are very cute. Matt tagged along for lunch before heading home. But we did had a lesson so we got some jobs done. With Hiro and Yumi's help. Before ending up playing uno in the ECZ. Then we had class. So yer Cool J

Saturday 27

Jobs day. Went to IAO to sort out schelue. Um. Yer. Brought wifi in loo of not actually having a phone in Japan. Expensive but not as bad as a phone. Took 2 hours. Bought some stationary. Did hwk. Watched anime. But the next day was full of awesomeness. So much so it gets its own blog J