Here's some actual snow falling...we had snow alternating with rain yesterday, and more snow today. It's not cold enough for snow to stick to the roads, so it's just pretty (if a little inconvenient to ride bikes in).
And another view of my room - sorry about the poor lighting, but it was early in the morning. It's my desk, which is opposite my sliding doors. I have a pretty good view from my window of the lake. Also, note how narrow the room is. The shelf on the left is up against the wall and the armoire on the right is actually nestled into a cubbyhole in the wall so the front of it is where the rest of the wall is.
And lunch today - this is from an udon shop just down the road from JCMU. Gyoza (Chinese dumplings) and chahan (fried rice) - probably 2 of my favorite foods, Japanese or not.
Yesterday was part 2 of our orientation. We briefly went over what the four levels of Japanese here covered and what was expected of us. JCMU essentially crams a year's worth of information into a single semester, so we're expected to study a lot every day and come to class well-prepared. Class is essentially for reviewing whatever is in the syllabus, so the learning part is pretty much done on our own. After the brief explanation we had our placement test. We were given over 2 hours to complete it, but I was done in about an hour or so. It had 4 parts - listening, grammar, reading/writing, and an oral exam. I thought it went fairly well - my kanji knowledge was pretty rusty and the listening exam wasn't great but the speaking part went well, so I figured I was doing pretty well. I ended up placing into level 2, which was not at all what I wanted. I was a little frustrated with myself because I feel like I'm not going to learn very much - technically, I've covered the textbooks used in levels 2 and 3 already. But I guess I should just leave it up to the professors.
After the placement test, we had a brief cooking lesson. Our instructor was a Japanese woman living in Hikone who worked with us to show us how to make chirashizushi. Chirashizushi is an older and more traditional variety of sushi than the type we usually see (the rolls are common here also, but they were invented as a fast food item in the early 1800s). It consists of vinegared rice with vegetables mixed in - the veggies are often pickled. I don't really know what all was in ours because we had a package of instant-ish mix that included mixed veggies and the vinegar "sauce" to mix in with the rice. It's usually served with egg and nori (the dark green seaweed sushi is usually wrapped in), and it's pretty good! Cooking Japanese food was fun - I just need to learn how to make more of it.
Today, we had our first day of classes. Our electives don't start until next week, so it was just 3 hours of Japanese. We have 3 50-minute classes a day, with 10 minutes between each. There are 2 teachers in level 2 that alternate depending on what hour of the day and day of the week it is. The schedule seems sort of random. We started with Kitasaka Sensei, who is a part-time teacher. She's fairly nice, and pretty funny. The class stayed pretty engaging. I prefer the second professor, though - Aizawa Sensei. Everyone who has had him before says that he starts to seem like your dad after a while...he's always wanting you to do well and you don't want to disappoint him. (For the record, our "mom" is Iga-san, a very shrill young Japanese woman who organizes most of the dorm stuff for us and alternates between being really friendly and yelling...kind of like Sensei) He's also really funny. I like him a lot.
Class today was a little daunting, despite the nice professors. I've forgotten how scary it is to be sitting in a rapid-fire Japanese class. The class is basically a dialogue between the professor and all the students, and the prof calls you out by name so you have to know the answers at any given moment. It's a little intimidating, and something I'm not used to, though that's how Japanese 301 and 302 were for me at home. Also, both teachers speak entirely Japanese during class. If you don't understand they either explain it to you in Japanese or move onto the next students. We have homework assignments every night as well as a test every week. This course definitely moves quickly. I think I will find a balance soon enough, though.
As always, there's plenty more to say about what I've been up to, but I'm trying not to write a novel. I'm looking forward to relaxing this weekend - we're going to Viva City (the closest mall) tomorrow, and I'd also like to go to Hikone Castle and explore the grocery store before class starts up again. Who knows what adventures I'll have to talk about next time?
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