４月１２日 Day 19: First Day of School

First day of school and the weather SUCKED. It was about 7 degrees (44 degrees F for us Americans), raining with super strong wind. I feel like I'm living in Seattle or something!!

Other than that though, the 2 classes I had today were pretty fun! I had my Japanese class and Anthropology of Japan-- crazy! My Japanese professor is a lovely little woman named Omori-sensei. She's got Cleopatra bangs and a little bob hair-do. She reminds me of a young Tsai Chin, circa You Only Live Twice.

Her voice is very raspy at the moment because she caught a cold from staying out late doing Hanami! HA! I can already tell I'm going to like her. The class wasted no time, we dove right into a lesson, and I learned a new structure, "〜ばかり。" Which means "I just did something."

I feel like the class is really good for me. It's literally picking up where my last class left off. It meets every day for 1 1/2 hours so it's not too overwhelming either. One thing that I have to get used to using is Keigo (honorific language). I've never really used or heard it before (my family's waaaay to casual for that) so it's really hard for me to remember all the different versions of the verbs. I'm sure Omori-sensei will teach me well though! Soon I'll be formal enough to hang out with Masako-sama in the looney bin!

My next class was Anthropology of Japan. The class was PACKED-- probably around 80-100 people in it, my biggest lecture ever! The professor was a bald American man with a lisp. He was very eccentric too, and was completely hilarious, but I'm actually not going to take the class though because it sounds too group oriented. I hate classes where I'm forced to depend on the efforts of others; I can never trust them! Plus, I'm taking another anthropology-type class called Contemporary Japanese Culture (way more fun, and NO GROUP PROJECTS!).

The classes are fun, but the in's and out's of the school are also pretty amazing. There's one main path down the campus, and it's better known as "The Catwalk" because all the girls strut down it in their high heels and short skirts. The girls here are all so fashionable, pretty and just... dressed to the nine's EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Isn't it exhausting looking that beautiful all the time?! It makes the gaijin really easy to spot out in their sweatshirts and jeans. Guess I won't be wearing those for a while!