Starting classes

Japanese class this week is a review--which doesn't actually mean it's a review, because I already learned new stuff today in class.  What it really means is that the groups we're in aren't officially our classes yet, and we don't actually take our placement tests until Thursday/Friday (speaking on Thursday, listening and written on Friday).  The groups we're currently in seem to be level based--for example, all of us who have finished third year Japanese, and a couple who have finished 2nd year but seem to be ahead of most 2nd year students, are in the same 'review group'.

But like I said....the stuff we did in class today, while supposed to be review, was stuff I'd never actually had explained to me.  And from talking to other people in the class, I know I'm not alone with that.  I'm not sure if the sensei just had really high expectations for what's covered in our classes, or if it's stuff we missed out on by skipping first year Japanese (pretty much all of us at third year level skipped first year somehow, whether by study abroad, previous classes, or self-study/tutoring), or if it's just that thing where HEY we all come from different schools and hence different curricula, or what.  But it's going to be challenging, I think--which is good.  I like a good challenge, so long as it's one I can reasonably meet.

I'm also taking a class on contemporary theater in Kansai (the region of Japan that includes Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, and also Wakayama where I studied abroad in high school), which seems like it's going to be interesting.  The only real overlap with my theater-focused class at Wellesley is some talking about Noh....which will be different here because we're actually going to see a Noh play, instead of just focusing on videos (!!!).  I'm excited for that--I'm hoping that by seeing a live performance, I'll catch onto what people seem to like about the style so much.  On video, it's very (very very very) slow and rhythmic and sleep-inducing, not to mention it's chanted in classical Japanese (the equivalent to us listening to a play in Old English), so no one can understand a word of it, really.  But enough people seem to really love it that I feel like there has to be SOMETHING behind that?  We'll see.  I get to go see that play on Friday, so I'll be able to say more about it then.

Beyond that, the theater class will be covering more contemporary and also lesser-known theater styles, so it won't overlap much with what I was doing before overall.  It also seems to have a lot of room to explore your own interests, so long as they're within the realm of performance.  I'd like to look into takarazuka (sort of like an all-female version of Broadway) for my final project, if possible, maybe looking at literary themes within that genre.  But I don't have to decide that just yet--our final project proposals aren't actually due until November, so plenty of time! 

I'll also be taking a class that's a joint seminar with Doshisha students.  (For those not so good with Japanese names, Doshisha is the name of the school I'm studying at right now.)  That starts tomorrow, and to be honest, I'm not quite sure what it's going to be about!  But I know it's got a much higher percentage of Japanese students than normal, which ups the chances of being able to make friends.  I like making friends, so that makes me happy.  I'm excited to see how that'll go. 

I don't have new pictures for today, so anyone who looked at what I posted on Facebook yesterday will have seen these already...but I figured I'd stick up some pictures of my neighborhood, so people can see the type of place it is.  It's more towards inaka (countryside) than downtown, despite being a less than 20 minute commute from school (which is towards downtown).  There are scattered rice paddies and small veggie farms around, and street traffic is pretty low volume; it's got a nice quiet atmosphere.  My street is mostly populated by older couples, though a couple families have small children.  A short walk away is the Katsura river, which is lined by more small farms--when we walked by, we saw lots of people fishing (it's still summer weather here).

This is leaving my train station.

FIELD

MY HOUSE

Also today I went shopping with friends and we found an entire store dedicated to KPop idols.  Posters, wall scrolls, coin purses, folders, playing cards, postcards, even socks (???) with pictures of members of various boy bands all over them!!!  It was really amusing.  Also we did purikura (little machines that take pictures of you and then let you decorate them with hearts and stars and writing and bows and rainbows before printing them for you) and so now I have pictures of me looking ridiculously pale (because strong flash + pale skin) with giant eyes (because Japan) and lots of hearts and stars and rainbows.  It's very fun.