Settling in and starting over...

I've officially been at the university for a week now but it's felt much longer. Time, for some odd reason, seems to be slower over here. Maybe it's the fact that it the sun rises and sets earlier than in America. Go figure.

Monday was my first official holiday here in Japan. It was national Health and Sports day (taiiku no hi..I think) and I did nothing besides ride my bicycle around and go to Aruku, the 24 hour supermarket. Ironically, I took it easy on the national "fitness" day. I guess I haven't dropped my silly American ways.

Tuesday was a more exciting day as I actually got to see some of Japan and experience something new. Jiro took Sean and I took one of many ashiiyu, which is essentially a hot spring for feet. It was quite refreshing, but a few minutes into it my feet felt as if they were about to start boiling. Actually, they just turned bright red. After the relaxing foot spa, we rode to Big Wave Yamaguchi which is a very modern art museum, theater, and library rolled into one building. It was a very aesthetically pleasing building and I plan to go back and take some pictures. We browsed a little and found out that an American indie movie, Tideland, would be playing on Friday. I was excited because I missed these type of movies. On our way back to the university, we all stopped by a food vendor and bought some takoyaki (fried octopus) which wasn't that bad. However, I don't see myself eating it anytime soon since it gave me the shits. But hey, I tried..right?

On Wednesday, I took two classes: Karate and Beginning Japanese. Karate was interesting, but we had no clue what was being said. We were lectured for half of the class on the history. To my little understanding, the type of karate that we are learning is from Okinawa. After the lecture, the sensei showed us different hand and leg forms and the stances. Which reminds me, I need to practice. He also showed us the proper way to sit at the beginning and end of class and I must say it is quite painful since I have such long legs. Another minor discomfort that I have to get used to. The next class was ridiculous, however. Since I got a 5 out of 20 on my placement test, I was placed in the beginning class. The class we are taking for actual credit is an embarrassment. We had to learn hiragana (the basic alphabet) over and do silly introductions that I learned in my first class. Hopefully, it'll pick up.

Wednesday night, I hung out with some of the international students. Michael, the aussie, and Sarah, the Canadian, are pretty fun to talk to. One of these days, since Michael can drive over here, we're going to rent a car and go traveling a little bit. I also went to the English speaking society club where we were the guests of honor. Except most of the Japanese were embarrassed to talk to me. Odd situation but that's another post for another time. The club is strange, but most of the people seem very friendly.

Thursday was pretty relaxed. I just went to another basic Japanese class in the Economics department. The pace was very fast, but I actually understood most of what was said which was nice and gave me a small boost of confidence. I had learned most of the grammar we were going over, but I still learned quite a bit. Later that night, I just hung out with the international students and talked for a couple of hours.

Yesterday was decently fun. I bought a calligraphy set and took my calligraphy class. It was pretty fun but frustrating. One of Sean and my friends, Shoko, is taking the class with us to help us out.

Last night, we all went to go see Tideland at the arts center which was a bizarre movie. I didn't really enjoy it, but didn't totally hate it. I actually don't know what to think besides it finely rode the line between art and utter shit. Not a film that I would probably watch again and I think that was the general consensus. I feel bad for Shoko and Hisako because I could tell they wanted to leave, but Jiro said it would have been really rude to walk out on a movie. Go figure. Anyway, when we got back to campus, I stopped by the ESS meeting and then went back home and watched some LOST. Rockin' Friday night, right?

Today, I think I may go traveling and exploring again...I'll write more besides general updates later since I need to get out of my dorm and get some fresh air.