You know, I seem to enjoy Mondays a lot more in Japan than I ever did in the U.S. Maybe that will change over time. When I woke up today, my entire body was sore from soccer. Even so, I looked forward to my classes.
My first class of the day was Japanese I. I waited for Bea to go with me, which may not have been a good idea since she is incapable of being on time. Even so, class never starts when it is scheduled to. Usually it takes the teacher about ten minutes before they actually start teaching, so we walked in late and still had five minutes before class started. We started out the class with a vocabulary test. I found it surprising since we haven't had a real class yet, and if it weren't for the fact that the test was multiple choice, I would have completely failed it. In this case, I comfortably failed it. Honestly, I didn't know anything. I couldn't even make educated guesses. I felt better when Bea told me that a lot of the words she had never seen before and that she had to guess on most of it too.
We learned about the differences between "to" "-ba" and "-tara" today by going through the worksheets we were given the week before. Basically, we went around the class reading the sentences one by one and then chose whatever answer out of the choices that we thought was correct. It amazed me how easily and how fast some of the other students could read and answer. I think there was only one other person in the class who was worse than I was so it was really intimidating. It looks like I will have to do a lot of studying on my own before and after class from now on in order to prepare.
After the lunch period, Bea and I went to Budou. It was a lot of fun today because we got to practice kendo! We learned the basic footwork, how to bow before and after practice or matches, how you should hold the shinai (the practice sword), and how you should strike. At first I had difficulty following the Japanese commands, but I eventually got the hang of it, and by the end of class my teacher was praising me for my good form. Bea and another girl wore their hakama, the traditional Japanese clothes that one would wear in kendo. She got her hakama from the archery club and now I want to buy one too. It's exciting to learn something new and specific to Japanese culture.
After Budou class, Bea and I went to gym together. Today we did the basic physical tests that are done in every gym class. It was humorous for me because Inoue sensei asked a lot of third and fourth year students to help him time the tests and give instructions, so I saw Ena and three of my soccer teammates. They helped explain things to me when I didn't understand something. First, we recorded our height, weight, and body fat percentage along with our resting heart rate and elevated heart rate after speed walking around a track for five minutes. Then we did some more difficult timed tests including sit ups, grip strength, squats, sit and reach, and a side stepping speed and agility test. My soreness from soccer made things a little difficult, but I did my best and was satisfied with my results. It will be interesting to see if I improve very much by the end of the semester.
Once classes were finished I decided to go out to buy some things I needed. It had started to rain pretty badly so I geared up for the weather and ventured out into the nearby shopping street. I bought some groceries along with a bag I can use for when I have sports classes or soccer practice and a few things I needed for my bathroom. Overall, it was a very productive day. For now I will probably make dinner and do some studying.
Ja!
My first class of the day was Japanese I. I waited for Bea to go with me, which may not have been a good idea since she is incapable of being on time. Even so, class never starts when it is scheduled to. Usually it takes the teacher about ten minutes before they actually start teaching, so we walked in late and still had five minutes before class started. We started out the class with a vocabulary test. I found it surprising since we haven't had a real class yet, and if it weren't for the fact that the test was multiple choice, I would have completely failed it. In this case, I comfortably failed it. Honestly, I didn't know anything. I couldn't even make educated guesses. I felt better when Bea told me that a lot of the words she had never seen before and that she had to guess on most of it too.
We learned about the differences between "to" "-ba" and "-tara" today by going through the worksheets we were given the week before. Basically, we went around the class reading the sentences one by one and then chose whatever answer out of the choices that we thought was correct. It amazed me how easily and how fast some of the other students could read and answer. I think there was only one other person in the class who was worse than I was so it was really intimidating. It looks like I will have to do a lot of studying on my own before and after class from now on in order to prepare.
After the lunch period, Bea and I went to Budou. It was a lot of fun today because we got to practice kendo! We learned the basic footwork, how to bow before and after practice or matches, how you should hold the shinai (the practice sword), and how you should strike. At first I had difficulty following the Japanese commands, but I eventually got the hang of it, and by the end of class my teacher was praising me for my good form. Bea and another girl wore their hakama, the traditional Japanese clothes that one would wear in kendo. She got her hakama from the archery club and now I want to buy one too. It's exciting to learn something new and specific to Japanese culture.
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| Flickr g2slp |
Once classes were finished I decided to go out to buy some things I needed. It had started to rain pretty badly so I geared up for the weather and ventured out into the nearby shopping street. I bought some groceries along with a bag I can use for when I have sports classes or soccer practice and a few things I needed for my bathroom. Overall, it was a very productive day. For now I will probably make dinner and do some studying.
Ja!
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