Classes, Fun Times, and New Experiences

Welcome back everyone! It's been a few days but I'm back at it again. I would like to relay to all of you my assessment of my classes now that I have had all of them at least once. I think it will be an interesting and somewhat easy semester. Without further ado, Let's take a look!

Japanese Communication/Japanese Reading and Writing
I decided to lump these together, since these two courses would be combined into one at OU. The communication course primarily deals with grammar, vocabulary, listening and speaking. I'm at an intermediate level in my ability so we are using an intermediate level textbook. My teacher for the communication class is Ide (ih-day) Sensee, whom I really like so far. She is very nice and patient with us when our brains are thinking faster than we can speak, which I often experience. The reading and writing course deals with reading and writing, of course, as well as kanji. I have found this class the more challenging of the two so far mostly because sometimes I have a difficult time picking out the answer to a reading content question. A great example of that was on Monday when my mind went blank when I was asked a question about the text we were reading. My teacher in this class is Fujimoto Sensee. I like her as well because she does a very good job at creating topics to get us to practice our speaking skills as well. My overall assessment of these two classes is that they may not be terribly difficult from a content standpoint, but, they will very much help me improve in other areas of my language study such as speaking. One challenge that has been very prevalent, especially this week, is how I deal with making mistakes and getting corrected. I've made a bunch of minor mistakes this week and have been corrected, but I have had difficulty dealing with that because I'm not really used to it. It has been very humbling for me and I think that is what God is trying to teach me through this. It just popped in my mind now that, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." I have a long way to go to fulfill my dream and I need to walk in humbleness on way towards it. It's getting easier to take correction but I still need some work.

Shodo (Calligraphy)
I think that I enjoy this class the most so far. We are basically learning how to write kanji using ink and brushes. It is a beautiful art form and I'm glad that I took the opportunity to take this course. We start by setting up our area with a felt pad to write on, a paperweight, a rag for spills, and an inkstone. We started by putting water in our inkstone, called suzuri, and then used our inkstick, called sumi, to make ink. The ink is made by taking the sumi and, using the water in the inkstone, sliding the sumi back and forth against the bottom of the inkstone. After a while, you will get sufficiently dark ink. Now, you are able to start writing. The brush is held straight up and down and movements are made with the elbow lifted, only moving your arm, not your body. This art is very relaxing and I think that's awesome because I was having a pretty rough day on Monday before I get to this class. Once I got in this class, however; I was able to relax and just take my time to make as beautiful looking kanji as I possibly could. One other thing I love about this class is there is no rush and we are encouraged to take as much time as we need. Our only assignments are to turn in our best work that we made during that class period and submit it. Very simple and stress free. This class may be my favorite class of the semester, I think.

Survey of Traditional Japanese Literature
This class looks at classical Japanese literature from the early periods of Japanese history and analyzes/critiques them. I chose to take this class because I'm very interested in Japanese literature, particularly in the early aristocratic and feudal eras. I think me taking this class is somewhat cheating because I have already read a lot of the material that we will cover in this class in other classes at OU. But I chose to take it anyway because I felt that we would dig even deeper into these stories and pull meaning from them. The professor for this class is the only American professor that I have and his name is Sharif Mebed. He is funny and has a very quirky personality. I think we will have a very lively and interesting class. For this class I will have to write a midterm and final paper and do a presentation on the final paper. Pretty basic so I think this will be a very straightforward class.

Japanese Culture and Art
This course analyzes the modernization of Japan and the effect that the West has had on Japan. We will cover a variety of topics including Tezuka Osamu and the creation of manga, video game creation, Kurosawa, Tsuburaya, and Miyazaki's work in the area of film, etc. The first day of class I was really excited because of all of the interesting topics that we would be covering over the course of the semester, but, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. The lecture was very informative but very dry, which made it kind of hard to listen to. I think it will get better once we get into more interesting topics but the class could also stay the same and be the longest 2 hours and 15 minutes of my week. We have to do little homework assignments every week and write a final paper. My feeling is that this class will be straightforward as well and it will probably not be too big of a challenge.

Now, let's move to some of the fun things that have happened over the last three days that I would really love to share!

January 20, 2013
Today, I finally was able to go pick up my cell phone from a store called SoftBank. I got a prepaid cell phone so, as a result, it was a flip phone but I'm here to tell you that I was pleasantly surprised. These flip phones appear very simplistic but I truly feel like they put our old American flip phones to shame. On my phone you can watch TV or movies, transfer your contact information or other people's contact information via infrared, it came preloaded with a full English and Japanese dictionary, and it just has a bunch of cool little features. I would like to point out that Japanese cell phones don't really use SMS, which is text messaging. They use MMS, which is basically the same thing as email. It works pretty much the same as regular texting except I am unable to text people in America. All in all, I like the phone a lot and it was kind of neat to witness differences in technology between Japan and America.

Later on, J-kun and I went with some others to Aeon to do a little shopping and have dinner. I'm very happy that I have been able to make new friends as I have gotten more comfortable with my surroundings. It's kind of funny because I'm one of the oldest people that is studying abroad here at 22 years old. I'm not that old but it somewhat points out the unusual nature of someone who is as far along in their degree as I am to come and study abroad. Anyway, let me get off this bunny trail and get back to the point. :-) J-kun, Jonathan, and I decided that we wanted to have dinner so we went to the food court area. I had decided the last time I was at Aeon that I wanted to eat at the Japanese McDonald's next time to see if there were any differences. I followed through on my vow and I just have to say that it was quite different. The potatoes in Japan are a little sweeter than American ones so the fries were a little sweeter too. With that added sweetness, fries that are already the best in the business were made even better! The sweetness of the potatoes and the salt was a very good balancing combination. However, I was even more surprised by the burger that I ate. I got a quarter pounder with cheese and it actually tasted like it was real beef. I know that sounds funny but the beef tasted exactly like a burger hand-made with ground beef tastes like. On top of that, the burger had the same coloration as a real burger when it is being cooked. It had a nice pink center and didn't have all that sodium that American ones do. McDonald's of America, you could learn something from McDonald's of Japan.

January 22, 2013
This week and next week Japanese university students are taking their final exams and are, therefore, spending a lot of time studying. With that in mind, my roommates and I decided that we would make pancakes and sausage for the 14 Japanese students that are living in our dorm. We went to the supermarket and picked up all of our supplies and then got cooking. This was a lot of fun and it was a great way to serve the Japanese students that have been working very hard in their studies and to help us feel comfortable. You could see how grateful they were as we gave them their pancakes and sausages. It was very fulfilling for me even though it went a little later than I thought it would. I'm just reminded of how Jesus had the heart of a servant and lived that out during His time here on Earth. I want to have that kind of heart as He did and I will work towards embracing those opportunities more often than I do now. It was a great night with good friends and good food, a perfect combination.

January 23, 2013
Today I just want to highlight something I did by myself. As I'm getting more confident with using my Japanese to speak with native speakers, I don't as much feel the need to have others go with me when I need to get something done to help me out. Today, I went to the post office to mail my friend Brandon his package that he had mailed here to me. It was a little scary to interact with the postal workers for fear of not knowing what I wanted to say, but, I am pleased to say that it went very well. It really was no different than when I went to the post office at home. You just have to fill out a label, pick out your shipping method, and pay the shipping fee. Even though the process was easy I felt very accomplished for being able to communicate effectively enough to get the job done. I look forward to trying more new things like this to increase confidence in my ability.

The last thing I want to touch on is some cultural things that I have observed. In America, most people just throw everything in the trash and the waste management people come, pick up the trash, and take it to a land fill. Not so in Japan at all. All residents in Japan are to separate their garbage into different categories and, depending on the day, different categories of waste are picked up. The two main categories are burnable garbage like paper products and other organic wasted, and nonburnable garbage which consists of plastics. There is also categories for metal wastes like spray cans and other nonburnable items such as things made of rubber. This is a very strict system and it is not appreciated if it is not followed with the same level of strictness. I think the reason for this system is because of the fact that Japan doesn't have a whole of usable land so having multiple landfills would take away even more useable land space. Intriguing to think about but a huge pain in the butt at the same time.

The last thing I want to discuss that I have noticed is the fashion sense of Japanese students, in particular college students. I would say that many things that Japanese young adults, particularly men, wear is somewhat eccentric. There are a lot of unusual combinations that would probably be scoffed at in America. I saw a guy today that was wearing neon yellow platform shoes with stonewashed jeans and a plaid shirt. I find this very interesting even though I would not dress in that fashion myself. The women I would say are conservative and not conservative at the same time. While their upper body is well-covered, most of the college girls I have seen wear really short skirts with black tights. This has made little sense to me as it is quite cold here right now, and thus, a time when one should be covering up, not wearing less. I also notice that the young women wear shirts that I am more accustomed to seeing older women wear, meaning the style is a little more old-fashioned. I don't think that this is bad thing but it is a unique combination of old school and new school clothing. I definitely get a strong sense of more individuality in clothing style in Japan.

Well this was a long one so thanks for bearing with me! This weekend is looking to be very promising but I will keep the reason why under wraps until then. I'll catch you all this weekend with one or possibly two new posts!