Eventful Days at Nanzan University

The past few days have been quite eventful due to the impending start of classes next Wednesday. Therefore, we will dive in in greater detail!

January 10, 2013
Today marked the first day of three days of orientation that would familiarize us with all the aspects of Nanzan University that we would need to know. We began this day, however, with our Japanese language placement test. This test would determine which of the five possible levels we would be able to take. My goal was to reach the 500-level, the middle level, and I will enlighten you on the results a little later in the blog. I felt the test was pretty easy for the most part. I can definitely tell that my JLPT preparation made a huge difference in how I did on the test.

After the test came my first big test of my skill in Japanese: how to order and successfully pay for a meal. Nick and I went into the Shokudo, or school cafeteria, to get some lunch. The challenge began first in trying to read the kanji names of the menu items as well as figuring out the process for ordering. We literally stood staring at the menu for about 15 minutes trying to figure out what to do, making for a very uncomfortable and stressful situation. Finally, we were able to decide what we wanted and then successfully order and pay for our meals. This day also marked a momentous milestone in my war with the use of chopsticks. For those of you that know me well, you know that I'm not very good with chopsticks and almost always have to use my chopstick cheaters or just grab a fork. Well I'm here to tell you that today was a different day. I picked up those chopsticks, placed them in my hand properly, and was able to use them with great success. So now I'm one step closer to evening the score with chopsticks: Courtney 1 Chopsticks 87

We had a couple more orientation sessions and then we were taken on a guided tour of the campus by some Japanese students. Nanzan has a very nice campus with very well kept facilities and everything a student needs to be successful. The area that most has me enamored is a place called the Green Area. It's not much to look at now but when it becomes spring the grass will be as green as can be and the many trees around the area will be full of beautiful cherry blossoms that only last about a week or so. This will be a time when the creative genius of God will be on full display and I cannot wait to capture it with my camera.

After the tour, the Center of Japanese Studies threw us a welcome party! It was a nice meet and greet with the CJS faculty and the returning students. It was a fun and enjoyable experience even though I was fighting a strong bout of depression at that moment. After this party there was another party that needed to be prepared for. My dorm, NKK (for those of you that forget or didn't read my first blog entry :-P), was having its own welcome party and each dorm room had to make a dish together for a potluck meal. My room made a New Orleans style spicy rice stir fry and I believe that it was a good bonding experience for us. This party was an absolute blast! I met and conversed with a large number of people and did surprisingly well when I was speaking Japanese to my new Japanese friends. The party got even more fun when we played bingo. There were a lot of prizes if you got a bingo and some of them were just plain hilarious. For example, one guy literally won an action figure of a FedEX delivery man. This is something you would see only in Japan so I had to get a picture of it. (All pictures that I am taking will be uploaded to Facebook as they are taken. First group should be up tomorrow) I won a packet of a sweet snacks that are in the shape of the head of a Buddha, which I found very ironic since I am a follower of Jesus Christ. All in all, it was just good, clean fun all around.

Unfortunately, that night was even worse for me emotionally than the previous one. I woke up at 4:00 in the morning weeping with the greatest "wifesickness" I had ever experienced. It was so bad that I only got about 4 hours of sleep that night. Once again, the Lord used Jamie to help me relax and calm down and just pray. I know things will get better soon but, right now, it stinks.

January 11, 2013
There wasn't a whole lot that happened today but I will give the gist of what was important about today. We had a couple more orientation sessions in the morning concerning the school's computer system and library. After lunch, we got to the part of today's scheduled events that I was most looking forward to; finding out our language placement and registering for classes. I was very happy to see that I achieved my goal of testing into 500-level Japanese but I'm also looking forward to the other classes that I registered for. I registered for Shodo, calligraphy (Japanese brush writing), a Japanese literature course that focuses on some of the classic works in Japanese literary history, and a Japanese art and culture course. The latter course I'm really excited for because it covers subjects such as anime, video games, Hayao Miyazaki's fantastic movies, and Tezuka Osamu's legendary, standard-setting manga. This is going to be a great class, although, my Mondays will be jam packed as a result.

I hope that you are enjoying the blog so far and I will be posting again very soon about my continued adventures in Japan. Stay tuned and please keep praying for my wife and I!