Of Blow Darts and Castles

Welcome back to another exciting installment of my blog. The last day and a half have been pretty interesting and I would like to share that with you today. This journey is just beginning to take shape now as the semester has now truly begun. Without further ado, let's dive right in!

January 15, 2013
The daytime hours were pretty low-key as it was our last day of orientations before classes start. Things got interesting, however, in the evening. The previous night my dorm room decided to make Nabe which is a type of soup and invite others over to join us for dinner. Initially, I was a little uneasy about having a bunch of people over because the evening is usually my mental dump/process time and having company can be stressful, but, I was able to overcome that and be okay with the idea. My roommates and I met at our room and headed over to the supermarket "Valor" to purchase ingredients. We came back and began the preparations, and people began to arrive shortly thereafter. The dinner was a good bonding experience for all of us, but especially for me because most of the people that came I had not yet met. Now at this point things got really interesting. J-kun, being from Louisiana, really enjoys spicy food. That being said, one of the guys who came over for dinner, Kosuke, also really likes spicy food and he brought with him this hot sauce appropriately named "Death Sauce." On the bottle it says that the recommended amount is 2 microdrops, which was impossible to measure, but J-kun decided to put a considerable amount in his soup. He mixed it up and was fine initially but then he got to the bottom of the soup bowl. All of the sauce ingredients had collected at the bottom of the bowl and he was now consuming them. The effects were immediate. His face turned bright red, he broke out into a sweat, tears streamed from his eyes, and he tried consuming as much bread as possible. This appeared to work but then he got hit with 2 or 3 more afterburns. This was quite hilarious but if you thought this was the highlight of the night you would be mistaken.

In our living room area we noticed this long wooden staff-like object propped against the wall in a corner. Since inquiring minds wanted to know, we decided to investigate in the hopes of figuring out what it was. It looked like a staff of African make with tufts of bristle like hair that went around the shaft. Upon closer inspection, we figured out that it could come apart and we were extremely pleased to discover that it was a blow dart gun with multiple darts in it. Being college students, we absolutely had to play with it, so we went into the hallway of our dorm room and set up a couple of shoe boxes and some cans and had some target practice. It was so much fun and I was one of the few who was able to hit the shoebox. Suffice it to say, this was a surprisingly exciting end to an evening that I expected to be normal.

Alright, now it's time to move forward into the next day which was even more exciting than the previous night was. Seem impossible? Just wait and see. Let's continue.

January 16, 2013
When I woke up this morning I felt very down and depressed, as if I already knew somehow that it was going to be a terrible day. I was fighting back tears but why tears were even present, I knew not. I talked to Jamie via Skype as I do every morning and she gave me the great advice to verbally declare that the Lord is with me, that it would be a great day because I am His, and that Satan cannot steal the joy that I have in Him. I declared that and I prayed and from that point on, my day was very good.

Today was the first day of classes so, admittedly, I had some butterflies in my stomach. Although, I'm sure some of that was due to the fact that our language level placement was still in process. I got an introduction to both of my classes and then we had to take another placement test in each class. There was an A test and a B test. Everyone was required to take the A test because it was essentially a review of the material from the previous level. The B test was for people that wanted to attempt to get into the next highest level. I only took the A test because I was already in the level that I wanted to be in. However, when I got that first test it was as if I had never taken any Japanese before. The test was so confusing and I thought it didn't go all that well. The A test in my second class went much better but I was still quite concerned that I might get dropped down to 400-level. Note: As of today, I'm happy to say that I maintained my 500-level status and there doesn't appear to be any danger of me riding the line in between the two levels. My feeling about this semester is that I will do very well as long as I continue to work very hard and do the best that I can. To me, this semester is no different than a semester at Oakland would be. My philosophy is this: 100% effort all the time, start strong, finish stronger.

The highlight of today was our visit to Nagoya Castle for our first CJS field trip. We were broken up into small groups and Japanese students from the university acted as our tour guides. My group's guide was named Aoi and she was the best guide ever! I learned a lot from her, much of which I will share here with you. This castle was constructed in the feudal Japan era, which, unfortunately, I cannot quite remember the year. It was absolutely majestic to behold. The main castle had a tiled roof that curled upward at the edges and corners, with two golden fish statues on the very top that made the castle appear like it had horns. We entered through the main gate and went inside the castle, going to the very top which housed the observation deck. Looking out, you could see the Nagoya city skyline along with the mountains in the distance. The view was breathtaking and I felt a great sense of awe towards God for His immense creativity in the nature that he created there. We descended from the observation deck and visited each floor, each having their own exhibits and artifacts. The floor that I found the most amazing was the second floor, which housed the exhibits on katanas. It was fascinating to see all of the different blades and sword guards that were used during that time. It was here that I learned the most interesting fact that I had heard all day. Japanese people drive on the left side of the road but the driver's seat is on the right side. Why is this? Aoi told me that it is because of the samurai. When samurai would battle they would always run to the left of their adversary and wield their sword with their right hand. The right hand was used because it could quickly reach across the body, pull the sword from its sheath and deliver the most powerful blow by slicing backward. It has been proven that the most powerful move while fighting is to thrust your elbow backward. Therefore, a driver of a car is like the powerful, sword-wielding right hand and driving on the left side of the road is like going into battle against your adversary. Very interesting! This was pretty much the end of the tour so we made our way out of the castle, onto the subway and back to the dorms. What a great day this turned out to be!

As you could probably tell, this was a wonderful day in Japan for me. I also learned that when the cherry blossoms bloom in April they will be all over the castle grounds. Even better still is that on the castle grounds there are also green cherry blossoms that bloom in the spring! This is the only place in Japan where you can see green cherry blossoms. With that said, I will definitely be going back in April to see the cherry blossoms and take a lot of pictures. Thanks again for sharing in my Japanese journey with me! I will have another post up real soon but until then, I'll catch you all later.