01/20/10 room, night - [My mom scolded me in an email for being vulgar in my last entry. I wasn't trying to be and I was barely conscious so I hardly knew what I was even saying but if I offended anyone with the octopus balls I do sincerely apologize. Once, a long time ago, I was talking to someone and I mentioned takoyaki and they wanted to know what it was and when I said "octopus balls" that person honestly thought I meant something other than octopus meat rolled into balls. So that is what I remembered as I wrote the entry last night and so I decided to clarify, that's all.} I don’t remember what I dreamt about last night. It seemed like two seconds and then my first alarm was going off at 5 (time to turn on the heater) and then a split second later the second was going off at 6:20 (time to get up). I met Kai san in the train station again after watching more people run for their lives (see previous entry). I was able to study on the bus and the subway but not the train b/c it was too crowded and I didn’t feel like getting my stuff out. On the train Kai san told me her name means shell, which I thought was awesome, because I LOVE etymology and I love knowing what names mean. I would have told Kai what my name means but I don’t know how to explain it in Japanese. It is a little complicated. The origin of the name ‘Catherine’ is debated but a common theory is that it is from the Greek word ‘katharos’ meaning pure. But other theories of its meaning include: ‘each of the two’, ‘torture’, and the goddess Hecate (Goddess of sorcery or magic among other things). How would I explain that to Kai san? I wish my name meant something un-debated and simple, like seashell. But it is what it is. We got to class early so I studied some more then too. Class went well (more struggling between desks with a ton of stuff in my arms but such is life I suppose). At 10:50 Japanese class ended. And 15 minutes later my Kanji class began. We took a placement test, then wrote an essay about ourselves, then filled out a questionnaire, and finally looked at Katakana for bit before class was over. Katakana is the syllabary that the Japanese use to write foreign words. The instructor is one of my instructors from IJ 300 so all good there. There were only three of us in the class; Marissa san (fellow IES study abroad student who is in IJ300 with me), Roy san (kid I don’t know who is in IJ 400), and myself. Hope this means we get special attention!!
I tried to eat my bento lunch with Marissa san but then I realized I needed to go to the bank account orientation session that was happening at 1 o’clock. I got my inkan at the session. Inkan are personalized stamps that the Japanese use in place of signatures for important stuff. If you’re going to be in Japan for any decent length of time you need one. I did three characters since it was 1000 yen for 3 characters or less and that was as low as the price could go. I already mentioned this in a previous entry but to refresh your memory I used the first three characters of my last name as it is rendered in Katakana (you should remember what katakana is, shame on you if you don’t). My inkan is awesome; I love it! After that I went and found a quiet place to eat my delicious bento. Then I went off to inquire about the Aikido club on campus. Apparently there are finals going on right now for Japanese students so most of the clubs and students groups are not meeting and the sports clubs are not having practice. Their finals are over in about two weeks and then I should be able to drop in on a practice and beg membership. If I show them my orange belt that should be good enough right?
Kai san had something this afternoon so I came back home hitori de (by myself). It literally means by one person. I think by myself would be literally translated as ‘jibun de’ but that’s just not how they say it. I got home and my host mom served this Chinese herb tea she picked up somewhere. I also had seaweed snacks, which my host mom knows I love. The tea had little tiny cubes of sugar in it so it was somewhat sweet. I never put any sugar in my tea so it was a little strange for me. But it was still delicious. Dinner was not takoyaki… oh well. I’ll get my octopus balls eventually! I studied/did homework after dinner and then I had shower time and now I am writing this. While studying I learned the kanji for 'kai', you know, shell. I can't wait to show Kai san! :3 Another tango quiz tomorrow (vocab). Thursday class starts an hour later so I’m all kinds of excited for that. Then in the afternoon is my first history of tea ceremony class. It is the only class I haven’t had yet. Well I’m off to bed (as soon as I watch one more episode of LoveCom). 21:55
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