first day at Nanzan

01/12/10 room, night - (one of my friends suggested titled my entries cuz he said it might be easier to keep track of them that way. so I will do my best to give them decent titles from now on, ok?) So much to write and sooooooo tired… Last night was a total fail. I did not review at all but just went to sleep. Got up at 6 o’clock this morning. Ate breakfast at 6:45. Left house at 7:20. My host mom was going with me to Nanzan University. We rode the bus to the train subway station where we met up with the student I met at the tea ceremony on Sunday. Her name is Kai and she is from Burma. We all three went on the train and then subway and walked to the north gate of Nanzan. My host mom said she would be there again at 5 pm to meet us. Kai showed me a building with a computer lab in it. She was here last semester so she knows her way around. We went to wait outside the room where the test was being given. Then we were told to look at a chart that showed the seating arrangement. I was in a front row corner. I am used to that because, my entire life, whenever an assigned seating chart was arranged alphabetically I would always be the first name and so would get the first row first desk in the line. (In high school there actually were a few more people with ‘A’ last names that were ahead of me, but of course in high school there wasn’t usually assigned seating and when there was there was always a good chance I was the only A name in that particular classroom.) So anyway, I am comfortable in the front corners. What I was NOT comfortable with was the Nanzan official guy saying my name out loud to everyone more than once. He was talking to us about how he had studied our names so not to be alarmed if we saw him and he miraculously knew our name. But as he was explaining this he said, “I studied all the names from Anatra, Catherine san to (here he said the unfortunate person’s name who was alphabetically last). He kind of pronounced it wrong but it was fine I guess. Then he said my name again later on. “We have 47 students this term. The list of bright and promising students is headed by Anatra, Catherine san and we hope you all will…” I really felt like saying my name that time was not at all necessary. I was just listening intently, you know trying to understand the Japanese, and then all of a sudden I hear my own name. It threw me a little. I thought, “Stop talking about me!! I’m not the only one here!!” If your last name begins with ''a'' you get used to being called first or among the first. But I am not used to getting extra attention for it.

The placement test went ok I guess. Pretty sure it is the 300 level for me. We got a break for lunch. I went with Tana, Doro, Erin, and Kai to the cafeteria and got shrimp ramen. It was good. But most everything here is good. In fact, from now on, unless I say otherwise anytime I eat something it was delicious got it? Then Doro wanted to walk to a conbini (convenient store) she had passed on the way to the university that morning. We had 45 minutes before the welcome ceremony so we walked over (except for Kai who had to go do something and she said she’d meet me at 4 in the cafeteria again). The conbini was close and, of course, had tons of amazing and cheap stuff in it. I got anko mochi, anko cake, and milk (which was much too small of a carton). Anko is that red bean paste I’m always raving about. Doro got dango mochi, which I've seen in anime a lot. It is mochi balls on a stick. She shared with us. I love mochi. We walked back to Nanzan talking about our different host families. It was sprinkling but none of us were using our umbrellas. I personally love rain and really don't mind getting a little wet. Truthfully the umbrella I had wasn’t mine but my host mom’s. She said I could use it after I told her I lost mine this past semester at my home university. (I didn’t lose it in a storm or anything. I just up and left it somewhere; never figured out where.)

Doro’s host mom took her to a tea ceremony too and SHE got to wear a kimono. Tana’s 12 year old host brother is really smart and uses really big words so Tana can’t understand him. Her host dad has 3 jobs. Her host sister helps her study. Erin’s host mom lives in a hundred year old temple and feeds her a ton of food. So far everyone has said their home stays are really good. I’m about the only one with internet in the house though… : 3

The welcome ceremony consisted of the guy who likes to say my name (his given name is Michio but I forgot his family name. He said to call him Mich) introducing us to important faculty members including the Dean who is a German Catholic Priest guy. In our welcome packets we got cell phone charms. It was a mini him (complete with his priest collar and everything) with a huge head holding a frog… : | : \ : . only in Japan. I put it on my phone because, what the heck? The assistant dean of student affairs (who looked 16 I swear) told us not to do drugs or we’d be sent to prison. The Dean (phone charm guy) told us how great it was we were studying abroad and how it would give us an invaluable experience. Then we all were herded into another room and were debriefed on classes, schedules, alien registration, housing accommodations, finances, getting an inkan (official stamp that serves as a signature in Japan), food, culture, emergency contact numbers, insurance. You name it, we covered it. The lady telling us all this also told us to memorize our student numbers because we need them for lots of stuff. She asked who had ID number 501. Lucky me got to raise my hand. I didn’t win a door prize or anything she was just trying to figure out who had the first number. “So your family name must begin with ‘a’ right?” I said yes. No one today was going to let me forget it… :J

I ate all my snacks during these talks. Then we ordered our Inkan. If you only put three characters on your seal it only cost 1000 yen (the cheapest). So everyone was playing with their names trying to covey themselves in only three characters or less. I just did the first three characters of my last name in Katakana (foreign word syllabary). Looks like this: アナト. I looked up those three in an online dictionary to see if it could mean anything cool. Closest thing was that it is the first three characters of ‘anatomy’ in Japanese and I love anatomy so I’m satisfied. :D

Then it was time for campus tours! Regular Japanese students and full year students volunteered to be tour guides. We split into groups of 5 or 6. My group was Ross (full year student from U of R), Tana, Amanda, me, and our guide Naoko. She was really nice. She saw my hair at one point after I took my coat off (we were back inside) and picked it up and breathed “Nagai!!!” Means ‘long’. She was so impressed; she’s alright in my book. ^__^ People usually notice my hair but the Japanese seem especially enchanted with it. It’s ok with me! She showed us around to a lot of places on campus. One cool one was a building full of rooms with computers for students to use. On the first floor, as you walked in, there was a digital board that told you which rooms had vacant computers. :o It must have been peak time because every room (there were 10 or so) was full except two. Melinda was doing tours and we kept crossing paths with her group. We also kept seeing Dragon almost everywhere we went. Amanda said it was like ‘where’s waldo’ b/c everytime you walk in a room you can spot Dragon somewhere. We then had to explain to Naoko what ‘where’s waldo’ is. Melinda and her group happened to show up (small campus, though bigger than the U of R) and she was little help. Amanda finally remembered that in Japan ‘where’s waldo’ is called, ‘Wally san ha doko’ or something. Then Naoko understood the joke. I have to admit it did seem like we saw Dragon everywhere; he likes to be called Ryu san because Ryu is ‘dragon’ in Japanese. He is a bit of a character really. Naoko also showed us the bookstore, which was selling kimono outside the main entrance. They were beautiful of course but I couldn't help noticing that every single one had pink in it somewhere. :\ My chopsticks rest that my host mom gave me to use at meals is a pink rabbit. My teacup has pink flowers on it. All female restrooms are painted pink. I’m going to develop a twitch I just know it. I guess since cherry blossoms are so big here it sometimes kind of makes sense…I guess.

At four we went to the cafeteria for a big food party!! My favorite kind! Actually unless there is free food I usually don't bother to make an appearance at social gatherings. Now I understood why Kai wanted to meet back in the cafeteria. She knew about it but I had not. I was very nicely surprised. More faculty talked. Some students, local and foreign talked. I was noticing that there were students from all over there. England, France, Indonesia, Korea, Burma (Kai, remember?), and probably more than that. I did find Kai by the way and invited her to come over to the other IES students with me (she isn’t studying abroad through IES but some other program). We had a toast. I chose milk tea for my glass (b/c there was no milk, milk). It was cool because I swear the milk tea was the EXACT shade of brown as the jacket I was wearing. :b After shouting “Kampai” and clinking glasses with every one you knew within arms reach we began to eat, drink, and mingle. I actually was doing more of the former two initially. What can I say? I was a happy little fat kid in a candy store. They had all kinds of stuff set on a huge table in the middle of the room. The stupid plates were tiny though so it took me two trips to circumnavigate it. I talked with Naoko san and her friend Moli san. They were so surprised when I picked up a lemon half meant for decoration and started licking it. I love lemons. :d And of course I talked to the other people I already knew. Kai introduced me to the Japanese sensei she had last semester and I grabbed several egg salad sandwiches for later. Xd The only bad part about the whole day was that Ross san was telling me at one point how hardcore the Japanese classes are. He said, “You’re going to be mad at how much homework you’re going to have.” DARN IT!!!! GRRRRRR. WHY!!! 3 : I’m shakin’ in my boots over the classes, I’ll admit it.

Kai and I had to leave to go meet my host mom. As I was saying goodbye to everyone I could find, I came upon Naoko and Moli again and said “see you later” to both of them, using both their names. Moli san told me thank you. “for what?” I asked. She said, “You remembered my name.” I was like “awwww, you’re welcome!” ^_^

Kai and I walked purposefully to the north gate and found my host mom waiting there. We were excitedly telling her about our day most of the way to the subway station. On the train she gave us each a present!! I swear, she has got to stop! It was a bunch of charms for a key chain. So I attached it to my set of house keys. She said she tried to find me one with a cat but they didn’t have any so I got a bunny instead. She knows cats are my favorite cuz she memorized my profile, b/c she’s amazing. J (although my French host mom did the same thing. I don’t know how I get so lucky with home stays).

We parted ways with Kai at the bus stop and when we got home I once again tried to unlock the door… I don’t wanna talk about it, it’s too pathetic. Suffice it to say I have not let mastered the door (but I will!!). After dinner we went over plans for tomorrow. I had shower time at 8:30. And here I am writing this. I gotta get to bed; I’m exhausted. My brain is more tired than my body because it and I have been trying so hard to speak Japanese. I am really really happy despite it all though. Oops, that would be the present I just bumped against. And now I am presently going to sleep. 23:16 (J time).