Monday
First offical, offical week of school and I got lost on the way to class. Luckily I was only a few minutes late for the 9:10 start and my sensei changed the meeting time to 9:30. Oral Communication is my first class on Mondays and Kumura-sensei teaches it. She seemed really strict at first and rather distant but as the time passed she appeared to warm to us. I learned how to do a short introduaction of myself. My second course is Grammar N5 which is designed to prepare us for the Level 5 Proficency test given for non-native Japanses speakers. N5 is the lowest level and N1 is the highest. To work in Japan for a Japanese company you must pass the N2 exam, which generally requires the applicant to know around 10,000 kanji. Wow. I know about 30….
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
Although I have three different teachers (including Kumura-sensei, Tanaka-sensei, and kusade-sensei) for my Tuesday thorugh Thursday class, it is the same class that flows from one day to the next. All three share the same text books and worksheets and homework. It is unusal but it is nice because it allows for better retention to have all of our main lanugage classes in succession. Also the class is small consisting of only four people. So our teacher can really ensure that we are all learnng correctly. Kanji and Compositions class with Fujita-sensei complete my week of classes.
Saturday
A couple of my friends invited me to come with them to Osu a district of Sakae. We had to take a bus and two trains to get there, but it was worth it. When we walked out of the subway onto the street it took my breath away. I felt like an ant in a throbbing light filled hive. We got to go shopping in the shopping district and eat Turkish food from a small stand. It was a nice treat for me since I missed the food from my brief visit to Turkey two summers past .
Sunday
I desided to try and spend all day talking to my family back home (and doing laundry. Every week my room ends up looking like a laundry mat or something.). Although I am happy to be here in Japan, I do still miss them, terribly. So the weekly chats are a real comfort so that I feel like I’m not missing out on their adventures while way.
