Large groups of college students in an unfamiliar area are a true litmus test of patience. After yesterday, mine was particularly acidic. Before I went exploring in Teramachi, Kyoto’s preposterously large shopping district, we spent approximately an hour deciding that we should split up since we weren’t going to find a restaurant that would seat thirty people. Sixty minutes, guys? ざんねんだね
Thankfully, a good thirty minutes of that time was spent talking to a seventy-year-old retiree named Kozo. The tiny, bespectacled man walked up to us excitedly and asked if we were Americans (good guess). Like many Japanese, he’s very interested in learning English and was eager to practice in a real life setting. He was reading John Updike’s Terrorist, but having trouble understanding it. Together, we went through various phrases that he didn’t understand and I tried my best to explain them. Explaining what “a flying fuck” was and why he shouldn’t use it in polite conversation, for example, was quite the experience. Thankfully, his zeal for learning made it a breeze. Eventually, he gave me a rundown of his personal philosophy. In a phrase, “trouble is the spice of life.” Well put, Kozo, well put.
Classes started today. Interestingly enough, everyone that used Tufts’ Japanese textbook (Genki!) was placed into the lowest level Japanese class.
Genki banzai!
If Koizumi-sensei wasn’t my favorite professor at Tufts, I would be mildly upset. On the bright side, my Japanese professor seems like he’ll be a hoot. He’s very young and friendly and only speaks to us in Japanese, which can only help. My Japanese Pop Culture class seems like it could be intellectually stimulating. Hopefully I can use this class as an opportunity to begin my senior thesis (the subject of which I really should finalize sometime soon), but we’ll see where the wind blows.
Note to self: Thrylla and Charybdis, great name for the next disco-influenced dance-party DJ sensation.
→ For those who are interested and didn’t see the link on the sidebar, the URL for my Flickr (where all my photos will be posted) is http://www.flickr.com/photos/29466443@N02/
Once again, let me apologize for the lack of substance in these posts. Once the shock of actually being here subsides enough for me to realize that I’m actually here, I’ll be able to use my words again like a big boy. Until then, oyasuminasai♥!
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