Well, today was an average day I guess. Nothing really too exciting planned. Woke up at 11am since we don't have class on Mondays for some reason. Anyway today we had a tour of the Asahi Shinbun (Newspaper) headquarters. It was just like every other newspaper place I have ever toured, except larger 
Anyway, that took about two hours or so. After that we wandered back to our dorms after a while, since we had an outing with Yoshie (My host families daughter) and some of her friends who are going to Australia who wanted to meet us. At around 5pm they got here and we went to ikebukuro (Two large department stores, eateries, pachinko parlours, various stores, porno stores [Well, this shouldnt even be counted because there are these everywhere here, its frankly quite disturbing] and various specialty stores here, oh and tons of arcades) We went to an eatery of sorts, where we had something that could be described as "Japanese Pancakes" and omeletes. They brought the ingredients to us, and then got to make it at our table, it was pretty interesting. Had we gone there alone, we would have had little to no idea what to do. We probably would have ended up eating the stuff uncooked. Anyway, after a few attempts it tasted pretty good.
Might as well throw a break in here. Unfortunately, her friends spoke extraordinarily little english, desplite being third year english majors. We ended up speaking in japanese, which is very difficult and limiting for us, but we made more progress than they did speaking in english for the most part.(What the devil is wrong with education here?) I made the mistake of sitting at the table that Yoshie, my friend who speaks english, well, better than her friends
Convsersation at my table was unfortunately limited, and not really all that fun, regrettably. We were there for probably an hour and a half. One thing that was actually really strange to me was that one of the english majors aspirations in life was to be of all things a flight attendant. This was pretty baffling to all my friends and myself. It would seem to us that flight attendant would be a fall back occupation. (And one that wouldn't even be an appealing one at that) I suppose if she really wanted to be one, I certainly wouldn't get in the way, but even she didn't seem enthused about it, because she made the comment that in America we seem to have more options than they do in Japan. It makes me want to know more about what she meant by that. I had previously assumed that in Japan there were the same opportunities that there are in America, but perhaps I am wrong? Needless to say I would like to find a better answer to that question.
Anyway, I do have to comment that the english of her friends was of a level that I wouldn't expect for a third year english major. They themselves said that they don't have HOMEWORK, which is completely and utterly baffling. I asked them if they studied every night since they never have homework, but they seemed to imply that they didn't by saying that they have part-time jobs. They were amazed when Zack and I told them how much homework we have on a daily basis in the states. I certainly wouldn't want to switch to the Japanese educational system over our own, I naively thought that the Japanese educational system was going to be better than ours, but now that I have seen it in action, I wouldnt pay a damn thing for it, nor would I pay to have my hypothetical kid to go there.
I feel kind of bad for them, considering they have put 3 years into an education and countless dollars that could be accomplished in roughly two semesters at the U of M.
I'll once again pull out the China card, just for comparison's sake here. The students I met in China who were english majors were only first year students, but spoke enough english that I wouldn't have to speak 'down' to them or even use any chinese phrases (which was sort of depressing, because I WANTEd to speak as much Chinese as I could there, but I was able to after all). Their skill level at the freshman year in China was already above and beyond the skill of the 3rd year students here. And the students who had already graduated in China, well damn, they spoke english better than some of the people I was with during that trip. Anyway enough of China for now.
Okay, back to the present. I got a gift from lady luck yesterday because my friends were out walking around town and they bumped into the cute Chinese girl that I met in Karuizawa who I was talking to a lot (and unbeknownst to me, had asked 3 people if I had a girlfriend) on the trip, who i failed to ask her e-mail because I am an idiot. She is really friendly, intelligent, (She speaks english and japanese really well) and cute
They asked her if they could have her phone number, and she asked why, and they mentioned it was for me. Well she gave them her phone number AND e-mail address. I e-mailed her yesterday asking if she would want to get together with some friends and go to a coffee shop or something and that we should get to know one another better, and she emailed back a reply today saying that she would like to. Apparently she is relatively busy this month with a school festival, but said she would email me a time/place in the next few days. She also told me about what she had been doing lately and asked me the same. Cool
hopefully I won't screw things up due to my inability to keep conversations going unless I'm comfortable with people. I can't figure out why people would find me attractive at all Curse my horrible childhood and ruined brain chemistry.
Anyway that was a relatively uneventful day made into a long and most likely jam-packed with rambling story.
At least I'm jounraling again, I really wish I would have started when I got here. Too late now i suppose.
Anyway, that took about two hours or so. After that we wandered back to our dorms after a while, since we had an outing with Yoshie (My host families daughter) and some of her friends who are going to Australia who wanted to meet us. At around 5pm they got here and we went to ikebukuro (Two large department stores, eateries, pachinko parlours, various stores, porno stores [Well, this shouldnt even be counted because there are these everywhere here, its frankly quite disturbing] and various specialty stores here, oh and tons of arcades) We went to an eatery of sorts, where we had something that could be described as "Japanese Pancakes" and omeletes. They brought the ingredients to us, and then got to make it at our table, it was pretty interesting. Had we gone there alone, we would have had little to no idea what to do. We probably would have ended up eating the stuff uncooked. Anyway, after a few attempts it tasted pretty good.
Might as well throw a break in here. Unfortunately, her friends spoke extraordinarily little english, desplite being third year english majors. We ended up speaking in japanese, which is very difficult and limiting for us, but we made more progress than they did speaking in english for the most part.(What the devil is wrong with education here?) I made the mistake of sitting at the table that Yoshie, my friend who speaks english, well, better than her friends
Convsersation at my table was unfortunately limited, and not really all that fun, regrettably. We were there for probably an hour and a half. One thing that was actually really strange to me was that one of the english majors aspirations in life was to be of all things a flight attendant. This was pretty baffling to all my friends and myself. It would seem to us that flight attendant would be a fall back occupation. (And one that wouldn't even be an appealing one at that) I suppose if she really wanted to be one, I certainly wouldn't get in the way, but even she didn't seem enthused about it, because she made the comment that in America we seem to have more options than they do in Japan. It makes me want to know more about what she meant by that. I had previously assumed that in Japan there were the same opportunities that there are in America, but perhaps I am wrong? Needless to say I would like to find a better answer to that question.
Anyway, I do have to comment that the english of her friends was of a level that I wouldn't expect for a third year english major. They themselves said that they don't have HOMEWORK, which is completely and utterly baffling. I asked them if they studied every night since they never have homework, but they seemed to imply that they didn't by saying that they have part-time jobs. They were amazed when Zack and I told them how much homework we have on a daily basis in the states. I certainly wouldn't want to switch to the Japanese educational system over our own, I naively thought that the Japanese educational system was going to be better than ours, but now that I have seen it in action, I wouldnt pay a damn thing for it, nor would I pay to have my hypothetical kid to go there.
I feel kind of bad for them, considering they have put 3 years into an education and countless dollars that could be accomplished in roughly two semesters at the U of M.
I'll once again pull out the China card, just for comparison's sake here. The students I met in China who were english majors were only first year students, but spoke enough english that I wouldn't have to speak 'down' to them or even use any chinese phrases (which was sort of depressing, because I WANTEd to speak as much Chinese as I could there, but I was able to after all). Their skill level at the freshman year in China was already above and beyond the skill of the 3rd year students here. And the students who had already graduated in China, well damn, they spoke english better than some of the people I was with during that trip. Anyway enough of China for now.
Okay, back to the present. I got a gift from lady luck yesterday because my friends were out walking around town and they bumped into the cute Chinese girl that I met in Karuizawa who I was talking to a lot (and unbeknownst to me, had asked 3 people if I had a girlfriend) on the trip, who i failed to ask her e-mail because I am an idiot. She is really friendly, intelligent, (She speaks english and japanese really well) and cute
They asked her if they could have her phone number, and she asked why, and they mentioned it was for me. Well she gave them her phone number AND e-mail address. I e-mailed her yesterday asking if she would want to get together with some friends and go to a coffee shop or something and that we should get to know one another better, and she emailed back a reply today saying that she would like to. Apparently she is relatively busy this month with a school festival, but said she would email me a time/place in the next few days. She also told me about what she had been doing lately and asked me the same. Cool
hopefully I won't screw things up due to my inability to keep conversations going unless I'm comfortable with people. I can't figure out why people would find me attractive at all
Curse my horrible childhood and ruined brain chemistry.
Anyway that was a relatively uneventful day made into a long and most likely jam-packed with rambling story.
At least I'm jounraling again, I really wish I would have started when I got here. Too late now i suppose.