Which way to the magic?

As an update to my laundry, it's all dry and folded now. We had a sort of sunny day. It was really muggy and kind of cloudy though.

Today was Japanese 5 and International Politics. Japanese 5 doesn't look like it will be too terribly bad. We just read a book. And the book has a lot of words in it that I know, so that helps a lot. The teacher is nice, but speaks really fast and kind of slurs so I can't always understand him.

International Politics looks like it will be good. The teacher is really interesting. He used to work as the ambassador (or something like that) for the USSR in Japan. And knows a lot about a lot. He wanted to have us all do a discussion about what the world should do with the problem surrounding the Iraq war and America being the sole super power and all that. He was surprisingly very pro-American but called the 2000 election "a horrible event for the world". When you hear people from other countries discussing the US, they usually don't make the distinction between the Bush Administration and the actual American people. So it's nice that he makes that difference out. I also accidently put my name down wrong and so he thinks my first name is "Dixon".

Day Three

I would just like to mention that it is day three of "drying" my laundry since I decided to put it out the day it started raining. It looked like clear skies before. Oh well.

This was my second day of class since I don't have to go Tuesdays. I had: Economy in Japan, Japanese 3b and Japanese Thought.

Economy in Japan has an emphasis on space travel. That's right. Space travel in Japan. The teacher is actually pretty interesting and I can actually understand him, so that's a plus. But space travel...?

Right before Japanese 3b, I went to the international centre to see Kitao and he informed me that they decided to change teachers. Which was fine I guess. In the class we did practice on telephone conversations. Often times, I wish I had just studied spanish or french where I could actually do something in the language instead of studying things like telephone conversations and the like. I accepted a long time ago I'll never be fluent in Japanese or anywhere near, but come on...

Then in Japanese thought, the teacher went on a tangeant for the entire class time. The topic of the class is the Yasukuni Shrine and the various problems surrounding the issue. Which is pretty interesting. He's the same teacher we had for the Japanese Thought about Christianity in Japan last semester.

A new year

So yesterday was the new semester at Hosei. You could tell it because there were actually students in the classroom. I think it was all the new first year students who hadn't been told yet that in Japanese university you don't actually have to go. Oh Japan.

The classes I had yesterday were: Industry in Japan, Japanese 4, Japanese 3a and Japanese Literature. Industry in Japan was ok. The teacher is really hard to understand but he's pretty nice. He spent about 20 minutes telling us about how the Keio line turns into the Toei Shinjuku line. And then explained even more about how they are two different lines even though they sometimes use the same train. Considering I use that stupid train every day, this wasn't new information.

Japanese 4 was about the same. We have the same teacher as last time. He still doesn't look at us when he talks so we can never tell if he is talking to us or himself. We also have the same teacher in 3a. She calls the course 3a+ though. If we speak anything other than Japanese, we have to pay 10 yen. Yesterday the topic was alcohol and we spent all class talking about types of alcohol and kinds we like. You gotta love those Baylor-unfriendly courses.

Japanese literature was...interesting. The teacher is an American, and pretty much the stereotypical liberal-college-professor type. I don't understand these people. To me, if you actually don't like something, you try to put it out of your life. But these liberal-college-professor types make a living relating anything and everything about America's downfall. I'm no patriot myself, but I can think of something better to do than talking about America 24/7. Or how about you actually try to change things. These kind of liberals give us a bad name.

Thoughts before the new year

Tomorrow is the spring semester of Hosei. And that makes it the beginning of the school year, kind of like September in the US.

Here are some good quotes for you from the recent days .

"To me, the US is the third world. You get paid $5 an hour and don't even get health care from your government"

Good ol' Quentin explaining the US. You have to love the French.

"I saw so many girls around you. Is it because of the orange jacket?"

Some guy at the Hanami party from the Hi-C. Could it just be because I'm irrisitible to screaming Japanese girls?

"Your skin is so white, that's great"

The same guy at the Hanami party, right before he walked off. I really wanted to know where he was going with that.

"Your high school was just like the movies. catzo."

Atilla when I ever told him about North. Or anything else about America really. I think Atilla has seen more American movies than I have, and believed them.

"You speak such good Japanese. Is it because you have a Japanese girlfriend? ::wink:: ...no? I can't believe that! ::another wink:: "

My newest student when I met her last time. These kind of questions don't help the feeling I'm an escort one bit. Plus my Japanese sucks, compliments like that know it's flirting. It's like me complimenting Paris Hilton on her acting skills.


Oh, and Today I got a haircut and at the end the barber gave me a face and back massage complete with hot towels and a massage machine. What a country.