Pictures

Here are some pictures of the park the Guest House I'm staying at is in. Quite Lovely.

Sapporo

I've been in Sapporo since last Friday and it has been a very busy week. I attended a conference over the weekend and met a lot of very interesting people. On Monday I interviewed a person, on Tuesday I transcribed and prepared for two presentations I was invited to give at Fuji Women's University, presented my research on Wednesday and had another interview today.

The place I'm staying, The Sapporo Guest House is FANTASTIC! It is a facility for people doing research in Sapporo and there are guest rooms, conference rooms, classrooms, a small library and it is in the middle of a beautiful park. I wish I could stay here longer.

I really like Sapporo it is quite unlike the other places I've been in Japan. The weather is quite cool and the air is very clear. It is easy to get around and if I ever move back to Japan, I want to live up here (though I hear winters are very harsh with a lot of snow).

Jason arrives tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to seeing him.

That's about it for now. Too much going on and not enough time!

A Long Week of Studying

Well, I've been here a week and it has been a long one. They placed me in the absolute beginners class which began last Friday. It took me about half an hour to realize that this class level placement is far too low for me... and I wasn't the only person in the class that felt this way. We went to the school administrators on Friday after class to express our concern and we were told it was either the beginners class or begin with Chapter 15. While we all agreed we may not be quite ready for Chapter 15 yet, we were certainly far beyond "hello", "goodbye" and "good morning".


So, they tried to speed the class up a bit to accommodate. However, there were a few people in the class that actually were absolute beginners and they quickly became quite lost and overwhelmed. Apparently, a number of people in the class requested refunds and on Tuesday night around 9:30 PM the teachers visited all of our dorms to tell us there would be a test the following day for those of us who are beyond the beginners class but not quite at Chapter 15 yet and if we received 70% on the test, they would create a class for us that began with Chapter 8.

We all (those of us who felt we didn't belong in the absolute beginners class) passed the test and began our "new" class on Thursday. However, because we've spent most of the week in the other class, we zoomed through Chapters 8 and 9 on Thursday and Chapter 10 today and we have to finish Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 this weekend and we will begin with Chapter 12 on Monday. It went from one extreme to the other! I was up very late last night preparing for class today and I have a ton of homework to do this weekend.

However, I do need a break! So, tomorrow I am going to go to Osaka and/or Kobe with my friends Taube and Julian.

Here are some pictures of Yamamoto House (my dorm). It is in a very residential neighborhood but the building we're in is a bit strange. I also took a picture of myself working at my desk. A bit cheesy, yes but Jason thought I should post a picture of myself.

I'll post more later!

Here at the Yamasa Institute in Okazaki City

Hello everyone. I made it here safely. It was a very long trip -I left on Monday 5/22 - 5 1/2 hours on a very cramped flight from Washington DC to Los Angeles and then another 11 1/2 hours from Los Angeles to Osaka with a 3 hour lay-over in Los Angeles. Once I arrived, on 5/23, I took a 2 1/2 hour bus trip from Osaka to Himeji and stayed the night with my friends Taube and Julian. Then, on Wednesday 5/24 it was a 4 hour train ride to Okazaki City. Orientation at the language school was yesterday, Thursday 5/25 and today was the first day of classes.

Things are OK. I'm staying in a small women's dorm. There are only 11 rooms and not all of them are occupied. I have my own room with a fridge, t.v. and computer access. There are 2 private shower rooms and 3 private toilets that we all share. So far, they have never been occupied when I need them and they are very clean and private so it's OK. We also share the kitchen. So far, I've only met one other English-speaker in the dorm. All of the other women are from Taiwan so, we have to communicate in Japanese - which is good!

I'm posting pictures of my room for you to see. The building has just been renovated so everything is very nice and new. The dorm is a 10 minute walk to the main campus and a 15 minute walk to the grocery/100 yen store. I brought an air mattress with me and it fits quite well on the bed frame that came with the room. It costs 1500 yen (a little less than $15) a week to rent a futon to place on the bed frame - since my air mattress only cost $15 total, I feel like I really got a bargain there (let's just hope it lasts the whole month!)

I'm a bit miffed about my class placement. I'll post more about that when it is resolved. Otherwise, things are fine and I'm ready to study, study , study!

I received my cell phone without any problems. I'll send an e-mail to those who need the number (don't want to post it on this public blog).

That's about it for now!

Please excuse any spelling errors, the spell check doesn't seem to be working.

I'll post more later...