Sick Days

Yes! Today is the first day I don't feel super tired! I think I've been sick the past few days. At first I thought I might have The Swine, so I did an online test for UK citizens to determine if I had it (I used the address of the BBC to pretend I was living there...), but the test determined me unlikely to be infected. Perhaps the horrible tasting Vitamin C drink I had last night cured me.

I still have a sore throat, so I bought some medicine, which was kind of expensive ($10, for some swallow-able capsules). They better cure me.

Friday night, I went to an izakaya (or Japanese-style bar) with some Japanese people from Sophia University, and I was able to keep up with the conversation to some extent (and it was all in Japanese).

The next day, I went to the Kodaira City Japanese Language Classes (they are offered weekly for people like housewives and businessmen who don't have time to learn Japanese at a college). I was the youngest person there. I was placed in to an intermediate level, but it was fairly easy, even though the teacher was really funny, so at the teacher's request, I moved to the next level which was kind of hard. I was having to define "keigo," which is like polite speech (conjugation and words become totally different) used in varying circumstances. It's like manners for your mouth. English has nothing like this because we are/were all barbarians. :)

Jokes aside, the class is only 300 yen (um a little more than 3 dollars now). The exchange rate is becoming so bad, compared to last semester. Thankfully, half of my stipend is in yen. Because it is so inexpensive, I'll probably attend the weekly classes (every Saturday morning, in my case). No grades too.

Following this class, I went with my host family to go camera shopping (they lost their camera in Australia). I was skeptical at first that wherever we were going wouldn't have the camera I wanted or the price would be the same as Yodobashi or Bikku Camera, but it turned out that my host father was able to negotiate the price of the camera I wanted to buy (Ricoh CX1 or CX2 if it was less than $400) down about 140 dollars. In addition, I got the case of my choice free as "sabisu" or service. Price negotiation doesn't happen in America unless you are buying shady goods.

In other Japanese news, I have two quizzes and an essay due tomorrow, so I need to get to studying.