End of Classes and Delicious Food

I don't like to mince words, but I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression. Somethings are still weird, but I'm ready to forgive. Let's see where that takes us.

Moving on, I promised a long update, but I am afraid I have instead neglected to write anything since final exams began and ended.

As for things regarding Waseda:
The allure of the university has worn off. The original ease of the classes amounted to nothing more than sheer boredom and a waste of time. I do not know what my grades will be, but I am under the impression they'll be good. Waseda's SILS program rounds everything above an 80 to an A, and everything above a 90 to an A+. We'll see what happens, but GW only requires me to pass the classes to achieve credit.

Japanese class certainly had its ups and downs. I'm glad that in the end I had several friends to share the time with. The three hour classes were difficult to pay attention in. While I wish I had learned more grammar, I did learn a lot of vocab and kanji. Still, there was a lot of busy work, which I wish I didn't have to have labored over.

Creating Values in Business turned out to be the most interesting class, while Media Economics turned out to be utterly useless. I did learn a lot in (postwar) Japanese Literature and American Advertising History, so I guess they weren't hopeless.

I sound a bit negative, but I am really fairly stolid in the matter, and I am actually looking forward to choosing classes next semester. Though I am slightly intimidated by the new online course selection process.

Moving on to more positive things, I had the best dinner the night before my final exam at the Prince Hotel in Shinigawa. It was the best buffet I have ever had, and rivals that of the New Orleans Yacht Club's various buffets (I am a sucker for Southern cookin'). My host family treated me.

I am afraid these photos don't do justice to the meal I had (I also only took pictures of 2 out of the 7 plates of food I gorged over), but just appreciate this little peak. I had fresh lobster, steak, tuna, various sashimi, sushi, and tempura (along with multiple flavors of salt: wine, deep-sea, green tea, etc). Of course, I had multiple preparations of salad and vegetables and breads. Finally, there were almost 50 different types of desserts covered in that gold and silver foil, which I had a good sampling of. It was amazing.

If anyone in Tokyo wants to go with me for lunch one day, it's 3000 yen for all you can eat. Dinner is a lot more expensive.

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.

Banking and Other Ubiquities

I am currently waiting for my very delicious chicken pot pie to finish baking; having just spent the past thirty minutes drinking iced tea and pretending to be a pirate (not really), I thought I could perhaps spare a moment to post another blog entry.

Lately, I've been trying to figure out what to do about banking while I am in Japan. Currently I have a Capital One checking account and a Bank of America student checking account (and as of roughly two hours ago, I have a Citibank student checking account in the process of being created).

It was recommended to me that Citibank is the best bank to use in Japan, since it actually has branches in Japan and has a partnership with 7/11. However, apparently this is negligent as regardless of where I withdraw money, all withdrawals still incur a 3% charge (I am not sure if this is in addition to ATM fees).

This means that for example if I go to a Citibank Japan branch, I will still be charged 3% (this is supposed to change in the future, but whatever); the reason for this is that Citibank Japan does not have access to my US Citibank info -- I sense an Information Systems opportunity here. Citibank does have 24 hour customer service though, which my Citibank representative was very insistent on pointing out to me.

On the other hand, Capital One does not charge for ATM withdrawals; there is also no fee for withdrawing in Yen from my US checking account. However, I'd still end up paying the ATM usage-fee.

I haven't looked in to/most likely won't bother looking in to Bank of America and Chase (which has branches in Japan too). In fact, I'll probably close my Bank of America account, because as nice as their ATMs are, Citibank has better student benefits.

Note: A helpful reminder here, to future people studying abroad: don't forget to tell your bank your international itinerary -- otherwise your card won't work abroad.

Anyways, in perhaps more interesting news, I've been keeping in touch with my host family. There was some confusion on my part as to whether or not I was to meet my host family at the airport or use the student pick-up service that Waseda offers. After a series of some rather awkward emails, it seems to be that I am meeting my host mother at the airport when I arrive.

Less Than a Month to Japan!

Well, you know, everyone is doing it -- a blog for their travels, that is. And so well, I want to be popular, so here's mine!

Currently, I am a 20-year old nobody-who-wants-to-be-somebody eagerly anticipating my year abroad in Tokyo at 早稲田大学 (Waseda University). Passport CHECK! Visa CHECK! Sense of Adventure CHECK! I leave on the 13th of September to arrive on the 14th, from New Orleans to Chicago to the Narita Airport in Tokyo.

I'll be spending my year abroad with a host family aka. ホストファミリー.
From the information I've received, I've discerned that they live about 40 minutes to an hour away from Waseda's campus (depending on which combination of foot, bus, and metro I use). An hour's commute is fairly common for students staying with host families, I've heard. Anyways, I'll be living with a father (66) and a mother (61) and a pet dog (Maltese). They've hosted students for 14 years and have three married sons, so I don't anticipate any problems.

I am also fortunate because I will be receiving a stipend of roughly $1800 or about ¥169911 a month, which I received from both the George Washington University (my home uni.) and Waseda. Though I have been to both China and Taiwan, I have not yet been to Japan, and so I think the stipend certainly offers an immense opportunity to experience the Japanese culture uninhibited.

As Sept 13th draws nearer, I am slowly but surely reviewing my Japanese (which is quite terrible right now). I've also begun to put a mental pack list together; thus far it consist of 1) a towel, 2) neosporin, and 3) a raincoat and/or umbrella if I so choose.

All in all, I'll try and be fairly faithful to this blog, and I'll try to organize my posts in to some sort of coherent categories. So far I've tagged posts that relate to Waseda (Waseda), and posts that relate to my homestay (Homestay).

In the meantime, I need to open up a Citibank account (which I hear has branches in Japan), and buy some cheap, but decent suitcases.