Hello! Remember that time that I didn't update this blog for a month and a half?

Yeah, sorry about that. But that just means that you'll get a really great one!

So, since I last posted, a lot has happened. But, at the same time, not a lot. By that I mean that my life essentially revolves around the program. Which is fine, and sort of to be expected in a kind of program like the IUC, but still... it's tough.

The morning classes consist mainly of review, but it's difficult review. We are already a couple of weeks into the second quarter, and classes and teachers change each quarter. I'll talk about the first quarter really quickly. I think that the classes were sort of split up into levels (although the teachers do not say that it is, which I can partly see as well, but I think there is at least a concious effort to keep people of around the same level in the same classes), and I was put into a class that was very difficult. I guess the hardest part was that, a lot of the people in the class were just so far ahead of my in their Japanese, especially their vocabulary and their usage of formal speech, both of which I need a lot of practice.

And I guess, instead of rising to the challenge, a lot of the time I decided to just sort of skate by; the main work that we were doing was stuff that I mostly knew already, and so I didn't have to do extra, so more often that not, I would not. I really regret that a lot now, but I've been sort of making up for this quarter. I think that my teacher realized that I wasn't putting as much effort in as I could. We had our little one-on-one meetings with our morning teachers at the end of the quarter, to talk about the classes and how we think it went. My teacher told me that she would have liked to see my try harder, and that she knew that I had the "power," so that I should try harder and use it. And I definitely think that she was right, and her words have really helped me this quarter.

Anyway, this quarter's morning class is... I mean, every class does the same material, just to what degree and at what pace is different. I don't want to say that the class moves slowly, but compared to last quarter, the class load is much smaller. I guess in a way, it is good, because instead of scraping to do all the work minimally, I have been having time to really put in a lot of effort into the basic things that we are doing, so I can at least use new words, grammar, etc., even in the more basic situations. The teacher (whom I really like a lot, Aoki-sensei), is really different from my teacher last quarter (whom I also enjoyed), and the students are pretty much all different (except one other!), so it's been a nice change. I just need to keep up the effort.

The afternoon classes are more based on reading than on speaking and grammar. What we mostly do is watch videos, or read newspaper articles, and then answer questions. We are also making speeches, each person does a 10-15 minutes speech, I think, on or to do with the topics that we talked about in class. This is for this quarter, by the way. This quarter's afternoon class I really like, and I am with a lot of people that really challenge me to do a lot better, but they are also people that I am already mostly friends with, so it's a really nice environment, instead of a nervous one, which is always nice for language learning. The topics last quarter were kind of, well... not exactly my interest, and we would do a new one every day, on different topics, sometimes two a day on different topics, so we never got very deep into any topic, which made it even harder to get interested in these topics (accidents, politics, economics, etc.). This quarter, though, are more societal topics, like young people in Japan, or Soft Power, etc., which are more interesting to me. Plus, we will spend the entire week on one topic, and read articles all to do with that topic, which I really like a lot more. And the teacher is a great one. His name is Matsumoto-sensei, and he is so funny. I find myself being, like, whisked away whenever he talks. His whole being is just amazing. I would go to this school just to meet him!

I've also gotten to know some more students, and get to know other students even better. It's really nice to make more friends, and people that you can go to lunch with, or karaoke or whatever. The time spent socially, and not studying or preparing, is really so important. Probably because the time that we can enjoy without the feeling of guilt that we aren't doing our homework sets in is usually in not too long, so we have to enjoy the time!

Speaking of enjoying our time, here's a little bit of what I've been doing outside of school. I haven't really been to many shows recently. The most recent was one I went to after about a month or so absence from seeing a show. I think the last one was Vivian Girls in Shibuya? Is that right? That seems so long ago... Anyway, my friend James (aka elevencolors on YouTube) plays in a rock band called Surgery Junction, and they played in an area of Tokyo near Shibuya called "Sangenjaya," which was my first time to go there. It was really fun. It had more of a "city feel" than a lot of places in Tokyo, just in the sense that it felt a little more, like, lived in, if that makes sense. The concert was really great. It was a thursday, so I couldn't stay the whole time, but I got to see the first band, called "Ed Woods." The entire time they were playing, there were previews and clips from all of these "classic" 1970s horror movies: Evil Dead, Dawn of the Dead, etc... the really gorey movies like that. Splatterhouse? Is that what it's called? And at the end of the show, the guitarist/stand up bass-ist took off all of his clothes down to his underwear (batman briefs), and proceeded to pour water all over himself, then shampoo up his hair and body, then slide across the length of the bar/club/live house... over and over again. It was definitely something I have not seen a band do before, so it was fun to see. And James' band was really great, too. I hope they come to Yokohama sometime... getting to Tokyo can feel like such a hassle sometimes, even though from my apartment door to Shinjuku I can get there within an hour, so I really shouldn't complain. In fact, I think I am going there tomorrow!

Probably the highlight of the entire time abroad this year has been when my friend Charles came to visit for Autumn Vacation. Charles I have known for most of my life, over ten years; we used to play on the soccer team and tennis teams for little kids together. "Play" might be too strong. We spent most of our time not being team players. Our hustle was not something to make our parents proud! But since then we have been friends. Charles just graduated from Parson's, in New York, with a degree in Fashion Design (I'm pretty sure), and he is employed for Sue London, a very famous accessories maker. Fortunately, he was able to take some time off and visit. And since it was his first time to Japan, I really tried to make it as memorable as possible by going to as many places in that 10 days as possible.

As soon as Charles arrived, we headed back and stayed a short night in Yokohama, at my apartment, then the next morning headed to Kyoto. I didn't even bother to check the weather, or else I would have seen that it was completely terrible weather... oh well. It was still a blast.

Here are some pictures from that! Hopefully just clicking on the words will take you to the pictures... for some reason I can't upload right into the text right now...

'>Fushimi Inari Shrine in Tokyo

'>Fushimi Inari Torii Gates

Then we spent to Kamakura, which is about 25 minutes from Yokohama, and we got to see the giant Buddha. We also rented assist bicycles, which are slightly electric powered, so we got to FLY all through the town. It was really fun. We even happened to find ourselves on the beach for the sunset! It was really beautiful.

'>Kamakura Great Buddha

'>Kamakura Great Buddha 2

'>Sunset of the Kamakura Beach

We spent most of our time in Yokohama, but we did a lot of walking all around Tokyo. We got to act like we were rich socialites for an hour by eating in Ladurée, the very posh macaroon and tea cafe. We also got to see a Louis Vuitton storefront in Harajuku all decked out, as well.

'>Ladurée

'>Louis Vuitton Harajuku

But, most of our time was spent in Yokohama. It was really fun, and we did so much. We went to Chinatown, we went to the top of Landmark Tower, the tallest tower in Japan (the weather was so clear we could see all the way to Tokyo, and even Mt. Fuji!

'>Chinatown in Yokohama

'>The view from Landmark Tower

'>Mt. Fuji from Landmark Tower

'>Minato Mirai at Night

'>Charles and I in Minato Mirai

This vacation was such a blast. I am so lucky to have such a great friend willing to come all this way to visit, and it was so much fun showing him all around. I love having guests stay and showing them places that I like, and the famous areas of town. It's really fun and such a nice feeling when you can share something like that. So thanks a lot, Charles! I'm glad you had such a good time!

That's about it, I think. I hope this length makes up for my lack of attention. I will try to write more. By that I mean I will try to lead a life interesting enough that I don't have to wait for a month and a half write a new blog! Just kidding.

It has gotten COLD here. It's such a different cold from Montana's dry cold. This is fly-through-your-coat-into-your-soul cold.

Everyone stay warm!!

Jamie