up to speed

This past week was relatively uneventful in comparison to the past two weeks. Danny, Jon-O, Xander, Chris, K, EO, and I went to Iojima again. Brought swimming gear this time and went for a very nice swim on a beautiful sunny day. We gave ourselves more time to relax in the hot springs this time as well. It was great, and helped me fall right to sleep Sunday night.
Many of you back home have been asking frequent questions about my classes, well here’s the skinny:

I am enrolled in Japanese Literature, Japanese History, Japanese Culture, Peace Study, Introduction to Japanese, Traditional Japanese Arts, Aikido, and an Independent Study. I’ve now been in each class at least twice so I’m past first impressions. In Japan classes meet once a week for an hour and a half. However, I have my language class 4 days a week (the more you use it the faster you can assimilate it). My favorite classes are without a doubt Peace Study and Japanese History. The professors are both English majors and history buffs, who also happen to be married to Japanese women from Nagasaki and have the cutest kids EVER! These classes are highly discussion based and go by very quickly. The culture class is interesting, but not as discussion focused. The literature class is more focused on learning about the culture, and reading a little of the literature (NOT WHAT I WANTED, but I like the professor and the discussion is interesting). Traditional arts and Aikido are not academic classes; they are ninety minutes of joy. My Aikido master speaks no English, is about 73, and pushes and throws me around like I were nothing. My traditional arts teacher varies from day to day, thus far we’ve covered Kimono wearing, Flower arranging, and Calligraphy. None of those instructors spoke any English either.

The random little moments continue to well up in day-to-day life. Last Wednesday it rained all day nonstop, full on, open the floodgates and let it go! At times I couldn’t see the town below my school.

More recently today I was reading for Peace Studies, and my friend EO (who is a 5foot fireball of joy) came up to me and asked what my major was. I told her English. Her eyes widened and a smile crackled across her face like lightning. She then shouted a stream of Japanese that I couldn’t begin to understand, and a few minutes later explained to me that English was also her major. She has asked me to, “Please helping me to study . . . Help me study English. It is difficult.” You have to understand EO is perhaps the physical incarnation of the friendliest puppy you ever met. She is a blast to be around. I’m finding more and more Japanese friends all the time, and I can’t even begin to say what a joy and help they are in travel and day to day life. I’ve updated Flickr again posting more photos. Keep the questions coming I’ll do my best to answer them.