School has finally started!

It feels good to get back to school, last time I had to worry about homework was last December. Yesterday I had elementary japanese, the homework they gave me was all in kana so I spent many hours translating it to romaji so I could read it, and then I'd still have to look stuff up in the dictionary. Well, despite the fact I got about only 3/4 of the homework done, I sat in on the Introductory class today and talked to the teacher some about the 2 classes. She said that since I haven't fully learned katakana and hiragana, and that I also don't know much sentence structure, I'd probably be better off taking the introductory, even though some of it I will be a little too advanced for. I suppose it's better than struggling in elementary Japanese, cause once I learn kana and proper sentence structure, my vocabulary can really be put to good use. I'll also be getting a conversation partner soon that I will be able to practice my Japanese with, and so it's basically kind of taking a mix of introductory and elementary Japanese. Other classes I'm taking are Japanese business, Japanese management, Japanese society, Japanese Cinema, Japanese traditional arts(kimono tying,dance, flower arrangement, tea ceremony, and calligraphy), and then Martial Arts, which consists of Aikido. I originally signed up for the first traditional arts class, and I was one of the first people to do so, but they stuck Trevor and I in the second class because there was only one other guy there. So the second class is 3 guys and the rest girls. It shouldn't be that bad though, Sharon got into the first class, but then opted to switch to the second class to take it with Trevor and I. I think the first class is about 10 guys and 10 girls, give or take a few guys.
Anyways, other than school starting, it's starting to get up in the 70's or so, we seemed to have a little cold dip with all the rain lately, but it's starting to warm up again. Yesterday, Trevor and I walked all the way from the university to Nagayo, I'd say roughly 4 miles or so. We stopped at electronic stores and book stores along the way, ate some ice cream, good times. Oh, since the last time I posted was Thursday, I hadn't mentioned yet that I bought a yukata in LL size. A yukata is a one layer summer kimono, and being that it's rather casual, I can get away with it being one size smaller than what I am(XXL size). I got some geta(sandals) and an obi(kimono belt), the obi is unlike one I've ever seen for men, it's so cool.

There haven't been many things worth taking pictures of these past few days, however, this weekend I have a school field trip to Nagasaki Unzen. It is basically a hot spring and hotel on a mountain. I think I heard Mark Tiedemann say there were kimono shop up there, but my host mother said there wasn't, we'll find out who's telling the truth. I totally plan on bringing my yukata so I can walk around in it up there, there's no better place to wear such a thing.
I made a dish on sunday for the party at the Nagayo Yakuba on April 24th. My host mother and I decided it'd be a good idea to test the dish ourselves before I made it for a party of 100 people. It was so tasty despite the fact I chose the wrong cut of pork cause I couldn't read the kana(rofl). When we go to buy the pork for the dinner, my host mother is going to go shopping with me so i can get the right cut of pork, and the great thing is the yakuba(city hall) is reimbursing us 100% of the cost for ingrediants. So I get to make an american dish for 100 people, and not even have to pay a cent, and on top of that, I get to eat for free at what is to surely be a delicious party. This is what it ended up looking like...

Once we had cooked all the pork, the marinade was left over, so my host mother and I boiled it down a concentrated marinade and oh man, is it good! I now have a new secret marinade I can use, muha!
Well, other than that, I ended up waiting after school to see if the martial arts club would meet up, strangely it didn't. So I'll just have to wait this Thursday after school and see if someone shows up. Pretty glad I can get back to school, it's going to be a bit less stressful now that I'll be in introductory Japanese, despite wanting to learn at a higher level, it doesn't help that I don't know all of hiragana and katakana, and I never actually learned much for sentence structure. Take care everyone!