Haven't updated the blog recently because i have been seeing a whole lot of this. The inside of classroom C at the Tokyo Central Japanese language school. i have class everyday for 3.5 hrs. I'm also working on a big project that has got me up laaaaate every night. Our text book is crap and is useless. they give us tons of dittos everyday so that is basically the textbook and workbook roled into one. there are something like 22-24 people in class depending on the day. I can miss about 1 class per week in order to maintain the 80% attendance rate to not get kicked out of the country. Its about 20-25 min bike ride from my house but there is a hill from harajuku to yoyogi where my school is so by the time i get there i'm sweating. in the summer this is gonna be absolutely not a possible mode of transporation. I'm glad i know the basics already because if i was a real beginner i don't know how i would learn from this class. Anyway i paid $7,000 for this so I'm gonna give it my best shot.
This is the smoking room of the school. Its funny and sad because everyone crams in there at breaktime. Amazingly i don't think anyone in our class smokes. The school, like everything in Japan, is so small that its kind of a bummer because there really isn't anywhere to chill out and meet people or talk. Also this is the first time I have been in this kind of setting where everyone can't speak the same language. So friendship is not flying around in the air everywhere. I see people laughing and having fun in other classes but not in mine! at least not yet. the chinese stick with the chinese, the korean with the korean, the english speakers with the english speakers. well, kind of, for the most part most people don't look up, smile, or talk to anyone. Even at break time they just sit in their seats. Also i'm not the oldest one in my class. There is a weird mix in my class. I mean WEIRD! on one end you've got a 10 yr old korean girl and her 11 yr old brother. on the other end you've got a 45 yr old taiwanese guy, a 50 something guy from wales, various in their 30's chinese and korean girls, some 18 yr olds, a 13 yr old half japanese half american girl, 2 african guys, and the random people that replace the random people that leave our class or join it daily. All these factors make our class not very fun. I've got to remedy this soon. And the best way is with beer. I'm working on a proposal. I'll let you know how it goes.
I went to karaoke with Katsuya, Misa, and Shintaro. Katsuya is really into "Visual Kei" music. from wikipedia. a movement among Japanese musicians,[1][2] that is characterized by the use of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics. It's also coupled with lots of screaming. Here are some pics of visual kei bands. He said you don't want Visual Kei girls as girlfriends because they are often wrist cutters, suicidal, crazy, depressed etc... point duly noted sir! You will see these kind of guys and gals around tokyo when you come.
Design festa gallery yesterday. There was a couple cool artists.
Aoyama Cemetary. its huge. these stone lanterns look so old that they are taking the shape of the flinstones house.
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