Making My Way

January 25

Today, my plan was to get to the bank when it opened at 9AM to get my money, pay my fees, and register for my classes by 11AM, my designated time to register. I asked one of my roommates how to get to the bus stop. It was at this point that I learned the error of my ways. I had learned the “shortcut” way to get to the school, but the bus stop was located on the normal way to the school. I was fortunate to find others on their way to the school via the normal way, as I would have again been lost had they not been around. Having found the bus stop, I waited for the bus and boarded it upon arrival. As the bus drove, a Japanese voice announced the stops. Of course, I couldn’t understand any of what she said. When the bus passed by the school, there was a portion of the announcement that was in English, which I was glad to hear considering my return trip. Once the bus reached what looked like my destination, I asked one of the passengers (with confidence in my Japanese regained) if it was the stop. Gaining an affirmative answer, I headed to the exit of the bus, deposited the bus fee, and exited the bus. The next step consisted of finding the correct direction to travel in order to find the bank. I was glad to find that my first guess was correct.

In the bank, I was greeted by one of the staff. With no idea how to say traveler’s checks in Japanese, I showed him what I needed and he directed me to the second floor. On the second floor, I waited for another American student to finish doing the same thing I was about to do. The woman at the counter did not speak English, so we played around with individual words in order to communicate. After a fairly simple transaction of words, I then had to begin signing my thirty-some checks. After I signed everything, I was asked to wait and then I was given my money.

Next, I had to get back to the school. Not having any more change for the bus, I thought I might try walking back. After deciding that absolutely nothing looked familiar, I went back to the bus station. I began looking around for a store where I could purchase a drink fairly easily since I was thirsty and I needed change. After finally finding one, I was able to go to the bus station to find the right bus. I again brought out my Japanese to ask someone if the bus went to the school. After learning that it did, I boarded and got off at my stop with no trouble.

Arriving at the school, my next feat was to find the Shomu office in order to pay. I was pretty much at the last minute in terms of the time schedule by the time I got there, but I was able to pay with no trouble. Next, I made my way to the registration room. There was a fairly long line. Registration was done by lottery and although my number was quite high, everyone else in the line had a higher number since I was a little late. Because of this, I was able to skip the line and register. As I later found out, since they didn’t say that I couldn’t sign up for anything, that means that I should get all of my classes. That means that I will be taking Human Resource Management in Japan, International Negotiation, Everyday Culture in Japan, and a Japanese language course.

Finally arriving at my first span of free time during the day, I decided to figure out how to order at the cafeteria. I ran into someone I met on the bus to the school the first day who offered to let me sit with her group. Before doing that, I went to the cafeteria where I ordered some udon noodles and a drink. I had to pay ¥240, which was much better than the ¥580 that I paid at the McDonalds. Not only that, but the meal was quite good. I believe that I shall be eating there from here on out.

I spent some time in the student lounge in the CIE building to continue typing my blog so I could post it. While I was working, a Japanese student behind me asked for some help with his English homework because he could not understand why he got the answers wrong. His question pertained to why saying ‘attending to’ class was wrong and just ‘attending’ class was correct. I described how attend essentially means to ‘go to’ something, which means that ‘to’ is kind of built into the word. I elaborated by explaining in which situations ‘attending to’ would be used. He then asked why saying the store remained ‘close’ was wrong since the word was preceded by an ‘ed’ word. I explained that ‘closed’ was more of a status than a tensed word. I had fun explaining the oddities of English to the Japanese student and I look forward to any more questions that may come up.

The rest of the day consisted of a series of meetings/orientations. After the last meeting, I went to check my mailbox for my class schedule form that was supposed to be delivered by then. I found that I did not have one, but it seemed that everyone else did. When I inquired about why the schedule was missing, they found out that when I went to register, I seemed to have skipped the actual registration step because I thought that the lady told me to skip one of the tables when she pointed out where to go next. Miraculously, none of my classes were full and so I got into all of them anyway.

After securing my schedule, I made my next venture to find a store in Japan. With simple directions from a friend, I made my way to the ¥99 store where I purchased some food items and treats. After getting back to the dorms, I got to hear about the drama that people go through when they get in trouble. Apparently, one of my temporary dormmates had come home late and been very rowdy for the past three nights in a row. Since he was a homestay student, the school became worried that he would cause trouble for the family. In order to give him another chance, he had to meet with the family and several administrative figures to have the basics of homestay broken down for him. Knowing that homestay rules would be tighter than staying in the dorms, he had to choose by the next day whether he would still go. Sounding like he did want to try, he elected to stay at the dorm that night so he wouldn’t get in trouble again.