The Tone of the Bell

I was excited to be able to get real food again after a weekend of ramen. Once 11:00 came, I started my walk to the school cafeteria. This time I timed my journey so that I would know when to leave for any events at the school. Clocking in at about 20 minutes, I reached the campus. After I ate, I began preparing for my first day of class. We didn't have our Japanese class today since some people didn't go through the language lab training yet, so my first class was at 1:00.

All of the classes are on the fourth floor of the CIE building. After the tiresome climb or the long wait at the elevators, it is a simple matter of finding the correct door to enter. The classrooms themselves are small and fit about 30 people each. There are two entrances to the rooms, one door, and one sliding door that closes by itself. The desks are of adequate size and the room temperature can be altered by turning the heater on and off.

My first class, Culture and Everyday Life in Japan, began with the teacher handing out infomation sheets. As the professor talked, it sounded more and more like a typical college class. His lecture skills were somewhat lacking in terms of being interested. He used too many "um's" and spoke too slowly for my tastes. Nevertheless, I believe that it will be a good class after we get into the material. He went over the syllabus and schedule and then has each student introduce him/herself. Once all that was done, the class time was over.

After my first class, I immediately have my next class, Human Resource Management in Japan. The immediacy of the class is not too burdensome considering that it is located across the hall. It was in this class that I realized how my Monday and Thursday afternoons would go: I would reach the point of sleep in my first class and be woken up in my next class. This rollercoaster of awareness came about from the HR teacher being much more in tune with how to give a lecture. In fact, not only could he speak with a much more interesting tone, but he also expressed his desire to keep lectures at 20 minutes or less. After that point, he wants the class to enter discussion in order to progress through the class material.

To accentuate the idea of class participation, he gave us an assignment to interview someone in the class and present them to the class. My partner ended up being from France, hence making my ability to pronounce some of her details rather difficult. From what I can recall, her name was Aurore, which is pronounced no where near what an American would expect. Let's just say that even the teacher had a hard time pronouncing it and had to ask her assistance. After a slow paced interexchange of information, we waited to present and then did so.

Once classes were over, my next adventure was to figure out how to get the books for each class. The simple idea of a bookstore seems to elude the people at the CIE. In each class, the teacher distribues a slip of paper designating a book and its price. The students then have to make their way to the student affairs office and find a ticket vending machine. After inserting the proper amount of money, the student selects the ticket's amount and then takes the ticket back to the CIE. With the book slip and the ticket, the student hands the items to the worker in the book section of the office at which point the ticket is exchanged for the required book. I suppose that I should not complain about the complicated process, as the books were custom made for each particular class. Because of these customizations, the books are cheaply made and cheaply sold. For my two classes today, I spent ¥1,500 which is equivalent to about $12.50. I supsect that the actual textbook for Japanese class shall cost a bit more.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful...