Finally….

This post is very much overdo…..but I’ve been so busy lately, that I’ve barely had time to do anything….so hopefully I can remember things well enough, even though it’s been a little bit….

Anyway, so after I moved in and got settled, we took a placement test to see where we placed in terms of Japanese proficiency.  There’s Level 1 – Levvel 4, with Level 1 being beginner Japanese, and Level 4 being you’re pretty much well on your way to becoming(aka, there’s only 2 people in that class).  Luckily I placed in Level 2, which begins at about where my college’s Japanese 201 ended, so it was perfect.

Japanese class in Monday-Friday from 8:50-11:40 with tests on Friday on what we’ve learned over the week.  It is a language intensive program, and as such, expects you to study a minimum of 3 hours a day, which I can definitely see being necessary.  I think I will try to study at least 3 hours a day, which is not hard for me, since I really like studying Japanese, and I really don’t have anything else to do…
And when we’re not in class, we’ve had the chance to kind of look around a little bit and start to get to know the city…although, we still haven’t seen much of it.

On Friday, we went to Karaoke, and then Nomihoudai(all you can eat and drink for a certain amount of time).
For those of you who don’t know, Japanese Karaoke is not like American Karaoke at all.  In America, Karaoke is usually in a bar, in front of the entire bar.  But in Japan, you rent a room just big enough to fit how ever many people you have.  The room is private, and soundproof(for the most part), and it is way less intimidating…….unless you have a huge group….like we did….
but usually it’s not like that…..
Anyway, after that, we walked to Nomihoudai, where mostly everyone proceeded to get very very drunk……except for a select few of us who either didn’t want to drink, or couldn’t drink….and thus we ended up kind of in charge of herding the rest of our group back on the long 40 minute walk back to the dorm…….

Saturday was somewhat uneventful, as all the people who were drunk from the previous night slept in pretty late….
Sunday, we all got up early to go to Kyoto to see a shrine, and then to Nijou to see Nijou-jo(an old castle).  It was perfect weather to be out in.  It was slightly chilly, but the sun was out, and it didn’t rain until we were heading back to the dorm.
I made a video compilation of the pictures and some videos that I took of our visit to the shrine, so if you want, you can check that out here.

*This post is about a week behind……I meant to upload it right away, but I wanted to wait until I finished my slideshow, and I kept falling asleep while working on it because of the music I was using…..so sorry!!~*

Well then, till next time~
じゃあ、まった～