Sunset from my dorm room window
Scenes from around campus
Well, I've done it. I survived the first week of Japanese university! My first impression is that university here is very different from America. In America we have each class for about 1 hour and 15 minutes max and the classes are 2-3 times a week. In Japan each class is 1 hour and 30 minutes, but they could be longer, and you only have the class once a week. I think there are pros and cons to each side. I like having class multiple times a week, especially if the class is interesting and I want to learn more on the subject. However, if the class is around 50 minutes, sometimes we don't get to cover very much each class and you have to leave in the middle of a topic. I thought the long classes here would be tough to get through, but the professors make the class interesting enough (at least so far) that I barely noticed how long I was there. Having class once a week also definitely gives you much more time to finish your homework. In America people are usually rushing to get things done on time and choosing which classes work is most important since they don't have time to do all of it. I like how in Japan you have a whole week to get the work done, so you don't have to prioritize classes. That said, so far I love all my classes! I am taking 10 classes, which seems like a lot, but since you have them once a week I only have a few classes a day. My favorite classes so far are my class about human trafficking and the shared histories of Japan and America. The first because I find the subject interesting and an important issue in our world today. The second because the professor is really fun and I can tell I will learn a lot from him, not just about the subject but also about foreign relations in general. I hope that the rest of my year at school will be just as fun and interesting as this first week! Moving to the next part of this blog post. On Saturday I was out doing some shopping (I finally bought dishes so I can stop drinking yogurt out of the container!) when I happened across this little street festival. It seemed like a fun thing to check out, so I dropped my bags off at the dorm and went back with Rachel and Victor. It turned out to be a music festival called the Megalopolis Rock Festival. The festival had shows all over Yokohama on the 28th and 29th and showcased small bands mostly from the Yokohama area (at least that is what I understand from the flier since I can't read all the Japanese ^_^)We spent about 2 hours just walking around and checking out the different food stalls and listening to the bands. It was really fun! I especially enjoyed it, because a lot of the time I feel like I am only doing touristy things. That is awesome, because you can learn a lot at the tourist spots. However, sometimes I wish I could see more of the "real" Japan, not just the big areas that everybody goes to see. Thus, it was really fun to go to this local event that not many people probably know about.
Even though Tsunashima is a pretty small area, there was still a good amount of people wandering around
I tried my first やきとり (yakitori, it is grilled chicken)!
This man came up and gave us a flier and program, and when we asked him how to read the band names he told us to wait and disappeared. I didn't know what was going on, but when he came back he had written the names in English letters! I was so happy because I liked some of the bands, and now I can look them up online!
Thank you for reading!
P.S. The tea of the day is peach tea ^_^
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