Day 3

First day of classes!  Up bright and early in the morning, off to class (starting at 9:00 a.m.), and in a room full of students with roughly the same proficiency in the language.  Here we must obey the "日本語だけルール” (nihongo-dakeh ru-ru, or Japanese only rule), but here only, as conversations happen in everyone's native languages both during break time, and in the hallways.  My teacher for this set of courses is named 本多章義（ほんだあきよし）（read Honda Akiyoshi).  We began with a review of "て形” or "te-form", which is useful in almost any conversation, ranging from asking for permission to granting disapproval.  There were 3 sessions of class, all on the same topic, and then we were done for the day.  That's a Friday - 9-11:50, with two 10 minute breaks at 10 before the hour.

I proceeded to walk around with a friend I made in the class whose name is Vojtech (pronounced Bota) Loksa, from the Czech republic.  During my introduction in the class, I mentioned that I enjoy DDR (more than most things), and he told me afterwards that he does also.  It was here that we made a plan to play at least once or twice during our time here.  We got lunch at the local supermarket, ate it over by the school on the benches, and got drinks from ZigZag.  Vojtech got a beer, following the tradition of Czechs being the biggest beer drinkers in the world, and I got a coke, both because it was cheaper and also because I'm just not a huge drinker.

Following our short travail to the supermarket, we decided to visit Okazaki Castle (I'm in the middle of uploading pictures to my facebook account, as soon as the connection works), which was a good choice on only the second full day here.  The thing is, Vojtech tells me that apparently, the castle that is there is not the original castle, nor is it even in its original place.  That's somewhat surprising, as it fits so well where it is, but maybe the Japanese were just good at finding a place to put it.

Our main purpose was of course to find DDR, but we really just ended up in downtown Okazaki.  There were plenty of walkers, but it would be good to call it a mix between New York City and a racetrack - as Toyota city is nearby, Okazaki city and the surrounding area actually has the highest incidence of car ownership in Japan, but of course there are a lot of walkers, especially on a Friday afternoon around 5 p.m.  We had taken the train, but by the time we reached downtown, we were so far from the train that we decided that walking back would be a much better idea, affording us the chance of seeing more sights.

Vojtech had to be home early (his host family was having dinner), so we parted ways outside of Seiyu dept. store.  I stopped inside and picked up a game cartridge for my DS, that's essentially a kanji teaching machine, and also some steak to grill up/olive oil.  That necessitated going to the Daiso and getting a pan, spatula, plates, seasoning, and tupperware.

However, I was far too tired to do a whole lot of anything.  During my failed attempts to upload pictures to my facebook account, I fell asleep from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. without noticing it.  Realizing that it was too late to eat any real food, I just sat around for a bit and went to sleep, forgetting to set 

my alarm.

Here's a picture to leave you with from Friday, with a short explanation as always:

Yep, that's a drink available at the vending machines at the Okazaki castle site.  It doesn't really taste like anything that I could place, but it left me constantly wanting more.  In case you're wondering, the text on the bottle is appropriately in Engrish.