today we had no language class, but we had our first culture class. a few of us met at the school at 10 to check our email etc, and then met up with everyone at 12 for the class. walked approximately 400 miles to the bus stop, then rode the incredibly crowded bus for like an hour. finally arrived at the museum and had our culture class. most of it was repeated from the culture class we took with williams-sensei at clemson this past semester, so it wasn't particularly exciting. however, in the gift shop i found an awesome book full of pictures from the shrine on Mt. Koya. every picture is an excercise in creative photography though, so all the book is missing is exposure information for each picture and it could be labelled as a photography book rather than a book about japanese culture. it was a bit expensive (3,300 yen) but well worth it i think. i'll probly scan a bunch of these pics once i get back to clemson.

after we were set free, jenn, dia, alexis and i took an even more crowded bus (like a mosh pit, didnt have to hold onto anything, because you were locked in place anyway) to the cool ramen place near the ryokan. had some of their awesome gyoza, and then jenn and i went to kawaramachi st. to look for the place where i bought my cell phone, so she could buy one as well. finally found it, she bought her phone, and then we parted ways to each rush home by 7 (dinner is THE meal in japan, and missing dinner without advance notice is punishable by slow death at the hands of incompetent infants - that may sound like a pretentious attempt at poetic language, but every word of it is absolutely true).

while trying to find the subway station to get home, i was lost as usual. i asked someone how to get to sanjou keihan eki (station) and actually understood everything he said. riding that high, i talked a lot with my host family during dinner, telling them about everything i did today, and using some reasonably complex language. even kenji-san (my host dad) commented that i knew a lot of japanese. i think ive lulled them into a unrealistically low appraisal of my skill level with the simple language i've stuck to so far, and surprised them today by actually being able to say bigger sentences that sounded more natural. i think being in japan is helping a lot a well though, because i could actually understand a significant portion of what they were saying amongst themselves as well, whereas normally it's all just a blur. in fact, it was always easy to tell when they were addressing me if i wasn't looking, because suddenly i could understand what they were saying :)

my host mom is very accomodating as well. last night's meal was rice with shrimp etc, and i made a valiant attempt to eat it with no complaints but i really dont like shrimp and she noticed. so i admitted that i dont like shrimp and really, most seafood in general, and she said oh, if theres anything i dont like please tell her. today's meal was much more to my liking - various kinds of tempura, including breaded chicken that reminded me a lot of youshoku (american food). it was all very good, and it also prompted conversation about how to say things like "this reminds me of american food", etc.

i was looking through the booklets that came with my phone and i realized that A) receiving calls (both domestically and internationally) is entirely free, and B) calling america is not expensive at all, and during nights and weekends is actually cheaper than calling domestically. domestic calls are at a flat rate of 20 yen/20 sec, so 60 yen/min or abt 55 cents/min. calling to the US during the day (8am-7pm) is 45 yen/30 seconds, so 90 yen/min, or abt 80 cents/min, just a little more than domestic calls. calling to the US during nights, weekends, and national holidays is even cheaper than domestic - 27 yen/30 sec, or 54 yen/min or abt 50 cents/min. unfortunately, the same rates don't apply to PR - daytime is 170 yen/min (or abt $1.55/min) and nights and weekends are 100 yen/min (or abt 90 cents/min). but i can always call and just say "call me back". or i can use email.

sending emails from the phone is only 5 yen/message. receiving messages btw is free, so feel free to send me notes at all hours of the day or night (actually preferably not at night unless i really like you). the addy for my phone is cowgod@jp-k.ne.jp and the message length limit is about 128 characters i believe. perhaps 256, not sure.

also jenn realized that since you get a free 3000 yen card with the phone, the phone itself actually only costs about $60. so not a bad purchase at all, i think.

also, the hold music for the phone service for some reason toggles back and forth every few seconds between a full orchestrated version of pachelbel's canon and a cheap monophonic synthesized version of fur elise, like one would hear from a child's toy purchased by the cash registers at Pitusa for $2.99 packaged in formed plastic glued to a cardboard backing. i suppose maybe it's supposed to impress you with the contrast? i don't know.

Originally posted on LiveJournal. Original post