An early start today led into the first long lecture of the day: a 2-hour academic orientation on how the classes and class registration work here in Japan, given by Dr. Luke Roberts of UCSB (or was it Davis? I forget). While mostly informative, we also got to talk about the Hiroshima mandatory field trip coming up tomorrow. And... while I really want to do this trip and think that it will be a great experience, they snuck up on us a pricetag to attach to it. Originally, there was no mention anywhere, on any paper, of cost for this trip. All of a sudden, Dr. Roberts says "And you'll be able to make your 13,000 yen payment for the trip" and everyone busts into whispered speak.
"What do you mean 13,000 yen...?" That's about $150 USD, which is no cheap ride. Taking into consideration other transportation and meals we have to pay out of pocket, this mandatory field trip becomes a really rather expensive journey to the south. Color me unhappy and irked.
Besides that blotch on the day, I suppose the rest went alright. We got our cell phones so we can contact one another now over text. That'll be okay, once I get around to nabbing everyone's contact info. Being able to transmit data to each other via infrared is so cool, but not so simple. I'll definitely be heading back to the Pokemon Center to deck it out with neat keychains and other trinkets. Simple curry katsu for lunch, as normal, and we were back in to the room for our first "class" with Dr. Roberts to discuss what we want to get out of the Hiroshima trip and how we think it will make us feel/why. It was a long session of us talking about our feelings, thoughts, and going over seemingly obvious material. Yes it took a while, but it kind of bothers me that so many of the other students were complaining about how it was unnecessary, that they just wanted to go home, and the trip is now going to be a big bummer due to the places we're being forced to go. It'll be treated like a guided tour of Hiroshima, I believe, so free time to explore will be little, if it even exists at all. It'll be a long trip, but I'm hoping it'll turn out okay.
To be honest, I started feeling a bit lonely/down on the way back from Meigaku. It's hard to pinpoint why, but I was feeling kind of anti-social and started walking on my own without the group. I even split up and went back to MISH after Daiso by myself. It kind of surprised me, though perhaps that's in part due to my introverted nature. I haven't really had much downtime to just be by myself and regenerate all that energy I expend being social. It's not that I dislike being social, as so many introverts are too, but it just takes a lot out of me. So I have to wonder if that's the reason I've been feeling lonesome or something else. Meh.
I see now, after looking at the course descriptions for Japanese language courses taught here, that I'm at this difficult median point where I am halfway between being at the next level of language. I could be put in the basic beginner class and be bored to tears until about 2/3s in to the class, or I could be placed into the next level up and possibly be significantly challenged. I'm hoping I test into the harder class, but I just don't want to flounder due to my lack of kanji/memory of things in general. Fingers crossed.
Just felt my first earthquake while I was here. It shook for about 15-20 seconds, though nothing hard enough to make things fall. Just kinda knock against the wall a bit. No worries. I'd be more worried about the typhoon down by Okinawa that might hit us a bit while in Hiroshima. I'm sure we wouldn't do anything unless it was completely safe, but anything can happen, so just being a bit concerned is reasonable, I think.
Dunno if I'll get internet service while at the hotel down south, but we're required to write out a journal daily anyways, so I'll be keeping things to update with while I'm there. Should be good to type it all out by Monday when we return. Wish me luck! And that I don't get swept out to sea~
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