Orientation and Naan – Sept 25th

Another early morning, I need to time my departures better. By the time I arrived at the lecture hall where academic orientation was to take place, practically everyone else was already seated and listening to the dean’s address. I took a seat as close to the door as I could find, to spare myself the embarrassment of fumbling through the crowd.

After a number of speeches and instruction, 90% of which I’d heard at least once before. Finally, it came time to sign up for classes. I checked my sheet and was shocked to find that I was placed in Level 5, along with a few of the other students. Granite Bob, our nickname for the Robert from Sac State, was placed in level 2, despite his assuredness that he’d be in the lowest level. Eli, the kanji-crazy guy from San Diego, tested out of the Japanese classes, and would instead have to take extra classes to make up for not taking language courses. I signed up for Sound System in languages, Practicum in Japanese Arts, and Topics in American Advertising. Unfortunately, the elective Japanese classes I want to take conflict with my current schedule, so I’ll to sign up for “written expressions” instead. Next semester I think I’ll focus on the classes I was unable to sign up for this semester, provided if they are still being offered. For some odd reason, we wouldn’t be able to sign up for the elective courses until tomorrow.

We left the lecture hall famished. The orientation ran late, so we were all practically sprinting to the Indian restaurant we had chosen in advance. Other students had eaten at the restaurant before, and said it was quite good. I was certainly not disappointed; 750 yen got me all-you-can-eat naan, the likes of which I haven’t tasted since I went to Bindu last year in Osaka. The mutton curry was delicious, but the real star of the meal was the naan. I thanked the chef, who did all of his cooking at a small counter at the front of the shop, and left from there. Josh also wants to get a bag, so I offered to show him around Ueno. We jumped on the train and made our way down the Yamanote line, this time making sure to grab a seat for the 20 minute ride.

We walked around Ameyoko for a while, but Josh couldn’t quite decide which bag to get. We walked through the park a bit, and traced the steps Sachiko and I took last year around Benten shrine. We returned to the park and did a bit of people watching. Eventually returning home, I got an e-mail from Okabe-kun saying he’d have some free time after work tomorrow to meet. Tomorrow the only plans I know of are to sign up for our elective courses, so I can meet up with him for a beer or two.