My second week in Japan started off with the Keio Japanese placement test. All exchange students who are taking Japanese language classes are required to take this test, and whose results are used to place students in the level that is most appropriate for them. There are 12 levels of which 1-3 are “basic/elementary”, 4-7 are “intermediate”, 8-10 are “advanced”, and 11-12 are “higher advanced”. Generally speaking, information about this test or what it might be like was kept vague and mysterious, leaving me without a clear idea how to prepare for it. I did the best I could, brushed up on the basics, reviewed vocabulary, practiced my kanji, and hoped it was enough.
Because I am in Keio’s Japanese Language program (as opposed to their International Program) and will solely be studying Japanese while here, I had to take the entire three hour test. It began at 9 am and wasn’t finished until noon. The test was challenging, and I plan to share my thoughts about it, as well as the results, in more detail in another post.
After the placement test I returned to SMBC to pick up my bank book, but didn’t receive my ATM/Cash card until a week later. I since learned to be more careful with my money, since it can take up to a week to transfer funds from America to Japan.
There were also plenty of more Keio matters to settle, paper work to fill out and turn in, and after all of this I was mentally overburdened from the test, and so I headed back to the dorm and chilled. It was nice though to relax at the dorm, make myself a home cooked dinner, and even chatted with some other girls who live in my dormitory. Actually it was just nice to talk with other human beings in my same dorm, in my same situation. Which reminds me of how strange it’s been that even though there are dozens of us international students living close together in this dorm, and on top of that we have common lounges and kitchens, I feel that I have hardly met any of my neighbors, let alone run into them in the halls. Honestly our dormitory can feel quite deserted, and I wondered how I was supposed to make friends if I never ran into anyone to begin with.
Tuesday, September 14th.
Tuesday was a day that began with big ambitions but ended without really getting some of the more important stuff done. I woke up early to skype with my mom for the first time since I have arrived in Japan, and it was nice to hold a face-to-face conversation. It’s comforting to know that no matter what happens here I still have my mom, dad, and stepfather looking out for me back home. After my conversation with my mom there were plenty of other friends to talk with on skype or IM, and before I knew it my whole morning had flew by me.
Then for the afternoon me and my two new dormitory girl friends (Kelly and Jasmine from New Jersey) headed out to Yokohama to try and finally get a Japanese cell phone. We had heard that there was a Softbank store in Yokohama that had at least one English speaking employee, so we set out to find them. While I think I could have done most of the negotiations in Japanese and understand roughly 50-70% of the content, when it comes to signing contracts and paying companies money, its better to be sure. I have heard some unfortunate stories about foreigners who signed up for cell phones or other services and were hit with tons of hidden fee’s they knew nothing about because they couldn’t read the Japanese fine print.
In the end we failed to make it to the Softbank store before we had to leave, and it was only towards the end of our searching that we were able to find a different Softbank location that could tell us where the English speaking store was. It wasn’t so bad though, because I really like Yokohama as a city, and the three of us got to see a lot of cool things while wondering around.
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| Darth Vadar and the actor Ken Watanabe together on a Docomo cell phone billboard in Yokohama |
Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan next to Tokyo (if I am remembering correctly), so there is lots of fun sightseeing, cool shopping (like a six story tall Don Quixote store), and lots more. We decided to wait till Wednesday to try again for a cell phone.
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| Some Llama, plush tissue box covers from a game center in Yokohama |
I did get at least one useful and important thing done on Tuesday, which was buying some basic things I needed from the Hiyoshi International Bazaar for next to nothing. The bazaar was organized by one of the international student support organizations and held at Hiyoshi International house, another Keio dormitory in my neighborhood. They had all sorts of household items for as little as 10yen a piece, so I was able to buy some more things I needed (like a fork, spoon, plate, face washcloth, etc) for ridiculously cheap, and I even got a bunch of clothes-hangers for free. I believe that most of this stuff probably belonged to past international students who bought them and then donated them before returning to their home country. Sometimes I also wonder what I am going to do with some of the stuff I bought that I need now, but really have no reason to bring back home with me.
On my way home from the bazaar I experienced my second rain storm, one almost as bad as the day I moved into my dormitory. Its interesting to me how intense the weather is here compared to Seattle. I feel like all year round things are quite mild back home - it never gets too hot for too long in summer and hardly ever snows or becomes unbearably cold in winter. In Tokyo though its hot, muggy, and when it rains it pours!
I didn’t let a little bad weather keep me from going out though. I had been invited to dinner and who knows what else that night, so I got dressed up and headed out to Shibuya again. I was surprised how crowded it was outside of Shibuya station (in front of the famous Hachiko the dog statue) even though it was a Tuesday night. And fortunately it wasn't raining downtown.
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| Outside Shibuya Station |
Despite the crowd I found my friends Mariko, Eri, Fye, Aya, and Dorothy, and we all went to a restaurant called "Sweets Paradise". As its name indicates, Sweets Paradise was a paradise for anyone who loves Japanese cakes and desserts. The whole concept to the restaurant was a simple pay one price, all-you-can-eat buffet, but there dinner food selection was trumped by their awesome and plentiful arrangement of cakes, puddings, sweets, and even a soft-serve ice cream machine. Needless to say, I ate to my heart’s content and gorged on a custom ice cream sundae I made for myself since I am allergic to wheat flour, and thus cake.
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| My custom sundae! |
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| Me and my friends at Sweets Paradise |
By the time we were done with dinner I was starting to get pretty tired, but the other girls all wanted to do some karaoke and I just couldn’t refuse. We rented a private room for an hour and sang all sorts of Japanese and English pop songs. I was even complemented on my karaoke skills, not necessarily because I have a good singing voice (which I don’t, but nobody cares when you do karaoke), but because I was able to sing a lot of popular Western songs (like Lady Gaga or Taio Cruz) and even rap. Honestly, I am just the kind of person who can hear a song once or twice and remember the words, and as far as my “rap skills” go I was only reading off the karaoke prompter. So if anything I should be complimented on my high-speed oration skills!
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| Apparently I am pretty good at karaoke ^-^ |
So karaoke was really fun, but afterwards I truly was exhausted. Also by this time the rain storm I had experienced in Hiyoshi had finally hit Shibuya, so we all headed home.
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