Darlo's World

Classes started again at 9 o’clock this morning and man does it look like it’s going to be a buggar of a year … again. As far as Japanese language classes go it seems we’re all now together regardless of level; we were told we’d all come back and be roughly the same level. I was sitting next to someone who’d studied Japanese since school (and was in the higher class pre-japan) and behind someone who’d just been living there for 2 years. Not exactly on what I’d consider to be my level of play. I did receive some kind words from one teacher though who said that it appeared from my resit that I had been studying hard. True as this is, I still couldn’t learn my result other than ‘pass’.

I made a change in my modules this morning as a few new ones had been added onto the system since initial registration, dropping a 20 credit Japanese history module in favour of two 10 credit Japanese Economy/Management/Environment ones. On arrival to my environment class this afternoon, it seems that not many other students had thought about it either (I only found out about its existance on Friday) as I was the only student. After a short while we were joined by one more student, doubling the student population of the room. I’m intrigued to see how the class progresses from here.

On Saturday I had a rather fun time at a Jiu Jitsu “give-it-a-go” session, thanks to Leeds Uni Jiu Jitsu club. Tonight I’ll be heading over there again to see how I feel about it. I still want to try a few other clubs before I settle on a sports one (to add to Japan Soc, LSTV, Anime Soc and possibly LURPS).

So today was my last class on Konan University’s year in Japan program. That is to say that the class took place, and had I not overslept until just after 1 o’clock this afternoon when the class started, I would have been a part of it. There’s a farewell party on Friday in which we’re expected to dress up formally. In my case that’s just wearing my 一期一会 (ichi go ichi e, one life one meeting) t-shirt.

Even though packing and sending stuff home has been going slowly, I received word today that the first package, a doll I bought in Kanazawa, has made it to the UK. When I sent it I was told it’d take 3 months to get there (using the cheapest way possible), but it arrived in just under 2 months. Not too bad. I still have a few things I want to send back before I go, but I was really thankful to read that Emirates have increased their baggage allowances from 20kg to 30kg for Economy customers.

Though possibly a little late for it to benefit me while here, I have started a Japanese section of this site at http://www.darlosworld.co.uk/jp. It’s not going to replicate what I have on here, in fact the style is a complete contrast altogether, but it’s mainly there to help me use Japanese on a regular basis.

Speaking of which I had my Japanese mark from Konan back today. Overall I got an 84%, a very good mark for me. Also by some miracle I managed to score 100% on the reading comprehension test. Too bad this is going to completely contrast the mark I get from Leeds for this year. Oh well ^_^.