Back to School Kiddies!!! (I Saw MAIKO!)

Japanese Lesson #3:

1) Oishii - delicious
2) Maiko - apprentice geisha (Kyoto way of saying it)
3) Geiko - geisha (Kyoto way of saying it)

This past week I started school. it kinda feels good to be back.

Yes, I am a geek. So sue me. This is why I want to be a professor. Well, part of it.

Contrary to what I thought and what I told everyone, I am not in "academic lockdown."

WOO-HOO! I can have a life!!!

I still have 25 hours and 45 minutes of Japanese class a week. So far, not too much homework, but it's alot of studying outside the classroom.

I am in Intermediate 1. I took the placement test for beginner and once I found out I was in the test for Intermediate, I sorta stopped caring about which level of Intermediate I was in. I knew that I wasn't good enough for Intermediate 2 or 3 and like Prof. M. once told me before I left for London, "With an Asian language, always best to keep re-learning as you move on." Basically, if you have to repeat a bit to move foward, by all means. Besides, I have a year and a half year. My goal is to get Level 2 of the JLPT. I hear that Japanese people can't even get to Level 1 so I will be happy with 2.

For those that don't know, the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) is like the TOEFL, but for Japanese (language, not the people). You need Level 1 or 2 for a job and entry into a university in Japan. So far, I have Level 3. But there is such a huge jump from Level 3 to Level 2 (um, 300 to 1000 kanji anyone?) that it is going to take me this whole year to prepare for it. I have a textbook for it back home so I know what I am doing next summer!!!

All in all, I am just glad I didn't go crazy this summer with the "studying for the placement test from hell." My placement test to get my into Basic Japanese 2 at SOAS was harder than this. I shouldn't have even needed to take the Basic placement test, because I submitted course descriptions AND a copy of my JLPT Level 3 certificate (but not the breakdown of the scores, I passed by the skin of my teeth - you try studying when you have 6 classes!).

I have most of my classes with students from other study abroad programs that Kyodai sponsors. So in most of my classes, I am the only American. Most are French, German and Korean.

And get this!

My classes end with a closing ceremony and final exam on February 13, 2007. The new academic year does not start until April 1.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?

1) If I go to the Phillipines this Christmas, Deena and I can still go to Hong Kong over Lunar New Year, provided she has at least three days off. I have two weeks off at Christmas, so Philippines looks more of a go than Hong Kong right now. Besides, as I rationalized to Deena, it's probably way cooler to go to Hong Kong (which is now a part of China) at Lunar New Year when everyone goes gaga then.

2) If I can get a bunch of people together, I want to go to the Winter Festival in Hokkaido. What better time to visit Hokkaido than when its really, really cold?

3) I can go to Korea during this time as opposed to Golden Week when ticket prices are up the wazoo, and use Golden Week for the special tickets that they have at low prices to go to different parts of Japan. Or, take the ferry to Okinawa, then to Taiwan. There is a ferry from Osaka that goes to Okinawa, then goes to Taiwan.

4) That one week tour group to CHINA!

5) People can visit me and I can really play tour guide!

I CAN TRAVEL!!!!! I HAVE TIME TO TRAVEL!!!

And you know that I will make the most of those 6 weeks. Sayonara Kyoto, I am gonna bounce!

In other news...

I have been making a few friends - one mainly was a girl from Korea. At a party for international students, I met three Japanese girls. Two of them are history majors - so when they heard that I was a history major and Greek from NYC, they went crazy. It was cute - they were so enthusiastic, I couldn't help but smile. We exchanged contact information so I might email them (as I still don't have a cell yet, I need my AR card to get one, and that is after November 2) to have lunch or dinner at school this week. The food is cheap and good. It's cheaper to eat out than to buy groceries.

When I was talking about baseball with some guys at the party - who knew about the Yankee that died in the plane crash this past week - I told them how I met Hideki Matsui. Their eyes bugged out!

But here is the most interesting thing of all:

Today I rode my bike down to the shopping district of Shijo-Kawaramachi. I really like it there. I wanted to check out Takashimaya and to see what a Japanese department store was like. It's pretty much nothing like an American department store was like. Take Bloomie's or Saks, stick Whole Foods under it and a mini MOMA on the top if it and that is a Japanese department store. I also wanted to go to the 100yen shop to get cereal. The cereal boxes are tiny here and I didn't want to run out during the week, as since the police doesn't impound bikes on Sundays, that is when I use it the most. S-K is a bit of a walk.

What was funny was to see how I was the only foriegner there in the groceries floor - the guy at the tonkatsu counter tried to entice me by saying "Oishii" and pointing to it, but I told him that I have already tried it, thank you. It was pretty cheap I think - 100yen a piece of tonkatsu. Given that you usually have just once piece of tonkatsu say with rice or noodles, that's not too bad. Maybe next time.

So I am coming out of the 100yen shop with groceries from there and from Takashimaya (couldn't help it, but some stuff was better priced than the local supermarket). The street got really crowded now, but something caught my eye. Now, I have noticed that at times I am a head (or two!) taller than some of the people here, especially the girls, but I noticed a particularly interesting head of hair.

It was the hairstyle belonging to a maiko.

I have a book on geisha at home and have read Liza Dalby's book "Geisha." If I remember correctly, maiko have something red in their hair at the base of the bun. So when I turned around I saw not one, but two buns with red in it.

Two maiko!

Obviously, I did not want to make a fool of myself and my hands were full anyway, so I couldn't take a picture. Plus with the fact that I realized that I stood next to two maiko at the last second and the fact that the street was crowded didn't help much either.

But now the count has changed:

Asian Squat Toilets vs. Maria - I think I am losing by now - don't ask.
Temples and Shrines: 2
Drunken Salarymen: 1
Geisha: 2!