Yappari...

...muridatta. Translation: How I took the Ikkyu Test and learned what little Japanese I actually know. As expected, the test was far too difficult for my Japanese level. It seemed that you basically had to be billingual in order to pass the test (which makes sense if the test is a clearance for working fulltime in Japan). Not only was there tons of stuff that I didn't know, I dont even know how you could get to the level where you could pass a test like that. I think even if you lived in Japan for a couple of years, unless you made a concerted effort to learn vocab and grammar, the test would still be too difficult. I bet even Japanese students would have to think a lot while taking the test. This is because the kanji knowledge and vocab skills needed are through the roof. Yamaoka Sensei said that both of us were at the Nikkyu level or second tier. Nikkyu is merely Neosporin and a Band-Aid for your lack of language proficiency boo boo. I left feeling dejected and binged that night on deluxe Decoure Pocky.

On a lighter note, during my bike ride home yesterday someone asked me where one could get pot in Kyoto. He was a white guy. I think he might have been a cop because when he first started to talk to me he sounded really American but all the sudden he switched and began talking in a deep Scottish accent. He told me he was from Scotland and started to ask me if I had any pot, or if I knew where to get any pot, or if I could give him some pot right now - as if I can manifest pot out of thin air. I didn't tell him that I had never smoked pot before. I told him he should ask the college kids at Kyoto University and pretended that I knew all about pot; he said he was just in town for a couple days and wasn't going to bother. Maybe he worked for Interpol - that's my bet.

Things are going well with my host family, though I still don't see my host siblings a lot. Both cats - Kouji and Kouta - have warmed up to me now. I finally got my Gaikokujin Touroku or foriegner registration (boy was that a hassle), so I'm gonna go with my host brother today to get a cell phone plan. Because Misako is more comfortable around me now, she has started working in a bit more English into her Japanese and asking me to help her with pronunciation. I am happy to do so, because she does the same for me in Japanese all of the time.

Golden Week is next week. GW is a random week long national holiday in Japan where traditionally people travel a lot and the whole country basically shuts down. There's talk of some of us kids going to Osaka for a while. I can tell that my host family is wondering what to do and where to go - because they said they usually don't do much for GW. We might go to Takarazuka to see some musicals and hang out - or we might use the time to lock ourselves in our rooms and avoid each other as much as possible (the favorite Murata Family past-time).

I bike to school each day which is pretty much salsa dancing with the devil. Japanese people bike like they drive and they drive like they are in a hurry to meet their maker. It's like a John Woo film as I hop up on curbs, swerve around pedestrians and come to hairpin stops before colliding with uncoming taxi cabs. When you see pictures on the blog of me in a body cast you can rest assured that I went out with style - flying over the handlebars of my bike as little Japanese kids in beanies looked on in awe.

Some friends and I went to Kyoto University the other day to check it out. I will be auditing a class or so there later this quarter (that should be c). I can sahallenging - but in a very good way). By the way, Kyoto University could win the award for dullest campus in the world. Our mission was to find the gakusei kaikan or student union but we came up empty handed. Some Japanese students directed us to the gaijin office, which was an ugly building with a staff that looked at us suspiciously.

Try as we might, we found no signs of life at Kyoto Daigaku (Kyodai for short). There is a very famous clock tower and entrance gate with a big tree. This is the token picture they show on all the Kyoto Daigaku promotional materials. We couldn't find it though - maybe we just weren't in the right part. I know people have friends and do stuff with each other in Japan, but at times it really feels like everybody is operating within kojinteki na sekai or their own little worlds.

I'll write more soon - and hopefully post some pictures - maybe of the dogs? And the Stanford Center? And my girlfriend? - I'm till sworking on that.

B.E.W.

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I went to the Kyoto Community Center today during lunch (it is only like five minutes from the center). There's a nifty bulletin board where all sorts of Japanese people put up flyers for making friends and doing language exchange. I'm going to try to contact some and hopefully make some Japanese friends.

There are three to four Japanese students that audit each of the content courses available at the Stanford Center (so they are in both my Poli-Sci and Japanese Religion class). They are all from Kyoto Daigaku I believe. So far, I have been very impressed by their English ability and the amount of content that they understand and comment on during lectures. I try to talk to them in Japanese, because most of the Stanford kids don't pay them no never mind.