a day to regroup
weill in japan: day 42
Milestone: I have been in a Japanese class where pornography was
discussed.
The day after our second midterm was
spent on less than productive things in class. Half of our time -- the
second and third hours -- was spent in the computer lab gathering information
for our presentations tomorrow. The first hour was spent, as usual, on
discussions about anything and everything. One student broke one of the
biggest taboos in Japanese education and mentioned that he visited a store
in Akihabara which specializes in products about "hageshii sekkusu."
The word hageshii means "violent," and sekkusu is a
transliteration of the English word "sex." He also mentioned hentai,
literally "pervert" but also known as a name for animated pornography which
often includes extreme imagery. I had to explain the meaning of that word to
my classmate sitting next to me. She was... surprised. The discussion
lasted a surprisingly long time, although people were reluctant to offer too
much information. I mentioned that I had seen a pornography vending machine,
but I hadn't used it.
After our colorful discussions and our two hours of lab time, hour four
consisted of talking with Japanese people about topics related to our
presentations. Our only homework assignment is to plan for the presentation
tomorrow. Our written report is due Thursday, but I can finish that
tomorrow night.
Today was a day of preparation, but no new material is being introduced
this close to the end of classes. At the same time, our class continues to
lose people. Today, only nine people showed up in the morning, our lowest
level to date. The four people who were absent will likely miss the
remaining three days and not do the project. If any other people miss the
project, it would reflect even more poorly on the teaching staff for this
course.
Presentations will likely be informal compared to what I've done in the
past. After a semester that culminated in two 25-minute PowerPoint slide
shows and two reports that totaled 19 pages in length, tomorrow's ten-minute
presentation and subsequent short report are nothing.
My first day of money rationing went well. I went to campus with my
ration of ¥1200 ($10.00) plus a few small coins. After selling my extra
bus card for ¥300, or about half of its value, I had more than enough
money for drinks during the day and a tasty off-campus lunch. I even
dropped ¥200 for a game of Taiko no Tatsujin 3, leaving me with just
¥35 remaining. Tomorrow I won't have any extra source of income, but
it won't be hard to spend my budget exactly.
It's going to be very hard to pack my suitcase exactly to capacity. I did a
trial run with all my clothing. The clothing fits if it's all tightly rolled
and packed. Even my laptop case will fit. I will need every last cubic inch
of space in all three of my bags, but I am confident that I can pack
everything. The only problem will be if I snap a zipper from packing too
much.
Just three days of classes remain. My report can be done tomorrow on
campus if I bring my laptop. Packing for home will be an experience to
remember.