Busy

Today was a busy day. First were two different art history classes. The lectures are all in japanese, so its yet to be seen how that will play out. Apparently there are no tests involved, just papers, but it's all very difficult as I'm not yet sure what the sensei is even saying. I heard from the japanese student who had gone to Massart, that she didnt even bother taking any critical study (as in art history) as the language was too difficult.

After class, I borrowed a bike and rode it down to the government building to pick up my alien registration card. I have long legs, which is why I haven't been able to find a suitable bike of my own, so riding this my knees were up to my chin! And it was raining, which everyone rides carrying an umbrella in one hand when it's raining, so I was no exception. I hope that paints a nice picture for you. Made it down there with no difficulty, and my registration card looks pretty cool. It has multiple holograph embossing on it, so there's text if you look at it one way, and different text if you look at it another way.

Back at school, had my 3rd year japanese painting class. At the moment I really haven't done a whole lot of painting, mostly drawing and preparation, though we did do some sumi-e on the first day of 1st year class. So today was fun, as I got to trace one of my drawings onto some japanese painting, paste it down in preparation for painting, then do some practice painting on another sheet while waiting for it to dry. The technique is very specific, which was no surprise to me, but challenging and I look forward to working on it more. I hope to go out sometime this weekend and do some more drawings to make into paintings.

After class, had some food in the school cafeteria. I hadn't before now because of the system they use, which is buy a ticket from the machine and bring it up to the kitchen. The machine is mostly all in katakana, which I am weaker at than hiragana, so I hadn't translated most of it.

Later on, the school had an event for all the student organizations. I signed up for a couple, but was exhausted by the end because so many people were interested in talking to me. One of the most common questions was my age, it happens a lot in Japan and is not considered as taboo question as it is in the US. I need to purchase an electronic dictionary, and some students in the international club offered to help with this by telling me where to go, because the book dictionaries are just not cutting it.