Catching up
A lot has happened since I last wrote! I’ve neglected my chronicling principally because I’ve been really exhausted, but also because I’ve kept really busy. When I last wrote, I left off with the arrival of one haggard shadow-of-a-person at the dorm known as Ritsumeikan’s International House II. It was almost 7pm Japan time, and my dream-like, oddly disassociated self was aware of little beyond the hungry knot in my stomach, twisting ravenously at my ribs, and all the great unknowns that lay just within the building that sat quietly before the airport shuttle’s resting place.
The dorm manager (Morita-san,) greeted me at the door, guided me to the kitchen, and (after I got out of my shoes and changed into the provided slippers) gruffly told me to sit down. Morita-san set me on guard right after he asked if I was Zach Heines’ friend.
“Zach didn’t talk any Japanese while he was here. What about you? Can you speak?”
“Some. What should I talk about?” (in Japanese)
“I dunno. Show me how much you can do.”
After pealing through some paperwork and the initial outline of the rules, Morita-san showed me around the dorm while I tried to prove my ability to use Japanese on little sleep, and without much to really talk about. I met some of the four students that had already arrived, and found my room. Since I hadn’t eaten yet, Morita-san made some instant curry for me, and sat with me while I ate, giving me a little more time to figure out what to talk about.
As it turns out, Morita-san went to college in Bluefield, VA, not too far from Fairfax (my place of birth.) He’s a redskin’s fan, and has good knowledge of what football teams belong to which states. I was pleasantly surprised, and in the end I seem to have had a measure of sucess, since every introduction I’ve received since has included “彼の日本語はうまい” (This guy’s Japanese is good.) Still, having received the praise, and remaining one of the more skilled students of Japanese in the dorm, I feel endlessly frustrated by both my inability to express myself, as well as my knowledge that a lot of what I say, I say with somewhat incorrect grammar. I’m really looking forward to class starting (although not the placement test) so that I can learn more Japanese. I feel determined to, by years end, be able to speak and read at least half of the signs I see in my daily life.
I went to bed by 9 O’clock, but woke up almost every hour until 3am, when I finally gave up and straightened out my room, some.
Desk, OU hat already hung
Storage space and mini-fridge
When I was tired of doing my unpacking, I switched to reading dune, and waited for the clock to draw my 8:40am departure to the school out of obscurity and into reality. I decided that my room is really a pretty comfortable space with a big enough bed and desk, and plenty of storage space, so I think I will be happy. The area surrounding the dorm is also really nice, although I don’t have any pictures yet. There’s a bit of a bamboo forest behind us, and a fairly quite road out front, right next to a bus stop. The whole area is quite hilly, as I learned during my dead-tired 5am trip to a nearby 7 eleven for breakfast and tea.
- – -
The mind is awash
in a world that is awash.
The mind is a crafting space
within a crafting space,
making just as it is made,
interpreting while it is interpreted.
Reality is much like the second-hand spoken report
of different spectators’ glimpses
of a convergence of ripples in a pond.
Variable lays in the transmitter, the receiver, and the environment simultaneously;
you might as well make whatever you want of reality and be happy.
When 8:40 finally came, I headed off to school, met up with the SKP buddies and two students from I-house I, and then proceeded on to the ward office. The buddies were two girls named Aika-san and Ayaka-san. After dealing with still more paperwork, and finishing our business at the ward office, I tried to convince everyone to go to lunch, but it was a no-go. No one else was hungry.
Everyone fell as I took the picture, but I figured it was probably good enough.
When I returned home, I tried again, but was told to wait for more new arrivals. When the time finally came that everyone had arrived, the buddy on my hall (Kurimata-san, likely to be often mentioned from here-on out) guided us to the スーパ (supermarket) and showed us a nearby ramen shop. Again, no one was hungry, and I returned home tired and starving. I fell asleep at 4pm while waiting for everyone to go to dinner, and despite my fitful and sickly slumbering and waking, forced myself to stay abed drifting between unconsciousness and misery until 5am the following morning, hoping to get caught up on what I’d missed. . .
