Day 7: First Day of Class

Today was the first day of class!

I wore the hair bow I got the other day:

Also, breakfast:

I was placed in Class B and was really excited about getting into the level that I wanted, until I found out that B is actually one level lower than what I wanted...

Two of my friends from Japanese class at the UW got into Class C, while John and myself ended up in B.  Him and I brought it up to our teachers and ended up doing both the homework for Class B and Class C, and were told we could sit in on class C for an hour tomorrow and then they would talk about it after class. The homework for B was mostly review, and the homework for C was tough but interesting and manageable.

After class, him and I went looking for a convenience store (コンビニ) for lunch but didn't find one in time before 茶話会＝さわかい（sawakai)＝tea talks which is where we can chat with local volunteers in Japanese for practice and which actually doesn't involve tea at all.

Afterwards, I went to a super market with Peiyu (also from the UW) and got two onigiri for lunch:

Courtesy of jisho.org and Wikipedia, Onigiris #4 and #5 are:
     おかか(okaka): "finely chopped katsuobushi, sometimes with soy sauce"
                                   ->katsuobushi: "small pieces of sliced dried bonito"
                                      ->bonito: "a tribe of medium-sized, ray-finned predatory fish in the family
                                                       Scombridae – a family it shares with the mackerel, tuna, and
                                                       Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish."
    焼たらこ（yakitarako): "cooked; esp. fried" + "cod roe"

Unfortunately, I couldn't really find a place to eat until I got to the tram stop so I had one there because I was really hungry and one on a bench behind the city hall. Eating and walking at the same time is pretty frowned upon in Japan, and I couldn't find a bench or even remotely eating-here-is-okay looking spot anywhere along the way.

My host mom gave me this umbrella when she came downstairs from work:

I brought my own from home, but she said it was a present. It's probably the strongest umbrella I've ever used. There is a little lever on the side and when you push it the umbrella opens up with enough force that it kicks back a little bit. I like that it's big enough to keep my backpack dry, but I'm still not really used to using umbrellas and often stand there in the rain holding it on my arm while people walking by give me weird looks.

Finally, dinner:

And the melon for dessert:

It was the best melon I've ever had, so that was pretty cool.