Friday, April 15, 2005

Thursday, April 15, 2005 - Kendo paaati

So today was a mixed day. In the morning we had our intro to design class. Basically the professor allowed us to run the class ourselves. As long as we meet the goals and objectives given by Professor Hipel's course outline. So that went pretty smoothly.

Then we had the English seminar for Systems Models, where Japanese students read an english textbooks. It went soooooooooooooooooooooo slowly. It took them like 10 minutes to read a paragraph. I guess it'll be the same problem if we had to read a Japanese textbook. As if the material wasnt hard enough in English.


BlindSYDEd in Models class.. Japanese style

Then we went to the big lecture hall for the actual lecture given by Kitamura-sensei. It was tough... as it brushed on a lot of stuff from Signals class which I still need to look over. Too bad I left my signals notes and textbook in Canada. Its so funny.. Ana and I have been comparing professors and buildings at Tottori University to ones in Waterloo. It brings a smile to my face to see the similarities.

Then at night each of us went to our desired clubs we want to join. Basically we only have time for 1 as they take up a lot of time. There are tons and tons to choose from. I was debating between the rowing club, the kendoo club, swimming, and jazz infusion. I decided not to do rowing because its too American... lol... and plus I would be too exausted considering it requires practice everyday after school at 5. I cant do swimming because it starts in June. And I need to start exercising now... not in 2 months. Jazz infusions requires one to own an instrument. Which I dont have here in Japan. So that leaves the Kendoo club. I was leaning toward Kendooo anyways since its a Japanese sport and I'm in Japan... so why not.
  • Ana went to hip hop dancing
  • Teresa went to badminton
  • Will and Richard played basketball and
  • I went to Kendoo
So at 5, I walked over the the Tottori U athletics area and I was introduced to the guys and girls at the kendoo club. Surprisingly, one of the girls, named Mariko, was the girl who walked Ana and I to the library the second day we arrived. She was glad to see me. It the first day and the newbies sat there and watched. But they gave us a small lesson. Considering I did some basic Kendoo back in Canada in September 2003, I was surprised I still had the moves down. So they were impressed with me. A foreigner who played Kendoo before outside of japan... sheesh... who would have thought. .



So everyone at Kendoo made a big deal that I was there since I was the "foreign kid". So they all took me out to dinner to make sure that I stick with the club... The Japanese sure know how to welcome newcomers... They were all superfriendly and the food, as usual, was super yummy.
Some of them came up to say hi to me in their full kendoo uniforms. I couldnt see their faces since they had their masks on so they had to reintroduce themselves at dinner. I realized how hard it is to remember japanese names, since they all sound alike. So after I asked everyone their names, I made sure to write them down.


At dinner, I forgot to take a picture of the people. LOL.. I just took a picture of my yummy food

I went home and made some super progress with my work term report. So overall it was a productive day.

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