classes, explosive drunkenness!

Alas, classes have begun, and the good times are overrrrrrrrrrrr : (

Just kidding. In the program that I'm in, we primarily have two types of classes (I'm simplifying): focus classes and level-designated core language classes. Core classes have begun in earnest, and I am procrastinating on the homework even as I type.

Students in the language program are also required to take and pass at least one focus language class, whatever that might be. This week at school is a "trial week," where we can attend as many core classes as we like just to get a feel for them, before any actual work begins (next week). The orientation classes are also shortened to one-third their usual length so that if a student is interested in two coincident classes, he can attend any of the three or so orientations.

I've met only one of my three core class teachers, who happens to be the program coordinator for level 10 and a descendant of pirates, Misaki-sensei. How did the conversation turn to pirates, you ask? Well, I'm learning that it's sort of a custom in Japan for the more amiable teachers to explain the meaning of their names, and two of the three teachers I've met have gone so far as to draw illustrations on the blackboard. Misaki literally means "cape" in Japanese, so Misaki-sensei drew a picture of a cliff with a lighthouse on it, and talked for a while about how her ancestors were, according to family legend, pirates on Japan's inland sea (hence the coastal name).

Misaki-sensei strikes me as a very strong woman with a straightforward personality. I was taken aback at first by the bluntness of her criticism on the tattered state of my program guidebook, but after all I suppose it's a quality I look for in teachers. The best teachers, I think, shame their students just enough to get them to learn from their mistakes.

I also attended trial classes for grammar and conversation focus classes. I found the content of the conversation classes to be too simple, so I'm looking into more difficult classes that I'll have a chance to check out on Thursday. I participated in both difficulty levels of "advanced grammar," and I'm leaning towards taking the more challenging of the two.

Anyway, that's about it for academics. It'll probably end up that I only have one class on Mondays! Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays are free so far as I've planned my classes out : )

Went out climbing and drinking with Maya and my friend Daniel Kaluza (from Poland) and his new girlfriend Chihiro. We really went all out, and towards the end of our stay, Sekine-sensei randomly showed up! The gym we were at is plenty far (about an hour by train) from the gym where I first met him, so it was quite a coincidence. But then again, it seems like Sekine-sensei does nothing but climb anyway- to his credit :)
I really feel like I made some friends in the gym that day. The gym is in West Kokubunji, which is west of central Tokyo. It's build out of a three-story house, so it feels sort of hand-made and homey. I embarrassed myself slightly because by the time Sekine-sensei showed up I had already exhausted myself, but ah well.

Afterwards, we had dinner at a Korean restaurant, checked out some of the hopelessly expensive bars, and ended up buying an abundant supply of ice, liquor, cola, and fruit juice at a convenience store (effectively slashing our liquor expenditure by 70%), and drinking in an empty lot up a hill from a shrine. Time was of the essence, since we had about thirty minutes to make the last train home, so we drank massively and quickly ("bottoms up!" was shouted on at least three occasions).

Our minds thick and dizzy with British gin and vodka, we made our correct trains through a collective effort. Maya split off for an express line to her station, while Daniel and Chihiro and I took the Central Line, hoping to transfer at Shinjuku. On the train ride, this one lady started berating us for reasons I didn't well understand, with the woman getting in my face and telling me, in slurred Japanese, "aren't you ashamed, as an American?? Huh?? Isn't it a downright SHAME?" I think I replied very slowly with something like "No, not really. Why should I be?" But received no reasonable response at all.

Let me back up slightly- they were obviously very, very inebriated, likely moreso than we were. The reason the lady was berating me was in part because we were sitting in the Priority Seats, which are to be turned over to the elderly or otherwise infirm, if requested. Neither of the two were "elderly," though she was with an older gentleman.
Let alone that there were open seats all over the damned car, including one priority seat right across from us, where the older gentleman could have sat. Also, let's ignore that there were equally young, fit people sitting in all the rest of the priority seats. I think they just focused on us in their drunken stupor. It didn't help that Chihiro was practically passed out between us and Daniel has such a limited command of Japanese (he's only studied for two months).
So, there we were, with that bitch getting in my face because she's a racist malcontent, and Daniel and that older guy having their own, simpler battle of "slurred, nearly incoherent Japanese" vs. "Hey, don't touch me, fuck you" in Polish-accented English. Whew.
Eventually the lady decided I was no fun, and started trying to hit Daniel. At that point, we reached Chihiro's transfer station, and she and Dan got off, pursued by this horrible Japanese couple.
A few moments of peace passed before a couple of the young guys on the other side of the car called me over to ask me what had happened. Apparently they saw and heard everything, and judged the angry couple to be in the wrong (ah, vindication :). When they asked me where I was living and I told them Shin-Kawasaki, they observed, correctly, that I wouldn't make it in time for my transfer at Shinagawa. Immediately it was decided that I could bum out at Yuta's house. What can I say? I'm having a great time.
I followed Yuta through his transfer at Takadanobaba (silliest name ever) to a smaller line, where we were caught up in a friendly, alcohol-fueled conversation between a young business man and a Brazilian immigrant to Japan. Eventually, we arrived at a small station in a small town, and walked to his apartment. He's in the middle of moving out, so almost all of the furniture was gone.
In fact, just about the only things there were a refrigerator, a couch, a vacuum cleaner, and an assortment of paintings he had done (he's a semi-professional artist, apparently). After drinking copious amounts of water, I collapsed on the uncarpeted floor and proceeded to meditate slowly and loosely on the unpleasant experience with the drunk couple on the train. Yuta, drunkenly but determinedly, made some progress in cleaning the apartment in preparation for completing his move.
Eventually he placed a folded towel under my head, collapsed on the couch, and after some brief conversation about art and Japanese drug culture (I don't want to know what my Japanese must have been like in the state I was in : / ), the lights went out.
After I got home the next afternoon, I slept for a further fourteen hours.

Anyway, that's all for now! I suppose I can no longer avoid my homework...