The Guide

The verdict is in! I didn't TOTALLY fail the placement exam, woohoo- セーフ！The results of the placement tests came back as one of those graphs where one maximizes the area depending on how well (or poorly) one performed. I'll put it this way: if the area covered by a model student looks something like a globule, mine looked like a sickle cell... which is to say that I've got a good handle of everything except for 漢字 (kanji). I also met my advisor for the year, Sato Sensei (who by the way seems very nice and helpful- sweetness!). It's nice to know that along with teachers keeping regular tabs on our daily progress, we each have a go-to person to guide us through the messiness that is Japanese grammar, pronunciation, kanji etc.

Sato Sensei gave me some good advice that I decided to include here since I figure it's good advice for anyone studying a foreign language:

1) Really, no REALLY, follow the NO ENGLISH (or rather, NO NATIVE LANGUAGE) rule.
2) Remember to have fun (ie. set aside the books every now and then to get out and talk to people)
3) Be open and willing to work with any of the other students regardless of your first impressions of them.

On a less serious note, this weekend a few of us went to Chinatown (中華街　ちゅうかがい)!! It's one of the main attractions in Yokohama and was definitely worth the 4 minute train ride from Sakuragicho Eki. Now I know you're thinking, "Chinatown, pshh, they have those everywhere loser..." True, but this is the BIGGEST Chinatown in Japan and I'm guessing the cleanest in the world... Sadly, the food is kind of on the expensive side (about 3000 for 食べ放題 / all-you-can-eat), but we found that ordering several dishes and eating family-style was quite reasonable.

Since I like to make a point of trying new things when I can, I bought a sweet from one of the several Chinese bakeries we passed by when we were walking around. Though it's nothing to Japanese soft cream, it was pretty tasty.