Week 1!

My first week in Japan has flown by -- I can't believe I have already been here for a week, but at the same time it feels like I have been here for months. We are all pretty well adjusted and are starting to get into a schedule for the weekdays. On Thursday, the first day of classes, I left at 7:30am and was on campus by 8:45. I went to my Japanese class and was feeling comfortable with the level until the end of class when we got a grammar worksheet that I didn't know how to do a lot of. I may end up switching classes, but I'm not sure yet. Class registration is really unique here: you can't actually register for classes until the second day of class. "Class shopping" is a big thing here and everyone goes to 6 or 7 different classes before. I went to four different classes on Thursday, but the only one I am going to stay in is Public Economics (and Japanese of course, which meets every day). In Public Econ we got an introduction to the course and then talked about the rolling blackouts and whether or not they are the best economic solution to the current electricity shortage in Tokyo (right now things are okay since AC/heat are not really needed, but in the coming summer months demand is expected to exceed supply by about 20 million kW). For those who are interested, the professor's academic opinion was that an electricity consumption tax would be a better solution, because it would both reduce consumption and raise funds for relief efforts or the government's budget (right now Japan's national debt as a percentage of GDP is 178%, the highest in the world -- for comparison the U.S. is at 40%).

After my last class on Thursday I came back to the dorm with several CIEE students. We were home by 6pm which was a nice early night. We had dinner later that night at a soba shop in the area around our dorm -- it was so delicious and is run by an elder couple who are absolutely adorable. The old man was very sweet and complimented our group as we were leaving -- I know I will be going back there soon! The rest of Thursday night was spent trying to figure out which classes I was going to go to on Friday, and continuing to get everything organized in my room.

Dinner at the soba restaurant

Yesterday (Friday) was another great day. I went to my Japanese class, a boring anthropology class, and then had lunch with the Sophia Communication circle -- it was kind of awkward because it was basically just a bunch of friends hanging out and talking, but I happened to meet a girl who lived in Chapel Hill, NC for seven years -- so random! We were really excited and talked a lot about North Carolina -- I usually say I am from Boston since most people are familiar with that city, so it was nice to talk about NC for a change.

After lunch I went to an anthropology course called Nature, Culture, and Technology. A bunch of CIEE students were planning on going because it looked like a really cool course where you get to watch films like Avatar and Princess Mononoke and write about them, but when we got to class we found out that there is a special topic for this semester's course -- "the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Disaster" as it is officially called. I am actually really excited about this course -- it is a lot of work where we have to write a 20-25 page term paper and also do a big group project, but the class includes a volunteer requirement and it is giving me ideas for my thesis topic. I am going to meet with the professors of this course and my public economics course, as well as send some emails to Wellesley faculty and hopefully come up with a thesis topic that involves an economic analysis of some aspect of the disaster. Then, I can use this course to get a head start on my thesis research while I am in Japan -- win win!

After class a group of seven of us started out for home but then decided to back to Ueno Ameyoko, the really crowded street that I mentioned a few posts ago. It was much more enjoyable today -- we could walk down the street without getting stepped on, and could actually take time to look at all the street vendors and see what they were offering. We looked at a bunch of bags and shoes, and also got some delicious fruit skewers for only 100 yen -- I am really excited about how much my fruit consumption has increased in recent days. After Ameyoko we decided to go over to Harajuku, which may be my favorite place I have visited so far -- there are so many cute, affordable clothes shops there, and we saw all types of people. It was a lot of fun, but we finally decided to head home around 7pm since we had a big night ahead of us.

Pineapple and melon skewers!

Last night was my first taste of Japanese nightlife -- we met some Japanese classmates in Shibuya and they showed us a good club to go to. The price was a little exorbitant (cheaper for girls though!), but the club was so much fun and by the end of the night there were probably about 10 or 15 CIEE students there, so I kept bumping into people I knew. One downside of going out at night is that the trains stop running at midnight -- so if you are going to stay out later you have to wait until the first train at 5am. That was what happened last night, and we ended up going to McDonald's at about 4am while waiting to go to the train station. This is actually a really popular thing to do here -- people wait for the first train in somewhere that's open 24 hours like McDonald's or a manga club. Needless to say, 12am is pretty early for the trains to stop running, so lots of people were sleeping on tables.

We finally made it home by 6am (!!!) and I went straight to bed... and slept until 3pm. That was definitely the latest I have ever stayed up / slept until. I am finally awake now and just did my class registration: Public Economics, Japanese, earthquake course, and NGO Management. I am really excited about all these courses so it should be a great semester! It was weird to actually go to class again but I think we are all getting back into the homework mode. The anthro course is really technology-oriented so I have to create a Twitter account and blog for the class, and also join the class Facebook group and register for two electronic course information sites. Should be interesting! I'm looking forward to getting going!