Even with school on Saturday morning.
Had my first official Japanese language class meeting on Saturday morning, and aside from the 9:00 AM start time (consider also my 55 minute commute), it was very enjoyable. I feel very comfortable having placed into level three, and I think I'll do well here and pick up the slack on my kanji while polishing my grammatical skills. We've got a great group of students who work well together, and Ikeda-sensei (one of three professors for this class) is very good at running a class. I was able to get my homework done in a few hours at home after class, and then I went out for a fun reunion with an old friend.
A couple years ago, we hosted an exchange student named Mariko at Gresham High School. She was very involved with helping out in the Japanese program there and we became fast friends. Now she is at Tokyo Women's University, and the two of us met up in Ikebukuro station for some catching-up time. Her English is very strong now and we had a fantastic time updating each other on what's going on on both sides of the Pacific. Afterwards, we cruised around Ikebukro, looking in at the shops and walking about. We'll definitely do it again.
I picked up a few new things at Uniqlo (greatest store ever - cheap and trendy) including a new satchel. I like using my backpack, but since I'm moving so much or standing in heated confined spaces with it for prolonged periods of time, my back ends up drenched - even when I only have my pack over one shoulder. I am not the only one with this problem, either. As a result, most Japanese (even men) have bags that sling over one shoulder - some closer to messenger bags, others practically purses - but it's all good. Long and the short of it: Papa's Got a Brand New Bag!
And now, for the continuation of the 'brave new world' series begun last post with Akihabara, a singular opportunity presented itself on Sunday, and several of us from Sakura House, along with what must have been 10% of Tokyo's population took full advantage.
This was the Tokyo Game Show 2009 - one of the two largest gaming expos in the world - the other being E3 in the US. What's different about TGS? It's actually open to the public. Aaaaand, when you open up all of the biggest names in gaming (except for Nintendo, who apparently have other plans) presenting their latest works to the public, what do you think happens.
People show up.
A lot of people show up.
Still, we had a great time, walked away with a lot of free swag, and I even picked up the Chrono Cross soundtrack - one of (in my opinion) the best game soundtracks ever. Listening to it brings back great memories of countless hours spent with that masterpiece of a game and loving every minute. We ended up not queuing up for any of the demos, because all the ones that we wanted to do (i.e. Final Fantasy XIII and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep) were over 3 hours long, and the ones that we had even a fleeting interest in were at least 45 minutes. FFXIII wasn't even allowing people to line up unless they had picked up a ticket when the show first started at 9 that morning. They were gone in three minutes. We figured our time would be better spent otherwise, and it was an incredible day. I realize that some of you might be jealous of me - please send all flames and angry messages to my personal e-mail or PM me on Facebook because some readers of this blog might be offended. Thanks. ^_^
Today has been pretty bland up til now. A bit of grocery shopping in the morning and a generally lax day around the house. I have a class at Keio at 4:30 that goes until 6, and so I'll be heading out for that in a few minutes. I'll post pictures of everything after I get home later tonight. Until then...
絶望した！
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