First week of school

So we had our first day of school on the 1st of October - a Friday - and, well, we got homework on the very first day. I also found out that I was about 100+ kanji short of what I should know before entering the Intensive II course, so on top of actual homework I ended up having a lot to catch up on. We got the schedule for the course and we literally have homework everyday, and at least a few quizzes every week that do count for assessment, so the intensive course is definitely intensive.

I also checked out some of the other liberal arts courses. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't do any of the courses I had pre-approved by my home university so I had to check out some courses which I didn't really have any interest in - either a Japanese history or literature course. I've decided to go for the literature course as it looks the easiest - after all, I'm only just doing it for credit.

The next day I wandered on my own for the first time, to Akihabara and was able to check out the dodgy alleyways in search of cool treasures. Theres a particular area which I can only describe as a PC modder's heaven - roads of sketchy looking shops selling computer parts and gizmos. I didn't bring my camera on that day unfortunately.

Amongst the second hand shops I found some that were selling old Nintendo DSs for 4000yen or 7000yen - I'm quite tempted. I also spied a really good electronic dictionary (電子辞書) - the Casio ExWord SP6600 - for only 9980 yen ($160) which was new. I ended up buying it a few days later. Unfortunately I couldn't find a shop selling the new iPod touch 4th gen for less than retail, so I will wait until it goes on sale.

Sunday I buckled down and tried to do homework and kanji study. It didn't really happen till much later in the evening and I slept quite late. After lunch I told myself I need blank flash cards, so I biked down to the Jason's supermarket and got them. Then I thought, "hmm, I wonder what's down this way?". Soon enough I was half an hour somewhere away from DK and found an awesome 100 yen store and bought a bunch of stuff including a retro looking door mat. (By the way, there aren't actually any good 100 yen stores nearby where I live, so this was a treat. There's a Don Quijote near the station, but it can't match a good hyaku en store!)

I thought I knew the way back but instead I got lost and was too proud to ask for help so I just kept on biking. Eventually I did ask someone and I got home having successfully delay study by two hours.

This week of school was just classes and homework. I bought my textbooks for Japanese - "An Integrated Course to Intermediate Japanese" textbook and workbook and "Basic Kanji Book vol. 2" and "Intermediate Kanji Book vol. 1". It cost me a bit over 10,000 yen which was much cheaper than I had anticipated. But every night was a late night and quite exhausting.

I managed to squeeze in a trip to Odaiba on Wednesday after classes.

The train to Odaiba from Shinbashi Station doesn't seem to run on ordinary wheels and it is also unmanned - that is, the driver isn't physically present on the train/tram.

Don't ask why.

Cool looking tourist boat.

So I had Subway just to try it out. It's quite different to back home - I'll explain another day. This one is chicken teriyaki on sesame bread.

On the way to Pallete Town and the big ferris wheel which lights up in rainbow colours at night.

Inside Venus Fort, a high class and touristy mall with a ceiling that changes colour.

Some random girl band named 「Dream」happened to be putting a free show on that night. Pictures weren't allowed and I got told off but I did get one or two.

Some of the cool exhibits at the Toyota show room. They also had this free motion-master type of cinema (you know, the only where you watch a movie while the chair moves?) which simulated doing two laps in a race car. It was pretty good and was based on the Gran Turismo software so it felt quite real - although you can't really simulate g-forces!

Joyopolis. There's a amusement type of thing in here but we didn't actually go onto the entertainment levels - it seemed I was the only one interested! Will definitely return one day.

This was a strange kind of ice cream. It was fun to eat, but definitely not the best ice cream I've ever had.

Rainbow bridge at night.

Some radio station broadcasts live from this glass window building.

Outside a random cat cafe. We didn't go in, but we thought the big kitty was a good photo op.

Yesterday I also found a cool place to have lunch on the terrace of Building 2 and snapped some pics from there. The scenery happened to just look really cool on the day.

I'm wondering if I'm gonna be able to visit cool places as often as I have had in the past few weeks!