Week One: more pics

Week 1 is over!  Well, there's tomorrow (sunday) where the owner is throwing us a bbq and i'll basically be prepping for that and doing homework all day, but other than that it's a done week.  We had placement tests!  I was placed!  I'm in a class with people whose speaking abilities roughly match mine, though my reading abilities are a little better, I think, but that works for me.  We have an absolute ton of homework, some of which I did on the train ride today since I went up to Tokyo and it was a 2 and a half hour ride to get to the conference I was attending!  Which was great fun - saw a panel on social activisim that talked about DIY Punk in Japan, another one where the best presentation suggested that films that have the conflict around traditional/modern (past/present) may not be as easily read and categorized as we think, and felt an earthquake (tiny one! don't worry! they happen all the time here).  I really spent most of the day on trains, but even that was entertaining - there was a guy on the train wearing fuzzy leopard shorts with pockets.  Like the shorts were made out of fuzzy leopard material.  I shit you not.  How I love you Japan!

( and here are more pictures for your amusement )