The totally different class schedule every day is still confusing. But since I don't have to change classrooms, it's ok. The different format is interesting. I think I counted 17 different classes that I have in a week, some meeting several times, some meeting once, so they cover many more subjects, but can't spend as much time on them. I'm confused about math, because I have three different math classes, "Math," "Math II," and "Math B," all covering different subjects, with the same teacher for two of them. Also, it's strange how behind they are in math, even though they have it so often. Apparently my class is the one with people who want to be doctors and stuff, and their chemistry, biology, and physics classes are pretty advanced, but in math we have been finding the length of lines and learning about slope. The whole class, and even the teacher, were like, "WOAHH GENIUS" when I knew the relationship between the slopes of perpendicular lines... Also, home economics is surprisingly intense. They were talking about the chemistry of laundry detergent, with the soap molecules having hydrophilic heads and lipophilic tails and everything. PE continues to be completely different from what I'm used to. This week we worked on somersaults. What.
Almost all of their work is worksheets, or "purinto"s, which they get many of. I think every morning they have an English quiz and a math quiz. Also so far since I've been here, everyday they have had to fill out a sheet of 50 English words, which they write out 10 times. Sometimes I think they have two sheets, which is a thousand words!! I don't think they ever have to type up papers though, or have many long-term projects. Jealous :P Not that I have to do much work here. I do as much as I can, usually able to follow most of math class because the sensei, my homeroom sensei with incredibly long limbs, is nice and tries to write the English for important words. Sometimes I understand chemistry, but other than that it all kind of washes over me as senseless noise. I can't even do English, since I can't translate to or from Japanese. I have a conversational English class once a week with two American teachers, though, and that's fun. They teach things like, "Do you wanna hang out?" and have them try to count how many times Taylor Swift says "ever" in "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." I can pretty much leave for whatever classes I want to, and I generally leave for Japanese and Geography, because in those I understand nothing, and go to a little room called the "English Lounge." Sometimes I time my breaks with the two other high school exchange students, Gabbi from Australia and Hannah from Florida, who came at the end of last week and will also be here for a year. They're really nice and fun and we've found a surprising number of shared interests.
I am working to learn Japanese, though. One day last week I was supposed to have a two period long calligraphy lesson, but I guess the sensei was gone, so instead my homeroom sensei, whose height I still cannot get over, and some other sensei came in and said, "We are going to teach you Japanese." And then began the long and painful Japanese/Kanji lesson, exhausting for everyone involved since their English wasn't great for explaining things, and my Japanese isn't great. At some point the other sensei had to leave and by the end my homeroom sensei had brought in four other senseis to try to help, none of whom spoke good English. I found the whole thing very amusing. Now, every morning my sensei just gives me more kanji worksheets, and doesn't suffer through them with me. One free period one of the American teachers was also in the English Lounge, and she was extremely helpful with explaining everything the others couldn't, so hopefully I will be able to meet with her more.
Kenmei is a private Catholic school, which is interesting because Japan is less than 0.5% Catholic. So far this means that we briefly pray at the beginning of the day, before lunch, and at the end of the day. I think we'll do something special for Christmas, so that will be fun. Also there's a religion class once or twice a week, but that's one of the classes where I understand absolutely nothing.
Another interesting thing is the little sequence we do at the beginning and end of every class. One student leads, calling out きりつ (kiritsu, stand) and at that point if I'm in the English Lounge and I don't know when a class ends I can tell by the sound of hundreds of chairs scraping. Then きおつけ (kiotsuke, attention) and everyone stands straight, れい (rei, bow), and then おねがいします(onegai shimasu, please) at the beginning of a lesson and ありがとうございました (arigatou gozaimashita, thank you) at the end. They might say other things too, but I don't know because most people just mumble this part or shorten it to "'masu."
Lunch - For lunch most people either bring bento from home or buy "パン (pan, bread)". So far I've been doing half and half, as some mornings my host mother gives me a bento, and some mornings she gives me money. Bento are basically lunch boxes, usually in the form of one or two plastic containers. I generally have a container of rice and a container of other stuff, which snap together with a compartment for little plastic chopsticks on top. The containers are completely packed with a variety of different foods, meat and vegetables and egg, usually separated by little dividers or cupcake-paper-like things, with several bites of each thing. Almost everyone's look similar, generally artfully done. It's so much more intense than my school lunches at home, where I'd throw in a sandwich, apple, and a yogurt or something, and it's amazing how everyone has them. Unless, of course, they buy "パン," which is several bins of a large variety of cheap bread-based things that the students all dig through. There are cheesy bread things, sausage bread things, onigiri, which is rice wrapped in seaweed, a few sandwiches, and many different sweet bread things/pastries/baked goods. Actually, I think the majority of the items are sweet, and I was surprised by how many students make their lunch a chocolate-covered pastry and a cream-filled pastry or something. I generally get a sandwich, being the only thing with vegetables, but also lots of mayonnaise. So far all the bread I've encountered is thin white bread, which is kind of boring. I've found that while everything tastes great, I've been missing fresh produce. All vegetables are cooked, except when we get a leaf or two of cabbage as "salad," and only now and then we'll all split an apple or peach as dessert. So yesterday I took a detour on the way home from school to buy an apple. I felt like such a rebel.
Also there are no drinking fountains anywhere, which is killing me. But most people bring small water bottles, which are all like the metal thermos type here; I haven't seen any plastic ones.
Social stuff- here people don't really use Facebook, instead they use LINE. I made an account, and it's been helping my Japanese to chat with friends. The girls are playful and touchy, like randomly hugging and tickling each other, but my host sister says her high school wasn't like that. They love taking selfies, and have pretty advanced camera apps on their phones, clearing skin and widening eyes. I think people generally don't go to each others' houses, but hang out by shopping, watching movies, or karaoke. Relationships are different here. Most people have their "loves," whom they generally admire from a distance. Gabbi said there was a major crisis yesterday when the crush of one of her friends saw the friend looking at him, and that people will run away and hide when they see their crushes coming. It's kind of cute. Apparently the main couple activity is walking home or to the train station together.
Also, not related to school, I saw Kabuki last week, traditional Japanese theater. The whole experience was very interesting. It was a big theater, with a very wide stage. We were fairly far back, so we had binoculars, and a number of other people did too, which I haven't seen very much at home. There was the whole spectrum of clothes, from very casual to yukatas. Beyond the ticket gate but outside the theater itself there were several tables selling snacks and kabuki-decorated little towels and many other things. What I found most interesting was that everyone had brought dinner, which they brought out during intermission. People crowded around a few little tables and whatever counters and benches were in the ticket area, with bento or bread things, much like my school lunches. Apparently bringing food, which surprised me, is not actually allowed, but everyone does it anyway. As for the show itself, it was cool for a while but then it got very long and I think I dozed off for the ending... The main characters had heavily painted faces, all white, and everyone wore traditional Japanese clothes. They talked slowly and very dramatically, doing all sorts of weird things with their voices. It's old Japanese, so I think it takes a while to get used to and appreciate, like Shakespeare. After the main show, which I didn't understand, there was some dancing, which wasreally cool. The best part was at the end, when these two guys with big wigs that went onto the floor danced and were whipping the wigs around in circles. It was amusing but also impressive. Also, I think the crew were dressed as ninjas. They were all wrapped up in black, and they moved like ninjas too. They should start doing that in the US, it was pretty cool.
Still doing well, and enjoying school! But really, school on Saturdays is inhumane.
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